Unwind (2007) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Connor Lassiter AKA Akron AWOL: The main character of this story. He's being unwound because of his temper. His parents can't control him and they see no other option.
• Risa Ward: Risa shares her last name with thousands of other kids, all wards of the state. Since a recent budget cutback, Risa and many other Wards have been shipped off to Unwinding, since they aren't talented enough to remain in the state's care. A gifted pianist.
• Levi "Lev" Jedediah Calder: Lev is the 10th child of a very religious family. His family plays by the rules of their church, and they must give 10% of everything they own. Lev, therefore, grows up knowing he is a tithe. He knows at the age of 13 he will be taken to the Harvest Camp where he will do his part for society. He is a very willing tithe and thinks that he's off better being unwound.
• Roland: Roland is a dangerous unwind who finds ways to cleverly manipulate everyone else around him. Roland has a menacing shark tattoo on his arm.
• Cyrus "CyFi" Finch: Cyrus -or Cy-Fi is a street-smart black teenager.
• Hayden: A very charismatic and easy-going boy, Hayden's parents decided to unwind him after they divorced and could not decide on the custody. So they decided to unwind him rather than share him.
• The Admiral: He was an admiral in the war and he's also the guy who runs the Graveyard, a place for runaway unwinds.
• Cleaver: The helicopter pilot at the Graveyard. Loves chaos.
• Didi: A storked baby
• Tyler: An Unwind whose brain bits went to Cy-Fi. Having kleptomania, he has an addiction to shiny things, and thus stole them from stores all of the time.
• Sonia: Old lady who helps shelter unwinds until their 18th birthday. She keeps them on the move in safe locations so that they are never found. She has them write a letter to someone they care for (mainly parents) about how they feel and what they think. If they don't come to get their letter from her on their 18th birthday, she sends it for them.
• Ariana: Conner's girlfriend at the beginning of the book.
• Alexis: Teenage mom, who tries to be friends with Risa.
• Hannah: Hannah is a young teacher at the school Connor, Risa, and Lev hide in.
• Greta: Nurse in the orphanage where Risa was raised.
• Zachary, AKA Emby (Mouth Breather): He's an unwind with adenoid problems who always breaths through his mouth -hence the nickname. He only has one lung, from an unwind with asthma.
• Mai: A punk - rock style girl. She's running to avoid being unwound.
• Blaine: Someone who Connor and Risa meet in the basement and then again at the Graveyard.
• Pastor Dan: The pastor who guides Lev as he grows. He serves as a mentor to soothe Lev's mind about being a tithe.
• Andy Jameson: A child Connor knew from school who is also an unwind. He provided a distraction to help Connor avoid capture.
• Marcus Calder: Lev's older brother. Against Tithing his youngest brother.
• Josias Aldridge: The trucker who saves Conner when he first ran.
• Amp: One of the Goldens at the Graveyard, called so because he uses a megaphone when welcoming newcomers to the Graveyard.
• Vincent: A boy Mai knew and fell in love with.
• Samson Ward: An orphan from the same Staho as Risa.
• Dalton: A musician/Unwind at Happy Jack Harvest Camp. As a musician, you have an longer wait time before unwinding.
• Chase: Alexis's baby
• Jack: Unwound pianist.
• Humphrey Dunfee AKA Harlan Dunfee: As the legend goes, Humphrey Dunfee was a troubled kid whose parents chose to have unwound. The parents quickly regretted their decision, but it was too late to stop the unwind order. They made it their life goal to find the people who got his parts and take them back to try and put him back together. . .- But all the king's horses and all the king's men couldnt put Humpty Dumpty back together again ;) -
• Mr. Durkin: Risa's piano teacher.
• E. Robert Mullard: The 19 year old guard who dies in the Happy Jack accident.
• Diego: Unwind who has the "forbidden" discussion with Connor, Hayden and Emby
• Mason Michael Starkey: Add a description of this character.
• Headmaster Thomas
• Mr. Starkey

Quotes edit see section history

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• “"Don't I have a choice in this?" But when she looks behind her, the answer is clear. There are two guards waiting to make sure that she has no choice at all. And as they lead her away, she thinks of Mr. Durkin. With a bitter laugh, Risa realizes that he may get his wish after all. Someday he may see her hands playing in Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately, the rest of Risa won't be there" pg 24”

  Risa Ward

• “Picasso had to prove to the world he can paint the right way, before he goes putting both eyes on one side of a face, and noses stickin' outta kneecaps and stuff. See, if you paint wrong because that's the best you can do, you just a chump. But you do it because you want to? Then you're an artist" pg 125”

  Cyrus "CyFi" Finch

• “It’s not an it. It’s a she." pg 113”

  Connor Lassiter

• “If every part of you is alive but inside someone else… are you alive or are you dead?” pg 167”

  Hayden

• “Stupid dreams. Even the good ones are bad, because they remind you how poorly reality measures up" pg 17”

  Connor Lassiter

• “I was never going to amount to much anyway, but now, statistically speaking, there's a better chance that some part of me will go on to greatness somewhere in the world. I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless" pg 26”

  Samson Ward

• “First rule of motherhood, dearie: Men are screwups. Learn it now and you'll be a whole lot happier" pg 63”

  Insignificant Character

• “You can't change laws without first changing human nature" "You can't change human nature without first changing the law" pg 115”

  Nurse Greta and Nurse Yvonne

• “The devil you know is better than the one you don't”

  Risa Ward

• “If there wasn't unwinding, there'd be fewer surgeons, and more doctors. If there wasn't unwinding, they'd go back to trying to cure diseases instead of just replacing stuff with someone else's" pg 169”

  Connor Lassiter

• “You're so sane, it's insane" pg 184”

  Cyrus "CyFi" Finch

• “Getting to know someone in blind darkness changes your impression of them. p. 177”

• “In a perfect world mothers would all want their babies, and strangers would open up their homes to the unloved. 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.”

  Connor Lassiter

• “Please be a human being. With a life so full of rules and regiments, it's so easy to forget that's what they are.”

  Hannah

• “"Nice socks."”

  Conner

• “"It's funny how a flame can only burn your hand if you move too slow, you can tease it all you want and it never gets you, if your quick enough."”

• “"I'm scared," he says. "I know," says the nurse." "I want you all to go to Hell." That's natural."”

  Roland

• “"Hey," says Hayden, "I'm Switzerland; neutral as can be, and also with great chocolate."”

  Hayden

• “The good thing about being explosive is that no one can beat you.”

• “"...the first sign of civilization is always trash."”

• “Of course, if more people had been organ donors, unwinding never would have happened...but people like to keep what's theirs, ever after they're dead.”

  Admiral

• “"...His hand would never touch me like this."”

  Risa

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• 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.

  Highlighted by 357 Kindle customers

• One thing you learn when you’ve lived as long as I have—people aren’t all good, and people aren’t all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I’m pleased to be in the light.”

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• See, if you paint wrong because that’s the best you can do, you just a chump. But you do it because you want to? Then you’re an artist.”

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• You see, a conflict always begins with an issue—a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn’t matter anymore, because now it’s about one thing and one thing only: how much each side hates the other.”

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• Stupid dreams. Even the good ones are bad, because they remind you how poorly reality measures up.

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• “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” —ALBERT EINSTEIN

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• Just as the airplane graveyard was Heaven disguised as Hell, harvest camp is Hell masquerading as Heaven.

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• “I was never going to amount to much anyway,” Samson says, “but now, statistically speaking, there’s a better chance that some part of me will go on to greatness somewhere in the world. I’d rather be partly great than entirely useless.”

  Highlighted by 164 Kindle customers

• He’s become like that briefcase in the ground—full of gems yet void of light, so nothing sparkles, nothing shines.

