Unwind by Neal Shusterman

‘The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not useful enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.’ – Goodreads.

This was a hard concept to wrap my head around – the idea that people would willingly agree that this was a good law to make, and then that they would actually follow along with it seems outlandish. At first I thought that because of all the different dystopian novels that have been written in the last few years (lets be honest, most YA books seem to have been dystopian for the last few years) that maybe the author was grasping at straws to write something in the genre that hadn’t already been done before. I didn’t have much hope for the book but decided to read it anyway as I have a lot of parents requesting book suggestions for reluctant male teen readers and this always seems to be on the list of best books.

Man I am glad I gave it a chance. It didn’t take long for me to accept the strange premise and get totally sucked into the story. At first Connor and love interest Risa, seem like very two dimensional characters and it took me a few chapters to feel connected to them, but we start to see why they both ended up on the run. 

Connor is a trouble maker, and his parents decide to sign the papers to have him unwound. Risa grew up in a group home, where if you don’t excel at something that can make them money when you get older, they will automatically unwind you when you reach your teens. Eventually the two find a safe haven, only to find that maybe it isn’t as safe, or as idealistic as they hoped.

Posted by Sas

Catalogue link: Unwind