Reviews

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

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whatlexisreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

I really loved this book. It really made me think about the implications of banning abortions and what could happen because of that. I like that it wasn't on one side or the other, that maybe both sides are wrong in some ways. It was really thought-provoking for being a Young Adult book!

payshens117's review against another edition

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3.0

i had to read this for school like four months ago, but I forgot to add it

alexheartsavril's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

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

1.25

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH so bad.

misspearch's review against another edition

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5.0

Wow! what an amazing book and talented writer! This book tackles a pretty heavy subject and makes some amazing points, but never seems forced or contrived. I am still shocked by one chapter towards the end. I plan on reading more of this authors work and highly recommend this one.

antimony's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

kcoccia's review against another edition

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4.0

The premise of this book is just crazy. Its okay to cut up kids between 13 and 18 and use those parts on others just because??? What?! Crazy! But anyways, I was convinced that this book was seriously going to gross me out but not as bad as I was expecting. I'll admit there are a few parts that are really disturbing but I think its mostly the idea of the book that is disturbing. I like all of the characters though I do think they could be developed more. I need a tad more emotional connection. Will start the next one immediately