Unwind - by Neal Shusterman

This summer, I joined a FB page named 2ndaryELA and it has truly been professional development every moment that I am perusing the page. I have never seen a group of such supportive and sharing people! These ELA teachers are constantly sharing whatever is asked and frequently teachers ask for reading pairing. I believe this book recommendation came from a response to what to pair with The Giver for those who have already read Lois Lowry's masterpiece. Multiple teachers suggested this, so naturally, I looked it up on Amazon.

When I read the synopsis, I got the chills!!!!! Just the back of the book will send a shiver down your spine: "Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives. The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different recipients, so life doesn't technically end." Did that give you the creeps? I really thought that I couldn't read it,  but since it was suggested as a book that even reluctant readers can't put down, I ordered two. (I have since ordered more for my classroom).

As mentioned on the rear cover, the three main characters are Connor, Risa, and Lev. The book is great for teens as the action immediately begins on page one with Connor plotting his escape after discovering that his parents secretly signed the irreversible government contract to have him unwound.  The three characters' stories quickly intertwine. While all did not begin as rebels, their fight to survive requires them to rebel against all the laws of their warped society and the characters come in and out of each other's lives on this perilous journey.

The eeriness doesn't just stop at the sheer idea that teens are dissected and placed in other beings... the levels continue to grow! Like does that brain taken from an "Unwound" have thoughts that drive the recipient to act in ways that he'd never expect? How do parents deal with the guilt of having their child unwound? Would they ever try to put their child back together again? And oh my, at the end, when the reader is present while a character is unwound while alive???? I mean, the action just doesn't stop.

Is this a disturbing 335 pages? You betcha! But it's the kind of disturbing that makes the reader think... what would I do? Why would society think this is okay? What is the value of a human? Should children and teens be ultimately judged by their actions while a minor in society? Would I be an "Unwind?"

Check this book out! You will not want to put it down!