Unwholly

Title: Unwholly

Author: Neal Shusterman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster (2012)

Genre(s): Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Science Fiction

Length: 402 pages

Synopsis:  The second book in the Unwind trilogy, Unwholly continues the journey of Connor, Risa, and Lev, teens who went AWOL after being threatened with unwinding, a retroactive abortion that means all of their organs and tissues remain alive...as replacement parts for others.  As Connor struggles to keep his camp of AWOL unwinds safe despite the constant threat of discovery, Risa must come to terms with the injuries she sustained during her escape, and Lev's found himself the unintentional object of both violence and adoration.  More and more, however, the unwinds are beginning to realize that they are cogs in a much larger machine.  To have a hope of bringing it to a halt, they'll first have to discover who is running it.

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion: 

This is a phenomenal series.  Start with the first book, Unwind, but be sure to have this sequel on hand.  It deserves every bit as much attention as The Hunger Games, though its controversial subject matter means it probably won't be hitting the big screen any time soon.  The world Shusterman's created seems eerily possible.  He paints a picture of a United States so bitterly divided that compromise becomes a matter of mutual discord rather than cooperation.  Given the recent behavior of the U.S. Congress, this seems less and less like fiction.  Interspersed with the narrative are clips from public service announcements and web searches, some of which were created for the book, but some of which are real!  I won't spend much time discussing the plot and structure of the novel itself; it's hard enough to avoid spoiling the first book in a series, but trying to discuss the second without giving anything away is nearly impossible.  I will say that despite the possible development of a Hunger Games-esque love triangle, Shusterman acknowledges that his characters are deeply complex and each has a multitude of motivations.  A possible exception is Starkey, an escaped unwind with ambitions of his own who seems a bit single-minded.  From religion to politics, commercialism to news media, and education to family dynamics, the scope of the culture Shusterman presents is broad and largely fair minded.  There is no black and white in this book.  Everything is an uncomfortable shade of grey, but it takes the idealism of youth to determine just where the line between right and wrong lies.  This is a spectacular book for story alone, but for readers willing to consider it a little more deeply will find plenty of food for thought.