Review of Unwind by Neal Shusterman

First Review so I am giving a heads up, all content in the parenthesis is my own snide sarcastic comments so please read them in a Sarcastic tone. Please and thank you...

Abortion, are you pro life or pro choice? (Hoping you understand this question is Rhetorical, well sort of, I do want to know but that is what comments are for.)

Well anyway that is neither here or there, what this is about mostly is the amazing thought inducing book by Neal Shusterman, Unwind. The book takes place twenty years from the present time we are in now, so for those of you who are wondering, yeah 2012 didn't happen in this world. There was a second world war, 'The Heartland War', which is the war between those for Pro Choice and their ideals about a woman's body being her own to decide with. The Pro Lifers and their crusade to 'protect the sanctity of life' (Mind you they kill and abuse that life of anyone that opposes them.) Now this is going to sound stupid but no it was not a military war to start.

Like in today's society the pro life and pro choice people are divided because they both feel the other side is wrong, it is mostly verbal debates, religious vs logical disputes and occasional demonstrations at abortion clinics to the buildings, or the doctors performing said abortions all the way to pro choice followers boycotting churches or any religious place of worship saying that the people in that building are supporting the idea of a 'man deciding over a woman's body.' Well this book goes into the idea of what happens if that little schism of human nature needing a black/white, right and wrong, us vs them scenario and created a civil war. This war was not fought militarily at first. After a while this war escalated and was fought on three fronts. The Lifers, Choicers and the American Military. The military was brought in to prevent bloodshed and death, sadly eventually even that broke down and parts of the military began to help the two sides giving them death machines, weapons and more advantages then they should have had.


Now that was the past. Now to the book's futuristic present. A boy named Connor, average teenager. Trouble maker, gets into fights, not that quick to think rationally rather go on impulse and instinct, so long story short he is a cliche typical red blooded American Teenage male in the given time period we are focusing on, well at least he isn't some gangsta and trying to thug his way to get respect. Right? Well yeah, his family does not like his attitude, or his trouble seeking ways and decides to well OFF THE LITTLE BASTARD! (Legally too mind you) thanks to the bill of life allowing them to Unwind him one day then take a nice amazing vacation to the Bahamas the following day. (great parents, I wonder what they do for the holidays) Well Connor finds out about this and decides to make ma and pa suffer a bit before being taken away for parts. (I.E-getting mom a bouquet of flowers causing her to ball her eyes out for hours, bringing home good grades and making his dad go all pensive in the easy arm lazy man chair staring holes into the wall, you know, typical teenager vengeance on mom and dad. I think)

Anyway, yes now as I mentioned earlier this book is about the 'Bill of Life' that came out of this Heartland War. The Bill of Life states that a child can NOT be aborted between contraception and thirteen years old. Well after thirteen and until eight-teen, those parents can retroactively 'unwind' their child. Yes unwind, that is the process we call it in the future. That is when the child is laid down on a table, injected with this AMAZING pain killer (this shit is better then a vicodin and neoproxin combined with a bottle of Captain Morgan while being knocked out by a tranq, but I digress) after the pain killer gives them a numbness that laboring mothers would DIE for, a team of twelve doctors in two teams come in and spend three hours to disassemble your unwanted teenage offspring. And no I do not kid, they literally take the kid apart piece by piece, they siphon out of the blood, replacing it until the 'surgery' is over with an oxygen enriched formula, (it is described as a PRETTY emerald green oozy liquid for those curious to know) they take apart the brain and recycle it down to its lobes, sections etc. your limbs, organs, everything, I don't know because they never said but I am guessing that they do NOT keep anything sexual organ related because that contains your DNA make up and shit, and well that would be awkward if somehow someone got your DNA and had a kid and well it didn't look quite like mommy and daddy.

