Unwind

Unwind by Neal Shusterman
published in 2007




First thought when looking at this book is ghastly. The cover shows a faded shape of a person. Presumably this book is about ghosts just from that. This book, in fact, is about how some kids just never die. In “Unwind”, kids, under eighteen, who are not promising are a problem. The solution is to have these kids unwound, thereby giving them the title of unwounds. To be unwound is to have one's body completely torn apart so that the parts may be used for other people. While reading this book, this was the hardest concept to grasp. Imagine if it happened to you, knowing your life was not really meant anything and all you had to look forward to was knowing your body parts did something. Obviously, the unwounds don't like being unwound, so they tend to run away if given the chance. This book is about how three kids escape their status of unwounds by running away. Eventually, when they are eighteen, they are no longer unwounds because the law say that eighteen is the age limit for adults which nulls the unwound status. Think about what kind of world these people were living in to allow the unwinding of kids. People can live decent lives without certain organs. But the society of “Unwind” values human efficiency over quantity. In comparison to our own government, unwinding would be an ethical issue, such as abortion. They both raise a look into the pros and cons of each issue.