A Book Review of Neal Shusterman's Unwind

 

A Book Review of Neal Shusterman’s Unwind

By Felix Lee

 

            Imagine a world with where unwanted teenagers are donated to harvest camps for their body parts. Unwind by Neal Shusterman depicts a society that accepts the process of “unwinding” as a part of daily life, a procedure that splits the body parts of each unwanted teenager. The body parts are then given to the injured or handicapped as replacements for their use. The book follows three runaway unwinds (teenagers scheduled to be unwound) and their journey as they try to survive till eighteen, an age where they can’t be unwound. However, with the obstacles they face, mistakes they make, and the world chasing after them, will they make it to eighteen? This story features a combination of science fiction and romance and a readers’ definition of life, not just how it starts or ends, but what it truly means to be alive. This is the first in a series of 5 books.

 

            When I first found this book in the library, the fact that the author was Neal Shusterman got me excited. A lot of my favorite books, including the Arc of a Scythe series (Scythe, Thunderhead, The Toll) and Dry, were by this author. With that being said, my expectations for this book were ridiculously high. With the addition of the book having a National Book Award and the summary already sounding intriguing, I couldn’t wait to come home and read this book.

 

            I definitely wasn’t disappointed, and my expectations were even exceeded. The book was already my favorite combination of genres, but that’s not all. I found that as I started reading the book, I was unable to put it down. I haven’t felt such engagement in a book for a while, and it was a great feeling to look forward to reading the book in my free time. The writing was detailed and thorough, the description, dialogue, and thoughts of the characters shown clearly. For example, when the three main characters are forming a necessary alliance for their survival, their dialogue, thoughts, and actions not only displayed how they felt about the alliance, but also foreshadowed future paths they may take that might interfere with the alliance. This leads to another story component that enhanced the reading experience, which were the constant cliffhangers and foreshadowing the author left throughout the novel. These cliffhangers and foreshadowing moments contributed to the inability to put the book down. Whenever I would tell myself to stop reading by the end of a chapter, there would often be a cliffhanger that strongly encourage me to keep reading, and I wouldn’t be able to stop.

 

Another aspect I enjoyed throughout the book was the fact that Neal Shusterman switched between the different perspectives of the characters as the chapters progressed. These switches in perspective gave a clearer representation of the situation and what each character thought about it. These characteristics are very similar to those that the detailed writing provides, but I just thought it was too noteworthy not to mention. I also liked that every aspect within the story was connected. Even the most unsuspected, unimportant aspects of the story contributed towards later in the book and its ending. These connections made the whole story more systematic, and I found going back in the book to realize the connections between mentions of aspects towards the beginning of the story to contributions towards the ending of the story entertaining. Finally, I appreciate that there was character development seen in all the characters. I can see that how each character has grown by comparing their personality at the beginning and end of the book. For example, one character was always bound by rules and followed them all the time, but by the end of the book, he rarely followed any rules and took charge of his own life. I find that a lot of the books I read frequently have a hard time with character development, but it’s done masterfully in this novel.

 

Overall, I found this book to be amazing in all its aspects and extremely well-written. the combination of constant foreshadowing, the systematic system of connections of all different aspects of the story, and the character development that shows how the characters grow throughout the novel exceeded my expectations. I definitely recommend this book and give it a 10/10 rating. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series, as well as the other works of Neal Shusterman.