C.G. Drews's Reviews > Unwind

This is the most disturbing book I’ve ever read.

I'm torn here, struggling whether to recommend this book or shout to you never to pick up this book because you will not sleep again! I mean it! This is a horror, thriller dystopian and I cannot say (loud enough) that this is not a book for everyone. I don’t often stereotype books by saying “if you like this-and-that then you will love this book”. I believe you need to read a book before you can say you hate it. But, honestly, I think you need to be aware that this is a horror before you go into it. It’s about ethical issues, speculative future, war, abortion, death, consciousness, human thinking and the never ending issue of life. When does life start? When does it end? And who should be allowed to end it?

The book is full of real questions – questions people ask today and struggle to come up with answers. There’s a lot of speculation about abortion and life choices. At first I struggled to figure out if the author was for or against abortion. Now I realize, I struggled to figure it out because the author was careful to write, with detail and precision, both sides to the story. There are always 2 sides in a story. A writer’s job is to listen to both and then write a good book about it.

Instead of aborting unborn children, this futuristic government has made laws to protect their lives. Instead, a child – between the ages of 13 and 18 – can be unwound. Unwinding is like organ donating. They take your organs and give them to people who need them – cancer patients, car-accident victims, sick, mangled or disease ridden people. The question in the book is: what value is whose life? Yes, I worded that right. Can your life have different value depending on who you are, who loves you, what you’ve done, if anyone actually wants you the way you are? We can laugh and shrug off those kind of questions, but, in this day and age, I think it’s a real thing. And if you think this book is based entirely on speculation: you’re wrong. Unwinding does happen. Illegally. But it has been known to happen. This book is just about a world where it’s legal.

Another theme that runs through the story is the phrase: “Someone else’s problem”. Stop and think about that for a second, eh? After you read this book, you will never (I repeat, never) say that phrase again. No matter what you do, hoisting a “problem” off to someone else will never solve anything.

I have to add in here, too, that the writing of this book is brilliant. It’s written in present-tense-third-person, which is something new for me. Considering I want to write a little like that, I was excited to try it out. While it’s awkward at first, after you grow used to it you forget it’s different to past-tense. The flow of sentences, the dialogue, the humour, the plot, the character development: it’s perfect. I don’t say that lightly. The author hooked me in with his brilliant, real characters. Next his style of writing. Then his plot. Then the themes of his book. Between all that, there was no way I could avoid some serious thinking.

That’s what I love about this book. It makes you think. About unwanted children, and futuristic governments, and the horror of mind-manipulation. One thing that really struck with me was the unwanted children part. So many children are unwanted. In our day-and-age, babies are aborted. Why? Because they’re unwanted. So what happens when a child grows up unwanted and turns into societies’ “problem”? Whose fault is that? How do we treat them? This book throws questions in your face and demands you think about them. I think that’s the mark of a true, talented author. Don’t feed a reader the story. Lay it out before them, blunt and cold and cruel, and say “Now think about it.” A book that makes you think is one of the best books of all.

I loved the characters (Connor and Risa best of all; Lev kind of annoyed me until the end). They were real and tangible and they developed with such ease that I was left feeling gobsmacked. The author has an implicit way with crafting characters. And the plot was breathtaking – full of twists and turns. You’re always getting surprises. Description? It wasn't so much the description, but what wasn't described that left you reeling. And the ending…saying it was brutal and torturous and so effortlessly written would be an understatement. As you read, you may think it’s not that “horrific”. The ending will change your mind. You will be moved. You will be challenged. You will cry (if not outside, inside).

This is a disturbing book. It will play in your mind for days. But you know what? I think books like these are important – extremely important. If people are just fed interesting (but light) books, where they don’t have to work or think or question moral values – how will people be aware of the issues in the world today?

It’s so intensely important to think for yourself.