Desconnexió (2007)

Again, chose this one because author will be at our local authors' event. I thought the dystopian world was a very good proposition--what if we take this idea in a different direction? What would that world look like? The narrative, though, was a little weak for me. I didn't hate it, but I'm not rushing out to pick up the second book in the series. (#51--a book by a conference speaker)

Creepy sci-fi story of a future dystopia in which abortions are illegal but children can be "unwound" between the ages of 13 & 18. Unwinding means that all of their body parts are donated as transplants and grafts to other people. We follow three kids who are marked for unwinding. Two escape and are on the run; they take the third hostage. Interesting ethical issues in a compelling YA body. ( )

This is one of the most amazing YA books I’ve ever read. It’s so chilling and full of emotion. I couldn’t put it down. I don’t even usually read YA. ( )

Read this book for school, it was good!! In the book, parents can sign their kid up to be "unwound" which is when a kid is taken apart piece by piece and their parts are all used by someone else who is in need of the part. Connor, Risa, and Lev are the main characters who were all signed up to be unwound. The characters seemed very real and i always wanted to know what happened to the character whether i liked them or not. :) ( )

I quite enjoyed this. Solid world building and the 'chop shop' scene is chilling.
I dislike that the author chooses to back out of existing oppressions when creating this Dystopia. The 'sparrows' and 'wards' are lower classes manufactured for this universe. Smart choices but they need to be added to existing systems of oppression. What happened to racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, fatphobia, wealth oppression? The war was an equalizer between oppressive classes as has never been the case, ever in history. The Civil War cost more US lives than all other wars combined and yet it failed to end the oppression of black people in America. That the war does in the Unwind universe is unrealistic and unbelievable, even for a YA novel.
Dystopians seem to be to a way to explore systems of government and oppression, yet most dystopians, even wildly popular ones, shy away from adding in real world oppression. Why? Why create fantasy worlds to explore corrupt governments and systems of oppression if you're not really prepared to look at how government creates oppression.
Also how has society changed by having so many young people lost? What automatons have taken their place? I would assume there'd be few non machines at fast food, stores, etc. Yet that's not really addressed.
Still creative take on the dystopian genre. ( )