Book Review :: Unwind, by Neal Shusterman

Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Series: Unwind #1
Published by Simon & Schuster
on June 2nd 2009
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 335
Goodreads

In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would "unwind" them.

Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs.

Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family's strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can't be harmed -- but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

Last updated on 17 February 2022

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What is Unwind by Neil Shusterman about?

Unwind by Neil Shusterman is about three teenagers Connor, Risa and Lev who are Unwinds. They live in a society where, until the age of 18 (when teenagers become adults and so are ‘safe’, so to speak) they can be Unwound.

This means that, if their parents/guardians decide for some reason that they are no longer needed around the house, or they are a tithe to the world, they can be sent off to be harvested for their body parts. Sounds creepy, but it’s not really. Okay, it really really is, but it’s not written in a creepy way. Connor, Risa and Lev are all Unwinds who run away and escape, find each other and start a journey as AWOL Unwinds.

Eventually, they end up in a camp with a whole lot more unwinds who have managed to escape from either their homes, or on the way to the harvest places, and have been gathered up by a man called the Admiral, who keeps them in the desert, until they are 18 and can no longer be unwound. Together, with some of the other unwinds in the camp, they manage to rebel so much that there are explosions and weird consequences to do with body parts that you will only understand if you read it.

My thoughts on Unwind

I’ve given it four stars, because it was a really awesome and new concept, one that I haven’t read about before, but it didn’t get five stars because of the way it is written. It’s written in the third person…but it’s like present tense…does that make sense?

So, for example, “Connor eats his breakfast quickly. It’s not because he’s hungry, but because he has somewhere else he wants to be”. And so on and so forth. But, flip! I hate this style! I think this was one of the contributing factors to me taking a while to read it – it wasn’t a nice book to read. I mean, the story was great and really enjoyable, but it was like death to actually read! I don’t know – maybe it’s just me. Maybe if I read more books with the same tense etc it wouldn’t be so bad. I don’t know.

Anyway, it is a good read if you want a dystopian teen novel to read (something I’ve been doing a lot of recently) but if you don’t like the style of writing then it may be hard/annoying to read. I’ll let you make up your mind. If you do read, do let me know what you think!

Have you read Unwind by Neil Shusterman? What did you think?