Unwind - Neal Shusterman Wow. I am pleasantly surprised.

I love the idea. It's so...new

When I read the synopsis of this book I was horrified. Then I opened it up and read The Bill of Life and that took horrifed up another notch. The idea that someone could unwind a person that had been there for 13 years is still unimaginable to me. How do you not love your own child??

As unimaginable as this is I really feel like there are nut jobs out there who feel that yes, this truly is a great compromise... Well psychos it's not. So stop nodding along with it's twisted logic. It's disturbing. I'm deeply disturbed.

I think the reason this book scares the shit out of me is because people, humans, can twist things to fit into their realm of reason. They can look at each other and decide that once a child reaches the age of reason it's okay to shirk their responsibilities in the name of a noble cause such as unwinding. "They aren't really dead, they go on to live in other people." BOOM!! Justified. I can see those thoughts processing and once someone that knows someone that did it and it worked out well for them, I can see it sitting well larger and larger groups of people. Once a certain amount of time passes and it's no longer considered taboo but a socially acceptable practice it's just out there in it's disgusting glory. People can make themselves believe what ever they need to believe to justify their actions, however morbid they may be. And that my friends scares the piss out of me. It also why this premise could take hold and become a possibilty. You may sit back and shake your heads No, No, No but you are deluding yourselves. Besides it's goverment that makes laws and if enough of them are on board we're screwed and you know it.

The book itself is very well written I haven't read any other reviews for this yet but I wouldn't know how anyone could dispute that. It is very well written. I was wishing I could gobble this up in one sitting but alas real life got in the way.

I loved that the POV was mainly three character but that it sidetracked sometimes to allow the reader to see things from other important roles. That was really quite nice. I know that I liked that I got a chapter here and there to know the inner workings of another chracters' mind so that I didn't have to find out information at the same time as the MC's. I don't really care to be kept guessing, with exception of few situations.

All in all: Quite the solid read here. Well done Mr. Shusterman.