Thursday, September 27, 2012

Unwind by Neal Shusterman


I really enjoyed Unwind. Like Article 5, it deals with some prety serious issues. The story takes place in the United States many years after a civil war called The Heartland War. The Heartland War was fought over the right to life between Pro-Choice and Pro-Life supporters. The war ended with a horrifying compromise. They decided that children have the right to life until the age of 13. Between the age of 13 and 18, the child's parent can choose to retroactively abort him or her, as long as 99.4% of the child stays alive. If a parent chooses to unwind the child, he or she is sent to a harvest camp, where every part of the child is harvested for transplant. The book is thought provoking and tense in places, but it is also hard to read in parts. Unwind focuses on three very different teenagers who are set to be unwound. Connor is a rebellious teenager who is able to escape and go on the run. In the process of his escape, he causes a bus wreck, and a great deal of chaos, which allows Risa, a girl from a state home, to also escape. Risa is a good student and a talented piano player, but she is a victim of budget cuts. The government just can't afford to support all of the children who are unwanted. In the process of Connor's escape, he takes Levi hostage. Levi is a 13 year old boy who was raised by his family as a tithe. His family tithes 10% of everything, and since Levi is the 10th child, he has been marked since birth as a tithe. Levi sees his unwinding as something that God wants and he accepts it....almost. The story focuses on the very different paths these three teenagers take to try to prevent their unwinding

Cinder by Marissa Meyer



Okay, since it seems that even though this blog has been opened up so that the filter at my school won't block it, it is still giving many students problems when they go there. Therefore, I am going to try to put my posts here and on the school website. I'm hoping it will be as easy as copyng and pasting, but we will see.
Cinder was an interesting take on the Cinderella story. I looked forward to reading it, but it took me awhile to really get into it. The story is set in New Beijing during a time where a plague is quickly killing large part of the population. Cinder is considered a second class citizen because she is a cyborg; therefore, she knows it is silly to have a crush on the prince when he comes to her to fix his android. Cinder is one of the best mechanics in New Beijing, and she uses her skill to keep her adopted mother off of her back to some extent. However, when her adopted sister, her only human friend in the world, catches the plague, her cruel adopted mother signs Cinder over to the government for plague research. No cyborg has ever survived the research