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Shusterman has done it again. Unwind ripped my heart out. It had me in tears and hopeful for a better future. This sequeal has brought so much more depth to the story but left me with a more happy heart which is amazing considering the death count.

I am glad they changed the covers. The original cover was all dark with a man with a scared face on the cover. It’s too dark. That man is Cam and while is jealous and territorial, he is not dark...at least not yet. Cam is an expirament. He was purposefully made parts of 99 different unwinds. Nothing but the best. It is interesting to watch him become a person and learn to be real. Just this aspect of the story could keep a book club talking for days.

Connor is now in charge of the airplane graveyard and all the kids there. Risa is in charge of medical until she is blackmailed into a new role. I love to see these two develop as characters. Lev is still here as well, but he is lost. He is on house arrest, but not really sure what to do or where to go in life from here. At points he is given “god like” qualities that he knows he can not live up to, but at the same time we get to see him try to find a new truth for himself between a former tithe and a regular teenager given celebratory.

We get a few new characters. The main one to consider is Starkey. Towards the beginning of the book, I feel for him. I see him as the next Connor, but the further the story progresses the more we have to ask ourselves if Starkey is a hero or a villain. What are his actions and why?

As always Shusterman writes a universe I DO NOT want to live in, but am fascinated to watch. There are still 2 more complete books to go and a collection of short stories. Being that I am living in the Covid-19 quarantine timeline, I see many things that resemble our current society and am fearful that Shusterman has a Wells-like quality of predicting the bad things of the future. For all our sakes, I hope not.