Unwind (novel)

Unwind

Author	Neal Shusterman
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction, biopunk, adventure
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	2007
Publication place	United States
Media type	Hardback, paperback
Pages	335

Unwind is a 2007 science fiction novel by young adult literature author Neal Shusterman. It takes place in the United States, somewhere in the near future. After a civil war—known as the Second Civil War or the Heartland War—is fought over abortion, a compromise was reached, allowing parents to sign an order for their children between the ages of 13 and 18 years old to be unwound—taken to "harvest camps" and having their body parts harvested for later use. The reasoning was that, since 100% (actually 99.44% taking into account the appendix and "useless" organs) was required to be used, unwinds did not technically "die", because their individual body parts lived on. In addition to unwinding, parents who are unable to raise their children to age thirteen for retroactive abortion have the option to "stork" their child by leaving it on another family's porch. If they don't get caught, the "storked" baby then becomes the other family's responsibility.

Unwind received positive reviews upon release, with praise focusing on the novel's immersive environment and sociological implications. It also received many awards from young adult literature authorities. A film adaptation of Unwind is currently in production by independent producers. A second novel titled UnWholly is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2012.

Plot Summary

The story centers around three youths who have been scheduled to be unwound, Connor, a sixteen year old whose family believes he'd gotten into too many fights, Risa, a ward of the state who doesn't make it in the continuing program because of budget cuts, and Lev, a tithe whose rich parents had him specifically to be unwound, as he is the tenth child and 10% of everything they have should be given to God. Connor discovers his unwind orders and decides to "kick AWOL" or run away, and tries to convince his friend Ariana to go with him. She agrees but later backs out, and he runs off alone with the help of a trucker. However, his cell phone tracker gets him caught. Connor resists arrest and flees the police, running into traffic and snatching a tithe (Lev) from a car to use as a hostage and human shield. This causes a bus full of State Home wards (StaHo kids) on their way to the harvest camp to overturn, and provides Risa with the perfect opportunity to escape. Risa, Connor, and Lev flee into the woods, and are pursued briefly by a JuveyCop, who Connor shoots with the cop's own tranquilizer after Risa baits him.

The next morning, while gathering supplies, the three come across a storked baby waiting on a doorstep. Because of an experience in his past, Connor can't just pass by, and puts them all at risk by picking up the baby in plain view of a cop car cruising nearby. The three get on a school bus to blend in and hide out in the school bathroom with the baby. Lev takes his chance to escape, because as a tithe, he believes that it is an honor to be unwound, and he goes to the school office to turn in the others. He calls his pastor after he's done so, who tells him he helped keep their faces out of the paper so Lev could be free. Astonished by this sudden change, Lev pulls the fire alarm to help Connor and Risa escape from the incoming cops.

Connor, Risa and the baby attempt to hide, but are discovered by a teacher, Hannah, who helps them to escape the school and tells them to go to an antique store and ask for Sonia, who will help them. The store is a safe house, where they stay for a few days before the Ice Cream man comes to pick them up and shuttle them to another house in the chain. Before they leave, Sonia has them and the other kids, one of whom is a bully named Roland, write letters to their loved ones about how they felt about being ordered to be unwound and said she would mail them if they didn't come to collect it a year after their eighteenth birthdays, when they would be safe from unwinding. Hannah comes to say goodbye, and to take the baby, who she and her husband have decided to adopt and claim as a storked baby. The ecaped children are eventually taken to a holding area, a big warehouse by an airport.

Lev, in the meantime, has also managed to escape and has met up with a kid named CyFi who claims not to be a runaway, but is headed to Joplin because 1/8 of his mind, which he got from a single unwound youth instead of bits and parts like was usually done, would take over his mind at times and he needed peace. CyFi teaches Lev some street smarts along the way, and Lev helps him and the unwound kid inside him get closure.

At the warehouse, Risa begins to understand the power games Roland is playing in breaking up any groups of kids that might be a threat to him. She tries to make Connor understand and stay calm, as a fight between the two of them is looming as Connor appears to be the next biggest threat to Roland. Connor takes her words to heart and isn't baited by Roland when he attempts to rape Risa in the bathroom. Shortly after, they are all taken to the Graveyard, an aircraft graveyard, their final destination and where they will remain until they reach the age of eighteen and are safe.

A former admiral is in charge of the airplane graveyard and assigns the children to work detail where they can best be used. Connor becomes a mechanic and Risa becomes a medic, while Roland learns to fly a helicopter from Cleaver, the only other adult who knows about the kids. Roland starts up his trouble anew, spreading stories about the Admiral to sow dissent and to make himself the new leader. Connor ends up on the Admiral's side as a spy, and when a number of the higher up kids are killed, he investigates, believing Roland to be responsible. A short time in, Lev arrives, tougher than before, and joins a secret group that wants to damage Unwind facilities rather than just live out to age eighteen and then leave the camp.

