UnSouled (Unwind Dystology)

Loved it! After facing even more terrible losses, Connor, Lev, and Risa are separated and on the run. As they go along their journeys they find a spark of hope in a possible end to Unwinding. But with no idea who this person is and how they can reach them, they'll have to dig deeper than ever if they want to survive long enough to overthrow the Unwinding technology that threatens them all. I just adore how complex this series' universe is. With each book, what I've learned is more and more disturbing, and this one is no different. Mad props to Shusterman on his excellent dystopian worldbuilding. Connor, Lev, and Risa continue to surprise me. I used to loathe Lev at the beginning, but he's my favorite character now due to how his journey has uniquely affected him. Each of these great characters have gone through so much already, and they continue to have more great character progression that keeps you hooked to every page. Every chapter was fast paced and filled with new developments. I felt drawn in from beginning to end, and I enjoyed building my knowledge of the mysterious person they are seeking out as bits of information come through. You really can't go wrong with this series. Highly recommend!

Unwind is arguably my favorite YA dystopia series, and Neal Shusterman doesn't disappoint in this latest installment, UnSouled. The pace of this book slows down quite a bit when compared to its predecessors. Although UnSouled is the third book in what will ultimately be a four book series, it has the feel of a middle book in a trilogy. It has the typical characteristics of Unwind (multiple interconnected subplots, solid characterization and character development, layered themes, and action), but this installment mainly serves to set things up for what I hope will be a memorable conclusion in Undivided. I would definitely recommend this series for fans of dystopias. This series certainly deserves more attention than it receives, especially when compared to the attention that lesser works within the genre receive.

This is the first book in the Unwind series so far that 'only' got a four star review from me. And know this: It still was incredible and exciting. It just felt like the whole purpose of "Unsouled" was to the get story threads to the perfect place for the finale of Book Four "Undivided". This book takes things to the next level for crazy Starkey and his Stork Brigade. His whole plot is intense. Cam has lost Risa and realizes that he is a pawn in a bigger game then he originally imagined. He is ready to bring down the company that made him. Conner and Levi are together again following the concluding events from book #2. I have to admit that I love them together. Of all the friendships, this is my favorite. However things quickly go sour and Conner finds himself meeting two new characters. One you will cheer for, the other not so much. I just can't stress enough how perfect this series has been from start to finish. I haven't been able to do anything else since starting "Unwind". I thought I would spread the books out since they aren't cheap even for the kindle, but I couldn't wait. Be prepared to buy all four novels and the short story Unstrung all at once. Why does this series have this kind of impact? The main problem, Unwinding, is so morally inconceivable and yet it feels so realistic. It feels like this could happen in the right circumstances. To bring home that point the author peppers the pages with true newspaper articles that touch on similar subject matter. The second reason for the impact is the characters. They feel so real and true. Readers become invested in these kids whose parents threw them away. This series is horrifying and engrossing all at once, and all the while it entertains and makes you think. I can't help but wish more people knew about this series.

**THIS BOOK IS NOT THE FINAL BOOK** theres a 4th one called UnDivided that comes out October 2014. There seems to be a lof of confusion about the 'ending' of this one, but it's not the end to the series. anyway REVIEW: NEAL SHUSTERMAN WEAVES A TALE AS INTERESTING AND COMPLEX AS CAMUS COMPRIXS 'INTERNAL COMMUNITY'. This story, since the very first book, keeps you involved and your mind going, it's absolutely incredible. The parallels to our own reality are disturbing especially when he's starting each part of the book off with real research and real articles with actual links you can view online. It makes it all a little too close to home and gives you a sense of unease that will stay with you whenever you think too long about how our world and society are run, and who the people in charge are. It challenges your beliefs and forces you to reevaluate your compassion and morals. its just fantastic. The characters are compelling and you grow attached to every single one, even the 'bad guys' and the ones you don't particularly like. You find yourself reading faster and turning pages at an alarming rate simply in the hopes of getting to a different view point and once you're there you're only led to need a different one. GYUH It's a beautiful web, expertly executed. A perfect blend of present and future, theres just enough of a futuristic aspect to make it sooo scarily believable and I am absolutely gutted that I have to wait until october to see how it all plays out in the end. The heroes tasks are big ones, they have a lot of people against them (practically the whole of society) and a lot of them are very important people. With how realistic and plot twisting the series has been so far it's a total mystery as to how it will end. And thats kinda scary.

