Unwindby Neal Shusterman creates a dystopian future in which abortion has become illegal, but as a result of the controversies concerning abortion in the United States a bizarrely improbable set of laws have been passed in which parents can choose to have their children "unwound" or transformed into unwilling organ donors between the ages of 13 and 18. Much of the novel works out the premises of this sort of society, including people anonymously...
Unwind by Neal Shusterman creates a dystopian future in which abortion has become illegal, but as a result of the controversies concerning abortion in the United States a bizarrely improbable set of laws have been passed in which parents can choose to have their children "unwound" or transformed into unwilling organ donors between the ages of 13 and 18. Much of the novel works out the premises of this sort of society, including people anonymously leaving unwanted babies on the doorsteps of others. The complexity of the moral issues concerning right to life and the nature of life is expressed in the following quotation from the novel:
In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is
Naturally, many of the teenagers who are selected to be "unwound" don't want to die or donate organs. Thus we have three teens who rebel who are the main characters of the novel, the protagonists Risa and Connor and the selfish and manipulative Roland, who are all scheduled to be unwound and flee to avoid that fate. They escape to the Graveyard, a sanctuary for teens run by Admiral Dunfee, where a power struggle ensues between those loyal to the Admiral and Roland and his followers. All three teens end up being captured and sent to Happy Jack Harvest Camp to be unwound. Roland dies, but Connor and Risa survive to take over the Graveyard. Their friend Lev, who who is a devout and morally conflicted teen, campaigns to change the laws about unwinding and succeeds in reducing the maximum age at which a teen can be unwound.
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