Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Oh man, where to start with Unwind.  It's a really good book.  The characters all feel real, the plot is super tight, and it's an exciting page turner.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  But the whole time, I had to fight down that English major urge to unpack whatever message was surely being delivered to me, which was extremely tough because Unwind is full of implications and doubletalk.

The basic premise of Unwind is that, following a civil war over the issue of abortion, America passes a law that allows for teenagers to be "unwound," or disassembled and their parts given to victims of injury and illness, or, say people who just want prettier eyes.  Incidental plot elements include the idea of "storking," or legally dropping your unwanted baby off on a random doorstep, with the recipient becoming that baby's legal guardian whether they want to or not; and "clappers," who are kids who have nitroglycerin injected into their bloodstreams to become living bombs.  There are also "tithes," or people whose religion demands that a certain percentage of their children be unwound as a religious duty.  The plot follows three kids who are to be unwound.  There is Connor, who is a troublemaker whose parents are unwinding him to get rid of him.  There is Risa, an orphan ward of the state who is being unwound because they can't figure out anything better to do with her.  And there is Lev, who is a tithe.  They each manage to escape unwinding and go on the lamb, bouncing from safehouse to safehouse dodging authorities, conspiracies, and other unwinds.

So obviously we have lots of issues at work here.  Abortion, terrorism, religion, and teen pregnancy, to name a few.  Which is great.  Hard issues should be presented to kids openly, and they should engage with them.  The only way to form an informed opinion about something is to put that issue on the table and talk about it with other people, to get it outside of your own head and see how other people think about it.  I'm all for giving kids hard topics to chew on.  Blow their minds early, I say!  When I was in 10th grade my awesome Spanish teacher Ms. Britton passed me a copy of Noam Chomsky's The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, which I was absolutely not "ready" for, and which absolutely changed my thinking just by giving me a new set of information to consider.  It didn't take over my opinions, but it become a major, previously unknown factor in my processing of the world around me.  It made me want to see what else was going on.

But I don't know if Unwind would have done that for me.  In my personal opinion, the book seems to make lots of gross oversimplifications.  Lots of fiction writers like to say that they are "asking questions" with their books, but in my experience that's largely untrue.  They are, subtly or not, expressing a viewpoint.  If you wrap up your plot properly, someone has to win and someone has to lose, and so the particular viewpoint you've associated with a particular character seems to come out on top.  The only way to truly "ask a question" in your fiction book would be to have the plot end up in a truly ambiguous way, which is of course extremely hard to do and still have a satisfying ending to your book (and, plot-wise, the ending to Unwind is definitely satisfying).  Unwind takes its metaphors for abortion and religion so far that (again, in my opinion) they are kind of ridiculous.  The idea that the country would go to war on the issue of abortion, but then be willing to accept the unwinding of teenagers as a compromise, was especially hard for me to put in the category of "suspended disbelief."  It just seemed silly on its face.  But then again, I don't read a lot of dystopian fiction.  Maybe that's par for the course.  But even so, it doesn't seem like the best way to talk about these incredibly complex and dense issues with kids.  Why couch it in so much metaphor?  Why not just talk to them straight?  Why not just give them the equivalent of The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism?

But again, I am neither a big fiction reader nor an expert on teens.  Maybe this is a smart way to get them thinking about complex issues.  Maybe it's an entry point.  Maybe the transition between a discussion about unwinding and a discussion about abortion is easier than I think it would be (but after finishing Unwind I would be willing to bet that most teens are lining up with Connor to fight the good fight).

I could go on for quite a long time about Unwind, but I will stop here so I don't get too VERBOSE for CERTAIN PEOPLE who may or may not work at the GARDNER BRANCH of the JOHNSON COUNTY LIBRARY.

The readalong possibilities for Unwind are pretty limitless, thanks to the plethora of issues discussed.  If you want to get into the mind of a suicide bomber, which Unwind attempts to do, you could check out Dying To Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror, by Mia Bloom, or The Business of Martyrdom: A History of Suicide Bombing by Jeffrey William Lewis.  For another (much better executed) fictionalization of social issues, check out Marvel's Civil War series, in which there is a schism among the superheroes around the idea of registering their secret identities with the government.  If you're interested in the main issue of Unwind, you could check out Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance by John Riddle.

All in all, Unwind was a good book.  The plot was absorbing and the characters were fully realized which are the main things.  I'm extremely curious to see how other people reacted to it.  Let's talk in the comments!