Keeps your attention as you want to know if these kids will actually put a stop to this crazy revolt against delinquents

I don't give five star ratings very often, and if half-stars existed on Amazon, I'd probably rate it as four and a half stars. Unsouled wasn't a perfect book (not the least because of the rather troubling number of typos in the Kindle edition - not nearly the worst book I've seen when it comes to those, but more than I'm used to seeing in a brand new traditionally published novel - but that's nearly not all), but all in all, it *worked* for me. It was a bit slow-going at first, much like the previous books in this series, and there was less action in it (and less romance - not that there's been overly much of it in the previous books either) - what we got instead was more plot, more politics, more background on this horrible world. I'm still not sure I truly buy the concept; I could just nearly buy people not giving a damn about other people's kids, up to and including getting them chopped up for parts, but I still cannot really believe there would be that many people giving up their own flesh and blood, their own offspring. But then, there are people in the world who think nothing of murdering their own kids for some perceived slight or another, I guess, so anything is possible. I just have trouble seeing it happen in what is supposed to be a relatively close-to-us future and in such huge numbers. Anyway, if one can suspend disbelief and go with that, at least there's a reasonable attempt made here to explain that world, and the reasons people use to keep themselves blindly okay with the new arrangement - and that there are, after all, plenty of people who don't think it's the most awesome of best ideas ever. If there's anything I could have wished for (other than fewer typos) in this book, it's "more Risa"; she's largely absent. Fortunately the other main characters are strong enough and the plot was excellent, so while I missed her, it didn't detract from my general enjoyment.

I very much enjoyed this book, but I didn’t feel like it moved the story along very far. It’s a bridge to the big climax: it sets up how the final battle for unwinding will unfold, but it does so very slowly so that the big reveal will feel organic. Here be spoilers! Personally, I could have done without a lot of what feels like wheel spinning in this book. While there’s an argument to be made that it would have felt too rushed to fit in the key points of this story into the finale, this novel doesn’t really stand up on its own merits. (I’d hate to believe that Neal Shusterman was talked into splitting this novel into two parts to make more money, but I’m frankly annoyed that so little happens in this book. It's basically a giant road trip.) This story is all about the journey, and each stop point is only an opportunity for exposition. The entire book is literally all building to the big reveal: the same man who invented unwinding also invented a 3D printer that can produce real, living body parts. But the unwinding community hides the technology because it would destroy their profit. Shusterman drops this information like a bomb in the last chapter of the book, but for me it was letdown. It wasn’t even a surprise. Despite the author’s efforts to drive home how the profitability of unwinding has been woven into the fabric of society, I’m just not buying his logic that cheap body parts would somehow destroy this fabric. Like corporations couldn’t make money off the fake body parts? There’s a disconnect for me here, it feels like a false conflict. Compared to its predecessors, which were incredibly thought provoking, this novel didn’t really bring anything new. That said, it’s a wonderfully written book that was a pleasure to read. Shusterman’s style drips with cynicism, but he is a master at slowing down for emotional drama. This insane world of unwinding is horrifying, and Shusterman continues to bring that home in interesting ways. We catch up with CyFy, who has started a compound to reunite Tyler’s body parts (we already saw this idea in the first book, but okay). Starkey continues to be a destructive madman. By far the most compelling character to me is Cam, and I wish we had spent more time with him trying to answer the question of whether or not he has a soul, if he is really an “I.” I’m also morbidly hoping we’ll find out what Proactive Citizenry is hiding in their rabbit hole. While this book did not enthrall me the same way the first two books did, I am definitely awaiting the final chapter with baited breath.

I really enjoyed this book..the very first book in this series..("Unsouled") And I do not regret reading it. I did not finish after the first book not because it was not good but after the first book it started to (Me) to be kinda repetitious and easily to guess how this would end and it seemed to be saying and going in the same direction over and over again so after the first book I had no desire to continue in this series. Maybe one day someone will make this into a "movie" and I can possibly see another possibility of this story. But with said it was different from my normal reading and I do not regret reading it.