MY RATING: 5 stars

DESCRIPTION:
In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would "unwind" them.

Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family's strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can't be harmed -- but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.
In Unwind, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award winner Neal Shusterman challenges readers' ideas about life -- not just where life begins, and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive.

MY REVIEW:
Wow! What an incredibly unusual book. This is definitely an original and unique book. This is a book of pro-life and pro-choice gone completely wrong. Both parties came to an agreement because a civil war had broken out, and this was the only way for it to end.

They chose that when a child reaches the age of 13 to the age of 18 their parent has the choice of unwinding them. Being unwound means that they are sent to a slaughter house to be cut into many pieces and sent as donors to those who need a new arm, a new lung, a new brain, a new heart, a new toe, etc… Basically, none of their parts are wasted and are kept alive to help someone in need. So, if you have a teenager who misbehaves, no big deal, just send them to be unwound! They aren't, technically, killing them, they're body parts are still alive, just separated. Ummm.... yeah….

Conner wasn't an all that bad of a kid; he just got into too many fights, didn't try hard enough in school, and disobeyed his parents at times. He was 16 years old when he found out his parents had signed to have him unwound. So, he did the only thing he could have done in this type of situation, he ran away (and I can't say that I blame him). His running away saved two other kids who were being sent to be unwound, as well, by a freak accident on a highway; one being on a bus, and another being in a car.

Risa was an orphan. Another thing that the civil war started was storking. A mother was legally able to leave her child on any doorstep, and, as long as she wasn't caught, the family who lived in that house, became responsible for that child; this prevented babies being thrown in dumpsters. That family could raise that baby as their own, or send them to the state home. Though Risa was smart, and a very well behaved 15 year old, they chose to unwind her to cut costs for the orphanage.

Lev was a different case. His family was extremely religious, who believed completely and wholeheartedly in paying their tithe; therefore, Lev, being the tenth child, was born to be a tithe, and he knew about it. He was special. His entire life was devoted to the church and his knowledge that as soon as he turned 13, he would be tithed - unwound. So when Conner decided to try to save him from being unwound, he was not happy

Needless to say, the government was wrong, and what they were doing was barbaric. This story is how Conner became a saint amongst the unwounds, how Risa helped Conner, and how Lev went through emotional turmoil when he finally began to realize that being a human tithe wasn't all he hoped it to be.

This was an amazing and well written book. It really makes you stop to think about what the world is coming to – not that I believe it will come to this.