Unsouled by Neal Shusterman

If there’s one stereotype that I don’t particularly like it’s the idea that teenagers only like dark, depressing stories. Every time I go into a bookshop and go to the teenage section all the covers are black and most of the stories are about bad romances, persecution and misery. Would it kill them to try and write a happy teenage book? Or at least try and have a bright front cover?

I mean, I do like dark, depressing books but it’s still a stereotype.

So one of the new releases that I’ve been looking forward to for the past year is Unsouled by Neal Shusterman, third in the Unwind series. The general premise of the series is that there has been a second civil war in America over the abortion issue. To stop the fighting and to control the ‘feral’ teens that have started roaming the streets Unwinding was introduced. Abortion becomes illegal and every pregnancy must be seen through. However between certain ages the teenager can be retroactively aborted. What will then happen is that they’re unwound. All their limbs are removed, every part of their body gets harvested and then used in medical treatments. The thing is that the teenager is never killed. All this happens while they’re still alive and, as none of the tissue dies, technically and by law neither does the teenager. Naturally this develops into a huge industry and thousands of teenagers get unwound every year.

You don’t get much more dark and depressing than that.

The first book focused on three people bound for unwinding. There was Connor, one of those whose parents had chosen him to be unwound. There was Risa, one of the 10% of kids in orphanages that get unwound every year due to budget constraints. And finally there was Levi. