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Unwind
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The premise of the story was the first thing that caught my attention, because it seemed like a great moment of black humor on the author's part... having parented several teenagers, it's no mystery to me how a parent could contemplate Unwinding their precious little 13-17 year old :)The most interesting thing about this book, for me, was Shusterman's ability to introduce really hot-button issues with such ease and ambiguity... we are never really specifically told how to think about the controversial issues (abortion, adoption, organ donation or sale, religion, the military, medical practices, etc)... it is left to the reader to ponder and answer for themselves. It will be interesting to see if the sequels begin to answer these questions, and if so, how.
The writing style is a little too simplistic for my taste, but the characters and the storyline felt believable and relatable. I, too, found the chapter on the unwinding very disturbing -- it was horrifying without being graphic or gory, particularly because the author managed to convey how surgery of any kind could be experienced as a violation.
An excellent YA book that I would recommend to teens and their parents. I also think it would make a great movie.
Gorfo wrote: "Gabrielle wrote: "Savvas wrote: "I'm halfway through it too; it's a good read indeed, although it feels as if it's a first attempt: so many logical errors and things that're left unexplained or hal..."
Oh yeah your right! To me it seemed like a last minute decision to put Lev as part of the Clappers group because it was unclear at first as to what their group really was. But anyway I still like the book despite my complaints about it and I'm still looking forward to the next book.
Oh yeah your right! To me it seemed like a last minute decision to put Lev as part of the Clappers group because it was unclear at first as to what their group really was. But anyway I still like the book despite my complaints about it and I'm still looking forward to the next book.
I felt like it was kind of last minute too. But then again he does introduce the concept of the clappers earlier on in the book when Risa and Connor are escaping from the school, which makes me think that it was probably premeditated. But then they go away for a while and randomly pop back up! When's the next book supposed to come out?
Yeah. I think it's suppose to come out in September of this year.
Gorfo wrote: "I felt like it was kind of last minute too. But then again he does introduce the concept of the clappers earlier on in the book when Risa and Connor are escaping from the school, which makes me thi..."Isn't the concept of clappers way too fitting for what happens next with Lev? Why bother replacing your blood with explosives in the first place, when even today there's explosives that can cause great damage whilst at the same time fitting in a pocket? It's as if it was invented specifically for kids who'd sneak explosives into an Unwinding facility :-)
Savvas wrote: "Gorfo wrote: "I felt like it was kind of last minute too. But then again he does introduce the concept of the clappers earlier on in the book when Risa and Connor are escaping from the school, whic..."I thought that the concept of clappers was one of the scariest in the book. Imagine if terrorists had the capability of blowing themselves up without using bombs...what a scary world that would be! It would render metal detectors and airport security moot. They would have to test people's blood everywhere they went! Think of all the places you have to go through security to get to...airports, concert halls, schools in some cases...
We're kind-of off the subject and it's my fault, but oh well... That's why book groups exist, I guess, so we can discuss details like these! :-)We've got tons of experience when it comes to testing blood, so I guess that testing it for explosives before entering any important/sensitive place or building where lots of people are gathered would be quite easy and painless. Small packets of dust-looking materials though are a lot trickier, especially if they're small enough to hide inside your body. Now that's a scary thought that we don't have to wait decades to see come true (unfortunately!).
On a similar note: what's with the technology on Unwind? Why is only a very small percentage of what we use today "ancient" (like the iPods on the antique shop) whilst the rest seems to be exactly the same as it is today?
That's the sort of details that I wish Shusterman would have worked harder on.
Savvas wrote: "We're kind-of off the subject and it's my fault, but oh well... That's why book groups exist, I guess, so we can discuss details like these! :-)We've got tons of experience when it comes to testi..."
You're right! I hadn't really thought too much about the technology in the book, except for during the unwinding chapter. I can't remember - did the book ever indicate what year it was?
Nope, or if it did I've entirely missed it. But I do remember the quote about "iPods our grandfathers would use" or something like that, so I guess it'd be at least 30 years in the future.
When I first started reading Unwind, it threw me off a little that technology remained for the most part the same. This was really weird after reading so many dystopian fiction novels that creates a completely new society with outrageous advances in medicine, etc. Albeit most of those books are like 200 years into the future so I think since this book is going on what Savvas says "30 yrs into the future" is pretty realistic in that it doesn't have such a dramatic change!
Unwind was an awesome concept. While I was reading it, I was thinking about Johnathan Swift's "The Modest Proposal". Great concept by a great writer.
Wait who is Johnathan Swift? What else has he written? The name sounds really familiar
Gorfo wrote: "Wait who is Johnathan Swift? What else has he written? The name sounds really familiar"the one who wrote Gulliver's travels I think...
Anastasia wrote: "Gorfo wrote: "Wait who is Johnathan Swift? What else has he written? The name sounds really familiar"the one who wrote Gulliver's travels I think..."
Ahhh that's why. One of those books that's on the endless to-read someday list
Just finished the book.... going to be mulling this one over for awhile
Jake wrote: "Just finished the book.... going to be mulling this one over for awhile"Sometimes you read a book and you just have to think about it for a good day, week, or month before you can even begin to formulate any kind of review!
So I just finished this book after getting it about three days ago. I could not put it down! As many others have stated, I really couldn't buy into the premise of the book at first. I mean, who would willingly do that to their child? But the more I thought about it, the more rationalizations the book presented, the way the Admiral said the Unwinding Act came about, I finally understood it. Shusterman did a great job with both plot and characters. The way the characters grew, even side characters like Hayden, it was remarkable. The only thing I wished to see was what exactly happened to Lev to make him join the clappers? What happened between when he left CyFi and when he ended up at the Graveyard. It was like he had gone through something but I'm not sure if it was the encounter with CyFi and the Unwind's parents. It felt like something more drastic happened after that.
The premise is rather unbelievable--first that such a treaty would be made by either side, and then that many parents would choose rewinding. The book represents it as common; I just can't believe that. Although neglect and abuse appear to be common, they are not the same sort of conscious decisions. In fact, I just served on a jury regarding neglectful, abusive parents who fought tooth and nail to keep their child.
Phylwil wrote: "The premise is rather unbelievable--first that such a treaty would be made by either side, and then that many parents would choose rewinding. The book represents it as common; I just can't believe..."You make a good point! That is one of the only things that I was confused about! I didn't quite understand how people could invest so much in a child for 13/ more yrs and then suddenly decide to unwind them...seems like a waste
In an earlier post, I wrote that the premise is unbelievable, but I just realized that I don't completely dismiss a similar idea. I haven't indicated that in the event of my dying in a car accident, my organs can be used as transplants, because I worry someone will be more interested in my organs than they are in my life--that I will be "unwound."
Hmmmm yeah funny enough I was just reading about Unwinding DNA today and I kept thinking of this book
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Ya in the beginning I didnt really understand that. But I think there are just a couple things you have to understand about clappers. 1. They are anarchists 2. Their blood is explosive because they are pumped with some sort of drugs, so if someone hits them or they fall really hard they could explode and this is why they clap to detonate. 3. For clappers whose blood isnt as explosive they use detonators that look like band aids. And I think that is essentially what a clapper is. I got really confused by how Lev got mixed up with them though.