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| Flashback Friday is a weekly post where I talk about a book, manga, or anime series which I’ve seen years ago. This is more like me reminiscing on stuff I come across way back then. |
Series: Unwind Dystology
Author: Neal Shusterman
Author: Neal Shusterman
Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.
Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.
And then Hayden says, “At least dying’s better than being unwound. Or is it? Let’s take a poll – would you rather die, or be unwound?”
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[I failed to post a flashback last week. I suck -__-]
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| and I even wrote my name, haha~ |
Unwind is my first exposure to dystopian books. It’s one of the last books I grabbed before I put down reading for a couple of years. Rechecking the book today, I saw that I wrote there when I bought it – 122210. Fancy.
Unwind immediately became my favorite book after I read it mainly because I have never read anything like it back then (back then, meaning during the time when I’ve only read Lisi Harrison, Cecily Von Ziegesar, etc.). Unwind with its totally twisted world astounded me. It’s very thought-provoking and is completely different from the contemporary teen-flicks I read back then.
Unwind is a somewhat realistic dystopian future wherein after a civil war between the pro-life and the pro-choice, ‘the Bill of Life’ was constructed. “The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. (Shusterman, Unwind, 2009)” How is the pro-choice compromised here? Between the ages thirteen and eighteen, parents may unwind their child. Unwinding a child means aborting him in such a way that each of his body parts is kept alive.
Aside from Unwind’s very thought-provoking story, another thing I loved about it is its characters. Unwind is a character-driven story with lots of point-of-views told in third person. I really enjoyed every character. There just seem to be so much connection between them and their developments were all well done. At the end of the book, you’ll just see how much they’ve grown and at the same time, it’s as if they’re still the same old them (okay, just how weird is that?).
When I finished Unwind, a sequel was not announced. I find the ending really great. It had enough closure. And when a sequel was announced, I got scared and at the same time very excited because I wanted to read more of these characters and I wanted to read more about this story. I was very curious of what Shusterman had for the second book (and when I finally read it, it was good. I’m really glad that it didn’t disappoint even for a minute).
[Ohmy, this has gotten so long, it’s starting to look like a review.]
Why is it still my favorite book even though I’ve already read a few more dystopian novels? Unwind’s story is honestly still the most realistic of them all (in my opinion… don’t throw books at me because I know that I’ve yet to read more dystopian novels. Recommendations are accepted though), and as I said, it has great characters with different backgrounds.
You see, Unwind is perhaps quite an unnoticed dystopian book (and maybe perhaps this is because of its not-so-swooning romance which is quite common to most books out there today). When I said unnoticed I don’t exactly mean that it’s not popular, I’m pretty positive that it is but not to the same level as Divergent and Hunger Games. It has a really engaging world, thrilling storytelling that it’s something very difficult to put down. I’ve read it around 3 times and I still love it. I read every page like it’s my first time.
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How about you guys, is there any book, manga, or anime series you’re reminiscing right now? OR is there anything that you were reminded of when I talked about Unwind? What’s your favorite book right now? How did you stumble upon it? What are the things you like about it? :)
