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nclausel25's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Kidnapping, and Grief
Moderate: Confinement and Police brutality
Minor: Ableism
greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
dododenise's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A really good sequel that broadened the world and leads to big possibilities of where this story and world will go in the future.
Neal really has a thing for writing the most unlikable antagonists ever. First Roland and now Starkey. While more unlikable than your average villain, they are still so human and that is what makes them great. I want to throw them down a ditch yet they give the story a lot.
I’m also hoping the future books will focus more on Hayden. He is a great character and I want him to have more moments to shine.
Not sure about the way the book handled disability. I was excited for there to be a main character in a wheelchair. While it makes sense for a society with those huge medical advancements to be more ableist too, reading about her being healed as being whole again was not great. I had hoped that the society critical characters would’ve made more arguments against that.
Cam, a human made entirely of other people’s parts, was also a really interesting concept to introduce. Hope to see more happening with that in the future, and also seeing where his quite toxic features lead an otherwise “perfect” human.
Neal really has a thing for writing the most unlikable antagonists ever. First Roland and now Starkey. While more unlikable than your average villain, they are still so human and that is what makes them great. I want to throw them down a ditch yet they give the story a lot.
I’m also hoping the future books will focus more on Hayden. He is a great character and I want him to have more moments to shine.
Not sure about the way the book handled disability. I was excited for there to be a main character in a wheelchair. While it makes sense for a society with those huge medical advancements to be more ableist too, reading about her being healed as being whole again was not great. I had hoped that the society critical characters would’ve made more arguments against that.
Cam, a human made entirely of other people’s parts, was also a really interesting concept to introduce. Hope to see more happening with that in the future, and also seeing where his quite toxic features lead an otherwise “perfect” human.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Violence, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Fatphobia
vanilla_yogurt739's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It took a bit for the plot to get going but once it did, it did. There were points where I found it hard to connect to the characters, but once the story hit the final stretch I felt like I was in the room with certain characters when they were making decisions.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Minor: Ableism
kissfist's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
UnWholly confronts the nuance and struggle of a world post-band-aid political solutions, and interrogates what it means to be human. The author utilizes fantastic literary devices with political ads (one of which delivered a gut-wrenching reveal) and narrating from the perspective of inanimate objects.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, and Murder
acornett99's review against another edition
2.0
This series pushes my suspension of disbelief past it’s breaking point. The world makes very little sense and leaves me with too many questions to be comfortable with.
Some of the language and especially the treatment of Risa comes across as ableist in the ignorant way. It’s also painfully heteronormative. It’s like any time a boy and a girl character have an interaction it’s expected to develop into some form of romantic chemistry. Speaking of, there’s been two or three enemies-to-lovers relationships and while that’s fine on its own, when every enemy relationship turns into lovers, it can get boring and predictable. Finally, how do you have a novel that attempts to tackle how society views teenagers as dangerous criminals without bring up the race element even once? This series tries to talk about so many things but it seems to avoid talking about disability rights, queerness, and race at every turn. When they are mentioned, they’re quickly brushed off or not really saying anything to begin with.
The first book had a compelling scene from the point of view of a kid as he was being unwound. This book has that in the form of Hayden and the 14 kids choosing to die while trapped on the jet. It was easily the best writing in the book, but then it takes a turn when Hayden chickens out and gives up the group to the cops anyway. I felt it undermined a lot of what was great in that chapter.
Some of the language and especially the treatment of Risa comes across as ableist in the ignorant way. It’s also painfully heteronormative. It’s like any time a boy and a girl character have an interaction it’s expected to develop into some form of romantic chemistry. Speaking of, there’s been two or three enemies-to-lovers relationships and while that’s fine on its own, when every enemy relationship turns into lovers, it can get boring and predictable. Finally, how do you have a novel that attempts to tackle how society views teenagers as dangerous criminals without bring up the race element even once? This series tries to talk about so many things but it seems to avoid talking about disability rights, queerness, and race at every turn. When they are mentioned, they’re quickly brushed off or not really saying anything to begin with.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, and Police brutality
Minor: Car accident
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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
4.0
It’s tricky to pivot from a stand-alone book into book two of what is retroactively transformed into a series, but this manages it pretty well. The expanded scope of the dystopia’s history and new plotlines fit pretty well into what UNWIND left behind. The mere fact of the War and the Accords is given more detail and proximate causes in a way that is consistent with the earlier information even as it provides direction for the series going forward. While I like UNWIND a bit more than UNWHOLLY, I’m pretty pleased nonetheless and I look forward to finishing the whole series.
It continues several things left hanging from UNWIND but doesn't really wrap them up. It has several storylines which start here, and a few major things that are both introduced and resolved. It leaves a lot to be addressed in the future, including enough info to give a sense of a possible trajectory or next step for some of it. Some of the narrators are returning but most are new. Other than what information they have access to, I don't think the characters were very distinct. That might be because there are so many narrators that they blur together no matter how well they're written, I'm not sure. This might make sense if someone started here and didn't know about the first book, since this is starting a new arc for the series.
There are two story decision which seem strange and might be particular distressing. The first is that "storked" (involuntarily adopted) kids are more likely to be unwound. It makes sense, given the worldbuilding, and I appreciate the synergy between the shape of the dystopia and the way it affects the characters. The other strange thing is that (unless I really missed something), there's no mention of kids being unwound for being queer (or being happily queer with their parents and no intention of unwinding). While it would be nice to think that this dystopia meant to be in chronological continuity with real-world early 2000's somehow doesn't have a drop of queerphobia or homophobia anywhere... to me it leaves behind the fridge horror question of "where are all the queer kids?"
Overall I liked it, I'm intrigued by the trajectory and I'm planning to finish the series.
It continues several things left hanging from UNWIND but doesn't really wrap them up. It has several storylines which start here, and a few major things that are both introduced and resolved. It leaves a lot to be addressed in the future, including enough info to give a sense of a possible trajectory or next step for some of it. Some of the narrators are returning but most are new. Other than what information they have access to, I don't think the characters were very distinct. That might be because there are so many narrators that they blur together no matter how well they're written, I'm not sure. This might make sense if someone started here and didn't know about the first book, since this is starting a new arc for the series.
There are two story decision which seem strange and might be particular distressing. The first is that "storked" (involuntarily adopted) kids are more likely to be unwound. It makes sense, given the worldbuilding, and I appreciate the synergy between the shape of the dystopia and the way it affects the characters. The other strange thing is that (unless I really missed something), there's no mention of kids being unwound for being queer (or being happily queer with their parents and no intention of unwinding). While it would be nice to think that this dystopia meant to be in chronological continuity with real-world early 2000's somehow doesn't have a drop of queerphobia or homophobia anywhere... to me it leaves behind the fridge horror question of "where are all the queer kids?"
Overall I liked it, I'm intrigued by the trajectory and I'm planning to finish the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
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