Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A great read: Unwind, by Neal Shusterman

Wow.

Rarely does a book reel me in the way Unwind did, from the first page to the very end. When I got home from work today, the book was half read. I sat down on the couch--still in my coat--and dug in. Three hours later, I closed the book with a satisfied, thoughtful sigh. Dinner was a little late, but I consider those three hours time well-spent.

So...Unwind. Imagine a world where abortion is illegal, but parents have the right, when their child is between the ages of 13 and 18, to "retroactively abort" that child, as long as that child is still "technically alive" through a process called "unwinding." I can only describe "unwinding" as a psycho organ harvesting system in a world where people have deluded themselves into thinking that if every part of a body is "living" as a transplant, then the person isn't dead, even if that person's body is divided among a thousand transplant recipients.

Unwind tells the story of a group of teenagers who have run away to avoid being "unwound." It's a gripping story of survival, friendship, betrayal, forgiveness--it's got it all!

The book is wonderfully written. It is fascinating, disturbing, sometimes horrifying (though not in a horror way), and heartbreaking. I put it right up there with The Giver--one of my all-time favorites.

Thank you to The Buried Editor for her review of this book on her blog. You can read the review (and learn a bit more about the book) by going to The Buried Editor's blog and reading the post from January 19, 2008. I've been wanting to read Unwind every since I read about it there! I even paid full price for it--and I wasn't sorry. :-)

Okay, enough. I'm going to bed.

2 comments:

  1. Hi - we are looking for authors and writers who are interested in entering our "unpublished" competition bookhabit.com. Is this something you can announce on your site? Or perhaps we can do a link exchange?

    Many thanks,

    Stefan
    Bookhabit.com

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  2. Hey! It's been a long time - sorry about that...

    I love when a book reels you in like this. Was this an adult book?

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