Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Sixteen year old Connor is on the run, he just found out he was going to be unwound. While he is running away from the juvenile police, he causes several car accidents and takes thirteen year old Lev as a hostage. Lev is a tithe and is on his way to harvest camp. He embraces his destiny and feels comfortable in being unwound in the name of God. Fifteen year old Risa is also on her way to harvest camp. She is a ward of the state and in order to make room for new wards she is being unwound. Risa does not accept her future they have chosen for her and as soon as she sees the opportunity, she bolts from the bus and makes a run for it in the forest along with the other two. Lev does not want to be affiliated with these two unwounds and squeals on them as soon as he gets the opportunity. He regrets his decision and creates a distraction so they all could run away. Connor and Risa get separated form Lev and find a safehouse that will transport them to a place called the Graveyard where all runaway unwounds seek refuge. Lev gets together with a boy CyFi and together they head off to Joplin, Missouri. CyFi is not an unwound, but he is the result of a brain transplant (his brain came from an unwound) and has flash memories and feelings of the other person's life. Lev helps him with his ordeal and finds himself in the Graveyard along with Connor and Risa. After a couple of months in the Graveyard, the kids revolt against the Admiral (the man that runs the Graveyard) and he suffers a heat attack. Risa, Connor, and Roland ( Connor's nemeses) take the Admiral to the hospital. They think they can slip out and runaway back to the Graveyard, but Roland snitches on them. All three get sent to the Happy Jack, a harvesting camp that will dismember all their body parts and use them for future candidates that may need a part. While all of this is going on, Lev and two others turn themselves in not because they want to be unwound, but because they plan to blow the building down and hurt the staff members out of anger and disgust. As Connor is being to the ChopShop building the other two that turned themselves in blow themselves and the building down. Lev does not have the guts to do it, instead he saves Connor's and Risa's life. Connor and Risa have saved themselves from being unwound, because the law states that if they are hurt, their body parts cannot be used. Lev is sent to a high-security detention center and the harvest camps are unwilling to unwind him since he has contaminated his body with explosive poison in his blood (that is how they exploded themselves). As a result of all the commotion at the harvest camp and CyFi's transplant gone wrong, Congress brought down the age to be free of being unwound from eighteen to seventeen. This was a fabulous story of what could happen if society goes to extremes by covering up their social problems of unwanted teens. I couldn't put the book down and had to find out the fate of Connor, Risa, and Lev. I am normally not interested in Science Fiction novels, but this one had me hooked. I would highly recommend this book to upper grade students. I like the way the novel was written in different points of view and how one is able to feel what the different characters are going through.
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