(no subject)
I read the book Unwind by Neal Shusterman the other day- anyone else read it? It’s good, but disturbing as hell.
Full of body horror, which I’ve always found horrific. ‘Unwinding’ is the process in which someone’s organs are harvested from them while they’re still concious, which is awful, awful, awful to read when it finally happens in the book. Parents voluntarily send their troubled or ‘useless’ kids (like Connor, one of the protagonists) for this operation, having been kinda brainwashed or whatever into believing it’s okay because their kid will still live on, just…as the organs in other people’s bodies. Brrrr.
For a book that’s sort of about abortion (unwinding is basically ‘retroactive abortion’), it doesn’t really have anything new to say on the subject. And in a way I wish Shusterman had cut the abortion thing altogether and just focused on the other issues (especially since, of all the people who could write about abortion, cissexual men are kind of at the bottom of the list, you know?) like how, how do the people in this society think it’s okay to kill their children for minor misdemeanors or not getting good enough grades? How long did it take for that to become normal? Anyway-
-I’m gonna try and get hold of the sequel, I think, I want to know more about the world and about the characters. (I’m especially curious as to how Connor can continue to love his parents. Any parent who would do that isn’t worthy of the name, in my opinion.) Ooh, and I hear there might be a movie! Cool.
Also: I am an organ donor and I hope this book won’t put anyone off being one, but OH GOD PLEASE MAKE EXTRA SURE I’M DEAD FIRST
August 22, 2013 @ 3:15 pm
Good but disturbing as hell really sums it up for me, too. (And I second your point about organ donation, as well.) I intended to read the sequel (I initially read the book long before it came out – I wish I’d waited so I could read them back to back) and still haven’t gotten to it yet. I’d love to know what you think of it. A movie? Wow. I’d think some of that material would be very challenging to film. That said, I’d be interested to see what might be done with it.
August 22, 2013 @ 4:37 pm
Believe it or not, someone actually made a short film of…THAT scene. It’s here! But I don’t dare watch it. I really want the sequel now! Once I get hold of it I’ll tell you how it was. :D
August 24, 2013 @ 6:16 am
Neal Shusterman does some damn good horror. I recommend Full Tilt, which takes the good old “bad amusement park” trope and gets some genuine creepy out of it. I haven’t read Unwind, but my impression, looking at the plot, was that it was less about abortion and more about attitudes toward teenage delinquency and rebellion, and our tendency to divide teenagers into “good kids” and “punks.” Neal Shusterman, after all, is a black man living in America, and according to the bio on his website, he has four kids. The demonization of young men pretty much has to be very relevant to his interests.
August 24, 2013 @ 4:01 pm
Creepy amusement parks? Ooh, I’m there! Yes, by book two (which I have now!) it’s much more about the demonisation of teenagers and people’s fear of what they might achieve in such a messed-up world. (And, to my shame, I never considered Shusterman’s race til I actually saw a picture of him.)
August 24, 2013 @ 6:33 pm
Well, to be fair, neither did I—until it occurred to me to wonder if Unwind was about the demonization of young adults in general, or the demonization of certain young adults. Which is when I went looking for his website and found out a little more about him. (Including that he’s written more books than I thought. Wonder if I have enough money for a spree . . .)
October 5, 2013 @ 8:38 am
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