[Review] Unwind - Neal Shusterman

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Price: € 8,81
Page count: 335
Language: English

Contents

Imagine a world where abortions are forbidden and human life is inviolable. But only until you are 13 years old.

From that day onward until you finally turn 18, whoever is your custodian, can decide to have you unwound. Which means that you are taken apart to provide your organs to people who need them. 

We follow three main characters in this book with completely different backrounds.  

Connor, 16: problem child 

Risa, 15: ward of the state 

Lev, 13: loved and cared for by his family who raise him as a 'tithe'

 

They are very different but have one aspect in common: all of them are supposed to be unwound.

My opinion

I had rather high expectations going into this book, I thought that it would be the pefect read for me after looking at some reviews. I am not very sensitive, I like it when an author has the courage to write a more realisitc book.  

I don't belong to those who tend to think that some books are too brutal because I think that no book can be as brutal as reality. 

This book threw me directly into the story and it was quite action-packed from the beginning. It made me want to keep reading from the first page till the end. However, I would have preferred to find out more about the world and the characters before everything went downhill. Still, it was a strong start. 

  

Regarding the characters I can say that Lev definitely had the biggest development in this book, I would have liked to read more chapters from his point of view close to the end. And I think this was my biggest problem with how this book is set up: alternating POVs. Usually I would not find it problematic in any way but Neal Shusterman was not able to create a feeling of closeness between me and the characters. At the end of the book I still felt as if I didn't know them at all. Although they told their story from their own point of view, there was a distance that never went away. 

I guess that explains partly why I did not love this book. I was not sucked in completely by the characters and what happened to them.  

Another factor was that I would have liked to find out more about the dystopian world. I mean there is this ethical discussion in the background and all the time you kind of know that there is something that you should think about. You just don't get the chance to do so because Shusterman focuses more on what is happening than on why it is happening. 

This book would have been better with more information about the topic. It has to be something that is important to the author, but he didn't manage to get me thinking. I have the feeling that he wanted to create something meaningful but in the end it turned out to be purely for entertainment. 

Overall it was an okay read, but I am not sure if I want to continue with this series. Maybe I will if I find the sequels for little money. It is possible that I like them better, the reviews also said that further on in the series there will be more background information.
So, I am not giving up on this series just yet!

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