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• “It was the last chapter in our history textbook, but we had state testing, so we never got to it.”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Harvest Clinic or Camp: This is the building or the place where the teenagers are actually "unwound"
• The "Graveyard": The Graveyard is a place where a bunch of unwinds that have run away from being unwound stay until they are 18 years old.
• Chop Shop: What unwinds call the Harvest Clinic
• Sonia's Basement: Where Risa and Connor are hidden and where they first meet Roland.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Unwind: A teenager scheduled to be unwound or retro-actively aborted. When you are unwound, your body parts are salvaged and reattached to other people in need of them. This is a way of you not dying because all of your body is "living" in others. Unwinds are looked down on and avoided like it's contagious. Unwinding must happen between the ages of 13 and 18. Once the triplicate papers are signed the unwinding is final.
• Tithe: One-tenth paid as a religious sacrifice. In Unwind, a tithe is in the form of people. They are raised for the sole purpose of being unwound. Tithes are treated better than unwinds and set their own appointments for unwinding.
• Chop Shop: This is the building where Unwinds are unwound. Named by the people who were being unwound.
• AWOL: Military term meaning "absent without leave." This is a term used for people who run away from being unwound.
• Umber: The term used for black people.
• Sienna or Lily-Sienna: The term used for white people.
• Storking: When a mother feels she can't take care of her newborn baby, she places it on the doorway of a random person and legally the family living there is now responsible for the baby, unless the mother is seen getting rid of the baby, then she must keep it. This is a legal act.
• Clapper: A suicide bomber; uses a chemical injected in their blood stream that explodes when they clap their hands.
• The "Goldens": The five Unwinds who work right under the Admiral and are his eyes and ears
• Bill of Life: The legislative bill signed after the Heartland War, which made aborting your pregnancy illegal but establishes unwinding and storking as acceptable.
• StaHo: Abbreviated version of "State Home" which is a state run orphanage. Everyone from there is given the last name Ward
• Heartland war: A second Civil War that was fought in the United States. The opposing armies were pro-life, pro-choice and US military.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Free Will: In Unwind, it shows how the will of yourself, and of others, can make a difference. A difference between life and death, even. A good example is Connor. When he realized what was to happen to him, he fought, running, biting, clawing, anything to keep himself alive. And he did. Connor was able to save his own life on the sheer will to survive -- Something that is buried inside of all of us.

Errata edit see section history

Page 86, line 6; "...comes up beside her, with Chaz gnawing at her shoulder." Chaz is the baby's father; the baby's name is Chase.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by UnWholly.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Neal Shusterman (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Evergreen Young Adult Book Award (Washington) (2010)
• Sequoyah Book Award (Oklahoma) (2010)
• Virginia Readers Choice Award (2010)
• Indiana Rosewater High School Book Award (2010)
• Gateway Reader's Award (2010)
• Black-Eyed Susan Book Award (Maryland) (2010)
• One Book for Nebraska Teens (2010)
• The United Kingdom Coventry Inspiration "Simply the Book" Award (2010)
• Georgia Peach Award (2009)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ7.S55987Unw 2007
• Dewey: Fic (dc 22)

Notes for Parents edit see section history

There is so much rich fodder for discussion in this book. If you have a thinker, present them with a copy and read it with them. If you have a child who loves action and adventure, this book is loaded with it. If you have a child who loves science fiction, encourage them to read it. Let them know it is being made into a movie -- better to read the book first! Lexile level: 740

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( S ) › Shusterman, Neal
• Books › Children's Books › Literature › Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror › Spine-Chilling Horror
• Books › Children's Books › Literature › Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror › Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction
• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy
• Books › Children's Books › Literature › Action & Adventure
• Books › Teens › Literature & Fiction › Adventure & Thrillers
• Books › Teens › Social Issues
• Books › Children's Books › Issues

More Books Like This edit see section history