Review: Unwind by Neal Shusterman

UNWIND
by
NEAL SHUSTERMAN

Pages:  335
Genre:  Dystopian/SciFi
Age:  YA
Part of Series:  Yes/First
Finished:  July 12th 2012









Oh. My. Goodness. I loved this book. Of course there were parts that annoyed me. No story is perfect and neither is any writing. I still loved the book, despite it's use of 'but' at the begining of a sentence followed by another starting with 'and' (that will never be acceptable to me!).
A brief synopsis; there's a second cival war, pro-lifers versus pro-choicers. Things were getting so bad the government came up with a possible agreement and those at war agreed. The agreement? Abortion is made illegal but retro-abortion is allowed. When the child reaches the age of 13 (until they are 18) the parent/guardian may sign an Unwind contract and have the child sent to be unwound at a harvesting camp. The child's organs are harvested and distrubited to those in need (or anyone with the funds just wanting to "upgrade" as it were). There are also "tithes", children born for the sole purpose of being "given to god".
Parents also have the option to "stork" their baby. It involves the parent leaving the baby on a doorstep (it's not made clear if it must be done a doorstep or if they could leave it elsewhere) and the person who finds the baby must keep it. If the parent is caught leaving the baby the parent must keep it (also not made clear if the parent can't just try again later).
The main characters are;
Levi "Lev"- A tithe, the tenth born in his family. Age 13.
Risa- A ward of the state. The state doesn't have the funds to support so many children so a few are sent off to be unwound, Risa amongst them. Age 14.
Connor- A troublemaker, always getting into fights and getting bad grades. His parents sign the order to have him unwound because of this. Age 15.
This book was very well written. There were parts that actually brought me to the verge of tears. There is great character development and coming of age.
Very rarely will I say this- so don't get used to is- but I think this would make a great movie (and in fact I think I heard it might be made into one, so, yay).
I had originally checked a copy out from the library but ended up loving it so much I bought it. :D
Will have to check out Mr Shusterman's other books. There's going to be a sequel to this book called "Unwholly" which I can't wait to read. Soooo very excited for it.