UnWholly (Unwind Trilogy # 2) by Neal Shusterman Review

Name: UnWholly (Unwind # 2)
Author: Neal Shusterman
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: August 28th, 2012
Format: Hardcover
Buy the book on Amazon
416 pages

Summary:
Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simltaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand to the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished.Cam is a product of unwinding; made entirely out of the parts of other unwinds, he is a teen who does not technically exist. A futuristic Frankenstein, Cam struggles with a search for identity and meaning and wonders if a rewound being can have a soul. And when the actions of a sadistic bounty hunter cause Cam’s fate to become inextricably bound with the fates of Connor, Risa, and Lev, he’ll have to question humanity itself.
Rife with action and suspense, this riveting companion to the perennially popular Unwind challenges assumptions about where life begins and ends—and what it means to live.

Goodreads

My Review:

UnWholly was a great sequel to Unwind!  With plenty of action and character development, I enjoyed this book even more than the first one.

Throughout UnWholly, we learn more about the characters and how they have survived after the conclusion of the last book.  Not only were the old characters more fleshed out, but there were plenty of new characters that Neal Shusterman did a great job of introducing.  While the biggest villains (the Juvie Cops and Proactive Citizenry, who work to find and capture those kids whose parents have decided that they should be unwound, meaning their body parts should be removed and sold to other more achieving and "deserving" people) still play a vital role, there were also minor villains throughout the novel.  With a large group of kids destined to be unwound, most of whom are volatile, prone to fights, and generally unstable, all living together in one confined place (called the graveyard), there are bound to be those who start fights and create trouble.  Though the last book ended with the unwinding of the troublesome Roland, Shusterman created a great replacement for him named Starkey, who caused even more problems than Roland had.

Another great character was Cam, a boy who had not been born like a normal human, but was made solely from the unwound parts of others.  It was interesting to see his transformation from a boy who could not control the many different parts of his body (he could hardly string together coherent sentences or even walk) to a young man who was not only capable of handling himself, but could make his own decisions and choose his own path in life.  In addition to the new characters, Shusterman also did a great job developing his old characters, such as Connor, Risa, and Lev.  Throughout this book we see Connor struggle under his role as the leader of so many kids who are relying on him for their survival; we see Risa as she is swept into a whirlwind of events where she is blackmailed and forced to make decisions against her moral code; we also see Lev, who is worshiped as a God-like figure by many young kids, try to handle his new found role that is constantly in opposition with his personality.

I really enjoyed how this book told us more about the current situation of the world.  Shusterman created a place where parents are able to unwind their children, letting someone sell their arms, legs, eyes, brains, and every other body part to people just so that they would no longer be responsible for their unruly children.  It was interesting to see how the world had become this horrible place, and I loved watching Connor discover the history that the government had tried to hide.  Instead of focusing on just protecting the unwinds that make their way to the graveyard, Connor has now become interested in stopping unwinding and making a true difference in the world, and I cannot wait until the third book to find out what will happen next!

My Rating: