by Neal Shusterman
ages: 14+
First sentence: “‘There are places you can go,’ Ariana tells him, ‘and a guys as smart as you has a decent chance of surviving to eighteen.'”
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This is, up front, a disturbing — if a bit unrealistic — premise for a book. Shusterman imagines a world in which unwanted (for whatever reason) children and teens are harvested for their body parts (no part is left to go to waste; it’s the law). All their parents or guardians have to do is sign an unwind order, and the child is carted off to a “harvest camp” to… die.
Except: are they really dead if their body parts are scattered all over the country?
Obviously, it’s not something that the kids do willingly, and some even have the wits to escape. The story follows three: Connor, whose parents signed the order because he couldn’t control his temper; Risa, who was a ward of the state and subject to budget cutbacks; and Levi (and his is the creepiest), who was raised as a “tithe”, in a religion where they believe that giving a human up for unwinding is an act of religious devotion.
It’s horrifying.
It’s also highly implausible; supposedly this all came about because the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice factions stopped trying to negotiate and went to war against each other. The unwind law (with it’s companion, the storking law — enabling unwanted babies to be left on doorsteps, giving legal rights to the people who find them) being introduced as a “compromise” that “satisfied” all sides. It’s a miserable world that Shusterman created, one in which human life is devalued to such a great degree it’s sickening.
I think that was the point. (And at one point, I did get physically ill; it was near the end when he actually described the harvesting process. It gave me nightmares.) To make people think about life, existence and souls, and the meaning of all three. I’m not sure how effective it was; in many ways, it was preaching “LIFE IS GOOD, ANY SORT OF KILLING IS BAD” quite obviously, but it would make a good jumping point for discussion about life and choice.
And any sort of discussion (reasonable, with respect) is a good thing these days.
The Book Nut 
So, I actually really liked this one. I thought the unwinding process was sort of, beautiful, in a nightmare-ish way. Maybe the incredible book club discussion we had afterward has made me remember it in more of a loving way 🙂
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I haven't read this one yet but it seems like everyone that's read it, whether they liked it or not, at least had some real pondering going on. I'm still excited to get to it and see what I really think of it.
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Sounds disturbing.
I tried to read a similar book: Animal. It's premise was taking children with disabilities and turning them into food. I didn't get very far into it. That author was preaching “meat is murder” though. Even only a chapter in, I found it too preachy and more than a little creepy and implausible.
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I actually love this book. It's unrealistic, true, but disturbing because some of the points it makes are absolutely valid, absolutely real. I love Shusterman because he's so imaginative – he forces his readers to look at issues from interesting new vantage points.
It's always interesting to hear your opinion!
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I listened to this audiobook while driving across the state and was totally engrossed. The harvesting process was so intense. I love books that make us think in new ways.
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Hmmm, I didn't have the same reaction, so it's interesting to hear different viewpoints. It's a book that is still so vivid for me. I liked that it was entertaining but really made me think too.
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