This was not a perfect book. Let's just get that out of the way. Yes there are flaws. But I really don't care. If a book makes me say outloud "Oh my God, I love it. I looove it." then flaws can be forgiven.

This books has commercial parodies that break up the narrative and I don't care because they are fabulous (and even plot related in some cases)

This book hits you over the head with Message but I don't care because not only is it a message I 100% agree with but the hammer is also bedazzled.

I love that Sinjin St. Sinjin is like a kinder gentler mash up of Jack Sparrow and Russel Brand. I love that the book has diverse characters that have personalities and interests beyond being the 'best friend' and I love that Libba Bray turned 'snark' into a verb. And all the subtle (ok not SO subtle) digs at pop culture. It's absolutely the best kind of cheese. And I love it.

In summation this is the fizzy carbonated fruit drink of feminism and it's fabulous. Read it. Read it now.

I love that this series is set in Connecticut. I spent a few summers there with relatives growing up. There was even a (brief) shout out to Killingly! I also really enjoyed the narration alternating between the two main protagonists.

It was a pretty interesting mystery and I loved all the film references. All in all I look forward to the other books in the series.

(I had a better review written but alas it didn't save so this will have to do)

This was not what I was expecting and I'm pretty ok with that.

We open with Reese, a high school debate champion mortified over blowing nationals, noticing dead birds on the ground at the Phoenix airport(which is called SkyHarbor International, just fyi)what happens next changes everything. I'm gonna nit pick a little and say that the descriptions of my home state were not terribly accurate and it did take me out of the narrative a bit. Not all of the Southwest is the same, or even similar, but moving on...

Malinda Lo's biggest strength is letting us inside the goings on in our protagonists head. Reese is by leaps and bounds the most well developed character and easy to relate to. The other cast of characters were not neglected but I wish that we got to see more of them. Having said that I absolutely want to commend Lo for creating a YA book where the parents are NOT 1) clueless or 2) criminally neglectful. It was pretty damn refreshing to see a healthy mother-daughter relationship in genre YA.

I hate love triangles. I truly do. Having said that I have to give props to a writer who can pull one off. At this point in the story (there is undoubtedly a sequel) I really feel like Reese could end up with either person and that's hard to accomplish with a love triangle. (Let's not play I know someone somewhere thinks Twilight pulled it off. It didn't. Everyone knew where that was headed, although admittedly the execution was pretty unexpected.)

There's also the matter of pacing. I have read reviews where people called this into question. I understand where they are coming from. This book doesn't have an ending. Truly it doesn't. It's the book version of To Be Continued. I'm ok with that but if you're not, probably wait to pick this up until the sequel is released, or at least officially announced.

To set the perfect mood, read this on a late summer night when you're all by your lonesome and enjoy.

This is an awesome book for lots of reasons. I started writing a really long review about all the different aspects I loved, the three dimensional characters that had real flaws, the excellent world building that doesn't feel the need to explain every detail right as it comes up but lets it hang there until just the right time, the style and lay out of the chapters alternating between characters, the real life facts and events that precede the different sections of the book. But the fact is Unwind is so much more than the sum of it's parts.

Unwind is primarily the story of three teens, Connor, Risa and Levi, that are chosen for unwinding. Every single part of their body will be harvested and used by other people, thus they will technically not be dead, since every part of their body is alive just not whole. The book brings up a lot of questions on topics like abortion, consciousness, and the lack of organ donors. How do factors like religion, politics, socio-economic standing play a role in who we are and how our lives are shaped. The beauty is that Shusterman explores all of these things but is not so pretentious as to tell us the answer. It's something we have to figure out for ourselves. It also brings up the precarious position of teenagers who may sometimes be seen almost as non entities in society. Neither innocent children nor legal adults able to make decisions for themselves.

It's deep. Basically. Is what I'm trying to say. And please don't let me scare you away by saying that. It's subtle. It's really entertaining and exciting and fun to read too. There are explosions and romance and action! You will not be disappointed. I promise.