The Admiral has a heart attack during a riot caused by doubts sown by Roland, even though he is not there to direct it and take over. Connor brings things under control, but gets Roland and Risa to come with him to fly the Admiral to a hospital, even knowing they will likely be caught. They are taken away to a harvest camp, where Risa unwillingly joins the band which plays at the unwinding and death of each child.

Lev is at the camp as well, having turned himself in after becoming a clapper, a suicide bomber who has been injected with a liquid explosive triggered by clapping hard enough. Roland makes more trouble and is unwound, and just as Connor is about to be unwound, the other two clappers who are at the camp with Lev detonate their explosives at his request. He intends to join them, but at the last minute changes his mind, determined to pull out unwound youth from the wreckage and save Connor. He does so, and confesses himself to the police.

Back at the hospital, Connor and Risa unite again, having begun a relationship while at the harvest camp. Connor's injuries made him the unwilling recipient of a new eye and arm, which formerly belonged to Roland, which he can tell from the shark tattoo on the arm. The nurse gives him a fake ID from a guard killed in the explosion to save him from unwinding. Risa refuses treatment despite being paralyzed from the waist down, and saves herself that way as well, as cripples cannot be unwound. Lev is saved by the explosive fluid in him, which is slowly being removed from his bloodstream.

Risa and Connor return to the Graveyard to run it because the Admiral is too weak, having refused to take a new heart from an Unwind. They promise to begin fighting against harvesting. The story ends with a party at the Admiral's house, celebrating the birthday of his son, who he and his wife unwittingly had unwound. All the people who received parts from his son attend, bringing him entirely there. Risa and Connor go back to the Graveyard.

Characters

• Connor Lassiter (the "Akron AWOL") is a sixteen year old boy whose parents signed the unwind order because of his constant fighting and getting thrown out of several schools. His escape and shooting the JuveyCop with his own tranqulizer gun creates a legend about the Akron AWOL, with stories that continue to become more elaborate with each telling. Connor doesn't admit to being the Akron AWOL until Roland discovers it at the harvest camp. Connor changes from being an uncontrolled fighter to a person who contains his rage enough to rationalize and see what's hidden in many dangerous situations. He finds an unexpected loyalty to the Admiral, the leader of a runaway unwind camp where he is staying, when they discover the bodies of The Goldens, some of the Admiral's favorite Unwinds.

• Risa Megan Ward is a teenage resident at a StaHo (state home) orphanage in Ohio. She became a ward of the state home when her parents "storked" her directly after she was born. Risa is a very skilled piano player, but was scheduled to be unwound to cut orphanage costs and because the orphanage felt she had already met her full potential. During a private conference with the headmaster, she feels like "her membership in the human race was just revoked." After growing up in an orphanage, she is inherently distrustful of people, but on the inside she is very emotional and caring. Risa is also extremely smart, resourceful, and tough girl who can take good care of herself. During their escape she manages to get food, clothes, and to get out of many sticky situations. She is very knowledgeable about taking care of young babies and wounds. She becomes a medic in the Graveyard because of her experiences at the orphanage. Risa sees a great change in Connor when she helps him control his emotions and to think rationally about the situation instead of just fighting.

• Levi "Lev" Jedediah Calder is, at thirteen, the youngest of ten children. He is described as angelic, with blond hair and blue eyes. Unlike Connor and Risa, Lev has a good relationship with his family. They are a very religious family and very loving towards each other. Unfortunately, however, as the tenth child in the family Lev is a "tithe," which means that he is slated to be unwound as a religious sacrifice. Lev's family gives one tenth of everything—including their children—as a sacrifice to the church. At the beginning of the novel, Lev understands his role as a tithe and is willing to give himself for unwinding. He always knew that he would be unwound, and understood that it was his life purpose. On his way to the harvest camp, however, Lev is abducted by Connor. The events which follow cause Lev to question every aspect of his life, especially his unwinding. As the story continues, Levi begins to feel that his parents love Jesus more than they love him, which causes him to feel more and more hatred towards his family for wanting to tithe him. He also starts to steal things and begins to trust others. He is also shown to be clever and honorable when he bargains a diamond bracelet for money. His honorable quality keeps him alive at the end of the story.

• Cyrus "CyFi" Finch age 15, is introduced just after Lev is separated from Risa and Connor. His character helps Lev learn to scavenge for food in the food courts of malls. Not much is known about him at first, other than he's a proud Umber. ["Umber" is explained in the book as a word invented to describe race. The inventor of the word was "this artist dude - mixed-race himself, a little bit of this, a little bit of that" (pg. 121-122). CyFi explains that the artist painted darker skin tones with a paint named "Umber," and that "it just stuck" (pg. 122).] Later on, the reader learns that CyFi was originally a storked child who was taken in by two fathers. Unlike Connor, Risa, and Lev, CyFi is not an Unwind. Rather, he ran away from his family because the thoughts from an Unwind's temporal lobe, which he received after a car accident, spontaneously took over his own thoughts. Because part of his brain once belonged to an Unwind, CyFi considers himself one-eighth Tyler, the Unwind, and seven-eighths himself. He describes himself as an ancestor of the 'Deep South' - this later shows the reader the difference/changing between Cyrus and Tyler. Tyler was Unwound because of his constant stealing, and we learn that the part of his brain that is alive in Cyrus does not understand that he is no longer living in his own body. CyFi's case is unusual because brain transplants are normally done with tiny pieces from multiple donors. However, CyFi's fathers paid off a doctor to acquire one full piece of the temporal lobe. This helps CyFi maintain his high IQ, but also results in compulsive orders from the donor. Cyrus constantly fights between the disorder he is now dealing with (kleptomania) and being himself. Also, because of the portion of the brain he received, he often feels Tyler's emotions and, on rare occasions, swears he can actually even see the boy in the mirror. He says, "I didn't get the part of him that uses words. I get feelings mostly... Urges. When I get an urge and I don't know where it's coming from, I know it's coming from him. Like the time I saw this irish setter on the street and I wanted to go over and pet it. I'm not a dog person, but all of a sudden, I just had to pet that pooch"(pg. 123-134).

• "The Admiral" is a man who used to work for the military, giving runaway unwinds a safe haven in an airplane junkyard from the "Juvey Cops". It is revealed that he is in fact Admiral Dunfee, father of the supposed myth of Humphrey Dunfee, an unwind whose parents went insane and killed the people that had their son's pieces in order to make him whole again. In actuality, he was a good, though fierce, person who was determined to have each person who received a part of "Humphrey" Dunfee in one place to see his son again, though not technically together in one body.

• Roland is a boy Connor and Risa encounter. Roland has a shark tattoo on his arm, and he and Connor clash on many occasions, since both of them like to run things their way and have strong personalities. Roland is malicious and doesn't seem very smart, but this is actually a ploy in order to have things go his way more often- in actuality he manipulates situations in order to get what he wants. He tried to force Risa to like him but failed. He was unwound before Clappers destroyed the "Chop Shop". After being unwound, Connor, not having a choice, receives his arm with the shark tattoo. Connor swears never to touch Risa with that arm, but Risa does not take this promise into account, saying that it is not Roland's arm anymore as Roland would never be as kind and gentle as Connor could be.

• Hayden is a boy Connor and Risa encounter along with Roland and Mai in Sonia's basement. He is described as "... a lanky blond kid with a faint smirk that seems permanently fixed on his face. He has braces on teeth that don't appear to need them." Connor guesses that he is probably a kid that comes from wealth, which is later confirmed when they each share how they ended up in Sonia's basement. Hayden's parents, extremely wealthy, went through a divorce and decided to have him unwound, rather than the other parent having custody of him. It isn't always clear whether Hayden is being sarcastic or serious, and he tends to make philosophical, "intelligent" comments. Connor also notes that he enjoys thinking "dangerous" thoughts. After they leave Sonia's basement, Connor next sees him when they are transferred to crates on the way to the runaway unwind camp. Connor entrusts him to take charge of the camp near the climax while Connor goes to deal with more trivial manners. At the end, he is seen running the unwind camp alongside Connor and Risa.

Important Text

• AWOL - Military term meaning "absent without leave." Used in the novel to describe runaway Unwinds.

• Bill of Life - The legislative bill signed after the Heartland War, which made abortion illegal but establishes unwinding and storking as acceptable.

• Clappers - Evolution of suicide bombers. A clapper has chemicals injected into their bloodstream that can be detonated by clapping.

• The "Goldens" - The five Unwinds who work right under The Admiral.

• Graveyard - A place where planes are scrapped. In the novel, Unwinds hide there until they turn 18 and are safe from unwinding.

• Harvest Camp - Camps where large numbers of Unwinds go to be "harvested".

• Heartland War - A second Civil War that was fought in the United States. The opposing armies were pro-life, pro-choice, and the US military.

• Sienna - Light-skinned (White)

• StaHo - Abbreviated version of "state home," which is a state-run orphanage.

• Storking - Leaving a child on a doorstep to be raised by another family. If someone is caught storking a child they must keep the child, but if they aren't then the family who finds the child must keep it.

