The setting of this trilogy is a United States just slightly
into the future, where a second civil war, The Heartland War, has been fought
over reproductive rights. The pro-lifers and the pro-choicers finally ended the
war with the Unwind Accord that says that life is inviolable starting at
conception; however, unruly or
disagreeable teens (is there any other kind?) can be “unwound,” whereby all of
their organs and body parts are transplanted into others so that life does not
officially end. So, a kid who gets bad grades or rebels against his or her
parents may wake up one morning to find officers from the National Juvenile
Authority ready to take them to a harvest camp because their parents signed an
Unwind Order. I know – super creepy, right??
In Unwind,
Schusterman created a chilling but compelling story about a group of teens who,
in various ways, escaped their unwinding. Connor escaped from the Juvies on the
way to harvest camp and was officially declared an AWOL. During a car accident,
he took Lev, a tithe (yes, a kid born to be unwound), as an unwilling hostage
to help him escape. Risa, an
orphan and ward of the state also escaped when she was sent to a harvest camp to
relieve overcrowding in her state home.
Don’t worry – no spoilers here for those who haven’t read Unwind yet! In the second book, these teens’ stories
continue as they try to stay alive, evade the Juvenile Authorities, and help
other Unwinds to escape. The story alternates between each of the main characters’
perspectives (plus a few new ones), providing a wide range of points of view of
this frightening world. A new teen character is also introduced: Cam, a new
kind of person who must come to grips with his own strange history and who
learns a startling truth about unwinding.
Although the novel is action-packed from start to finish and
filled with suspense, Schusterman also delves more deeply here into the ethical
issues that arise from this strange new world (as all good dystopian stories
do). The characters grapple with all kinds of moral issues, as the events from
the first novel reverberated through society. Does the good done by providing
much-needed transplant organs and tissues make up for the evil of unwinding?
Should the needs of the many outweigh the rights of the few? What makes someone
human and defines life? Although horrifying, this world is also compelling;
Schusterman himself said that he intended Unwind to be a stand-alone book, but he just couldn’t stop thinking about the
world he’d created there.
While the gripping story and intricate plot kept me turning
the pages, I also enjoyed the thought-provoking nature of the novel.
Schusterman has created a world that is unfathomable and yet eerily similar to
our own. The unthinkable act of unwinding is rationalized in frighteningly calm
and logical ways. The teen characters in this trilogy are realistically
portrayed and feel like old friends by the second book. The third and final
book of the trilogy, UnSouled, will be
released next week – my husband, son and I can’t wait to see how it all ends!
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