When does life begin? If and when do we as human beings begin to have souls? At what point do we as a society begin to make judgments on the value of said lives? The novel “Unwind”, written by Neal Shusterman, tackles these questions in this gripping novel. The United States has just recovered from its second Civil War; known as the Heartland War, this war was fought over reproductive rights with the pro-life movement and the pro-choice movement waging the battle. A document, entitled the Bill of Life, was born as a compromise between the two factions to end the war. The Bill of Life simply stated that:

“Human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively “abort” a child … on the condition that the child’s life doesn’t “technically” end. The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called “unwinding”. Unwinding is now a common and accepted practice in society”.

Enter Connon, Lev, and Risa – the main characters of the story – who, for all very different reasons, are sent to be unwound. Connor, a troubled youth, prone to fights and temperamental behaviors, feels betrayed by his parents when they decide to give up on him and sign away his life to a harvest camp. Lev, from a religious background, is the tenth child in his family and therefore was destined from birth to serve as a tithe and be sacrificed for the greater good. He openly accepts his fate and welcomes it in fact. Risa, a beautiful pianist, has no parents and has grown up in a state home her whole life. However with more children finding their way into state homes and the increasing costs of maintaining these homes, state home boards often send children they have deemed to have reached their potential to a harvest camp – to make room for more children.  A tribunal, comprised of “suits”, effectively ends Risa’s life and she has no control or say in the matter. None of them did in fact. A series of bizarre circumstances puts these three children on the run as they try to survive to eighteen and thus evade the dreaded unwinding process. Through the unwinding process every single part of the human body is recycled – organs, skin, brain tissue, limbs – and given to those in need. What is striking is that though the body is disassembled and distribute to patients around the world remnants of that person’s soul, muscle memory, consciousness remains within the limbs and organs.

The story, narrated from each of the main characters at various points, relates their journey as they travel from safe house to safe house on their way to a safe haven known only as the graveyard. The graveyard, which is a desert of decommissioned jets in Arizona, serves as a refuge for Unwinds – a place from them to reach eighteen and re-enter society under a new false identity. All of them are striving to stay alive and remain whole.

It was an interesting and novel concept; parents can get rid of their “problematic” children and are absolved from guilt because the children don’t necessarily die, but are recycled to make the lives of others better. One part that was particularly poignant was, while fleeing to safety, Connor and three other boys find themselves sealed in a cargo crate and with nothing else to do, begin to examine the unwinding process. What unfolds is a philosophical discussion told through children using the rhetoric of pro-lifers and pro-choicers, and the overall effect is incredible. Is it such a stretch of the imagination for something like this to happen? Will the divisive polarizing politics of the United State eventually lead to a scenario such as this? Classified is young adult fiction, this book shows us all a potentially and entirely plausible future where life is both valued and discarded just as easily.