• Tithe - A holy offering of 10% of a family's holdings, including children. In Unwind, tithes are born knowing that they are going to be unwound as soon as they come of age.

• Umber - Dark-skinned (Black)

• Unwind/unwinding - AKA "Living in a divided state." Unwinding occurs when a person between the ages of 13 and 18 is surgically separated and all body parts are used as transplant parts for others.>

Development

Shusterman says that the idea for Unwind came to him when he heard a news story about a scientist who claims that, "within our lifetime, 100% of the human body will be viable for transplant", reports about rioting teenagers in Britain, and reports about how strongly people feel on either side of the issue of abortion. Unwind is a novel that imagines not a technological future, but a sociological future. Shusterman described his inspiration in a video.

Film

In 2010, the film rights to Unwind were sold to Tasty Films and ContagionFilm. Casting has yet to begin, but as of April 15, 2012, the film has moved into the early stages of Pre-Production. Novel-author Neal Shusterman drafted the screenplay.

Critical reception

• The New York Times reviewer Ned Vizzini gave a positive review, claiming that "the power of the novel lies in what it doesn't do: come down explicitly on one side or the other."
• VOYA also gave a positive review: "The novel follows three protagonists who are attempting to 'kick-AWOL' and survive to eighteen to escape their unwindings: Connor, the rebellious teen; Risa, a ward of the state being unwound because of budget cuts; and Lev, a tithe born as an unwind sacrifice. The novel asks two questions: When does a life have value? Who determines whether it is worth keeping? Unfortunately who is unwound and who gets which 'parts' is often determined by socio-economic status. In addition, parents seem to shamelessly unwind their children for typical teen frustration and rebellion. Betrayal by parents and the system is a horrifying truth for the protagonists. As such, there are many passages that are difficult to read either for their heartrending nature or their shocking specifics, particularly the detailed 'harvest' of a well-known character. Poignant, compelling, and ultimately terrifying, this book will enjoy popularity with a wide range of readers beyond its science-fiction base."

• The School Library Journal gave Unwind a STARRED REVIEW: "…There is evenhanded, thoughtful treatment of many issues, including when life starts and stops, consciousness, religion, free will, law, trust and betrayal, suicide bombers, and hope. Initially, the premise of parents dismantling their children is hard to accept; however, readers are quickly drawn into the story, which is told in a gripping, omniscient voice. Characters live and breathe; they are fully realized and complex, sometimes making wrenchingly difficult decisions. This is a thought-provoking, well-paced read that will appeal widely, especially to readers who enjoy Scott Westerfeld's Uglies (2005)…"
• TeensReadToo.com also provided a favorable review: "In his chilling new novel, Neal Shusterman paints a picture of a world where there aren't any cures and doctors, just surgeons and replacements. Three unwanted teenagers face a fate worse than death—unwinding. Their bodies will be cut up, and every part of them used, from their brains to their toes. But if they can stay out of the authorities' clutches until the age of eighteen, they just might survive.... The most frightening science fiction novels are always the ones that are most similar to our world. Shusterman doesn't fail to describe how a wrong solution to a modern issue can affect generations to come. Thought-provoking, terrifying, and almost inconceivable, UNWIND will keep you reading late into the night."

Awards and honors

2008 ALA Top Ten Picks for Reluctant Readers
2008 ALA Best Young Adult Book list
2010 Japanese Sakura Medal
2008 Bank Street Best Books of the Year
2010 Washington Evergreen YA Book award List
2010 Oklahoma High School Sequoyah Award List and
2010 Oklahoma Intermediate Sequoyah Award List
2009/2010 Texas Lonestar Award List and
2009 Texas Tayshas Award List
2009/2010 Virginia Readers Choice Award List
2009/2010 Indiana Rosewater High School Book Award nominee
2010 Utah Beehive Award Nominee
2009/2010 Missouri Gateway Readers Award Nominee
2010 Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award List
2009/2010 Vermont Green Mountain Book Award
2010 Rhode Island Teen Book Award List
2010 Arizona Grand Canyon Reader Award List
2009/2010 Georgia Peach Award List
2009/2010 Florida Teens Read Award List
2009/2010 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award List
2010-2011 One Book for Nebraska Teens
2010-2011 California Young Reader Medal Nomination
The United Kingdom Coventry Inspiration "Simply the Book" Award
2009/2010 Kentucky Bluegrass Award List
2010 South Dakota YARP Award List
2011 Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award

External links

• About Neal Shusterman
• Neal Shusterman's Official Website
• Neal Shusterman's Blog
• Unwind Movie Production Site
• Unwind Movie Production Blog
• Other Books by Neal Shusterman