Brief Summary Of Unwind By Neal Shusterman

Plot: A new issue has arisen within America: abortion. The Second Civil War has passed with the Bill of Life now put into place. Abortion is now illegal to accommodate for the people who are Pro-Life. Storking, or the act of placing a newborn on the steps of someone else’s home, and placing their child in State Homes is legal to support people who are Pro-Choice. The biggest compromise is Unwinding, that when a person’s child is an age from 13 to 18, the guardians can have their child Unwound where their body will stay alive but be stripped apart piece by piece, then given to someone who needs new parts. All of these new practices are accepted in society. The main characters of this book are three teenagers trying to save their lives: Connor, Risa, and Lev. They all come from different backgrounds, but fate brings each of them together through a series of death defying events. Now, united as a team, they find themselves trapped in the cellar of an antique shop, confined an old bunker, imprisoned in an airplane graveyard, ultimately to their
Unwinds are teenagers who are going to have their organs and body parts donated to other people. The title is mentioned countless times in many different situations throughout the book. In the Prologue, it states, “The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called ‘unwinding’” (Shusterman Prologue). Connor and Risa were both devastated to learn they would become Unwinds because in this fictional universe, it defined who you are. “Whether or not souls exist Connor doesn’t know. But consciousness does exist- that’s something he knows for sure. If every part of an Unwind is still alive, then that consciousness has to go somewhere, doesn’t it” (Shusterman 172)? Every single one of the characters is impacted by the word Unwind in some way. This title holds an incredible amount of significance, and it helps shape the story and