Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

41 reviews

antimony's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

so readable and fast-paced like any good ya dystopian and wonderfully bereft of a love triangle (since it was published pre-hunger games) . and the concept is interesting and ripe with potential for horror. (

Spoiler

the chapter where roland was unwound. yeah

)

but on the other hand. the worldbuilding is rather, well. nonsense. in what world is the compromise between pro- and anti-choice people to kill teenagers....i know it's kind of a grey area in the book of whether they die or not and their memories can pass on to the people who recieve their parts but like. they die. let's be real about it. from a pro-choice standpoint this solves nothing. and neither does storking. it's kind of obvious that this was a man's sci-fi dystopian idea of a compromise over reproductive rights because it doesn't really take into account a big part of abortions -- in our world if you can't take care of a baby you can still give it up for adoption. but if you don't want to be pregnant, you have an abortion. which is not an option in this world, so clearly anti-choice people won. (though like. if they're genuinely anti-choice because they believe life begins at conception rather than just for the sake of controlling women's bodies then they wouldn't agree with this as a solution either. because it's so obvious to the entire real world(me as opposed to the characters in this book) that unwinding is the same thing as dying. 
and the thing is that it is still good as a dystopian concept! it's just that the reason unwinding exists is dumb. why couldn't it be like for population control reasons? which is still horrible but like . as worldbuilding makes a lot more sense. 
i would have enjoyed this in 6th grade though. which is when i primarily wanted to read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Sexual harassment, Child death, and Death

Minor: Suicide and War

cozyscones's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Child death, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Racism and Abortion

sassolinosassoletto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Violence, and Medical trauma

mpbookreviews's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Abortion and Sexual harassment

choco_bunbun's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Medical content, Trafficking, and Suicide

Moderate: Abandonment

mokiethe_dog34's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Very good book. Well written and brilliantly paced. However, I am now traumatised and very concerned for what was going on in the author’s head when he wrote this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Abortion, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Hate crime, Suicide, and Ableism

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Sexual assault

kaitoro_walker13's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Strange, and in places horribly boring, this book suffered from a very laid-back approach to the editing. Parts of the book felt incredibly fluffy, and there weren't many redeeming qualities.  Interesting concept, not very well executed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Minor: Genocide

cursed_sapphire's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Child abuse, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Abortion

madisonrhoff's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This book is very depressing. Definitely not a lighthearted read but good book nonetheless. But dystopian but feels like it’s in the near future. I like the different characters and their dynamics. I thought the ending wrapped up everything well and I enjoyed the overall storyline. Just a solid YA dystopian book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Gore

Moderate: Child death and Violence

aliensmileyface's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

graphic POV of a person experiencing their body being "unwound" ie all body parts being harvested.