BACK on track to the next character in this dramatic tale. Risa, the Orphan girl (ironic that the token female character is an orphan, I feel this is gonna be cliche as well.) This girl is the polar opposite of Connor, she is smart cool headed, a classical pianist, an orphan (duh) and quite over all brilliantly well rounded good kid (I wonder why she is an orphan while Connor has a family with all his evil shenanigans lol) Now I must remind you she is another Unwinding child in this story. Her 'accident; was that she screwed up on an extremely difficult to master Chopin Piano piece. She missed 5 notes, two notes and three chords. Well after her concerto, the Ohio State home that she lives in tells her that sadly the heartland war solved the abortion problem but it didn't solve the economy problem on wards of the state. I.E, she is being sent away to the Harvest Camp (a pretty farm with cute baby animals that get unwound, these cute baby animals are human teenagers by the way.) She takes it rather well, leaves the office and gets on the bus to leave, ready to be unwound.

Notice I have not used the word die yet? Yes there is a reason there, in the Bill of Life, all Unwinds can NOT die, all of them must be unwound and recycled but NEVER wasted. (again that makes me wonder due to people's tonsils, appendix, and other NON major organs. how do they really do all this? Eh oh well semantics) Carrying on.

Next major Character. Levi, or Lev for short....(really?! one letter makes a name 'for short?! COME ON!) Well anyway, Levi is this kid with nine siblings and an amazing family. A good natured religious family with a bit of an insane side, I mean it isn't much but they want to TITHE (religiously sacrifice) their child! (you know the whole giving ten percent of EVERYTHING to God) Well lucky Lev drew the lottery on this one, he gets to be unwound as a sacrifice to God and serve a higher purpose because his mommy and daddy want to guarantee a spot in heaven for themselves. (Humble sons of bitches) Now Lev knows and understands his duty for the Lord, but seems to be perfectly fine with this form of suicide which is a bad thing involving the Lord but oh well.

Now I described the characters I should sum up my thought of them, they are pretty cliche in their 'general stereotype' but in the same time some people might not connect with them unless you have at least a few of their circumstances in your own life, I mean I connected with Connor because well I feel like the outsider, I always am paranoid seeing a police car driving slowly by, I myself feel that I am on the run from something. Probably am but I don't know it like Connor does, no I am not saying I am a 'Connor ark type person' I am saying that I connected with him while reading and while I read his parts of the book I was able to get drawn in further with the book, I almost felt like I was next to him running with him, moving with him, as if I was part of him in a sense. Then again that is how I read, I find a character I connect with and get that wrapped into the world the book is presenting me with.

I should point out this book is great for it's worth. It is a mind twister because it makes you question your view on pro life, pro choice or apathy, I feel after REALLY reading this, you'll no longer be apathetic and if you are then maybe you need to read it a few more times and put yourself in the position of the unwind, or maybe a the place of a parent signing the order to unwind a child of yours. After thinking of what it would be like do you still believe that the abortion idea is so bad? hell do you believe that unwinding is better? I know this review is not as conventional as most people would expect but I think that maybe the unconventional is what might draw to wish to read this book. Not to mention I know that my personality will not allow me to keep this train of thought for long before I trail off. I am going to allow you to read this, understand the character ark types that I set up, the world that they live in and just it's basic of simple descriptions that way you know what you'd be getting into when you read but I do it because a REAL review should not tell about the book, then there is no point in reading, a review should just tell if it was a good book, why and then give you the urge to read it.

In short, I think this book was great, I think this book shows you a side of humanity that many shy away from because it is involving a lot of thought, self questioning hell self doubt. Maybe it would even build up your confidence because you yourself were never put in the situation where you'd be unwound or have to unwind a child of yours because you don't want them around anymore. But Long story short, the book is called Unwind, it is by Neal Shusterman and before this is made into a Hollywood movie and probably butchered by the movie makers like Twilight, and every other great book (NOT SAYING twilight was EVER good) please read it, its 336 pages, which is NOT that much for a teenager, young adult or even adult to read in a few days to a week.

This is Orion saying, Unwind was a book to read if you think you understand everything in your life and are completely in control, take that control and throw it out the window if you think it is really yours. Maybe you'll finish reading and feel the same, maybe you won't. But finally this is Orion saying peace ^.^

But one last thing, the question I pose to those who read and I don't want to Troll people but I wish to know just out of human curiousity and need to know more then I should: Are you Pro Choice, Pro Life or Pro Abortion? Reasons? NO wars just answer simply I wish to see different views of it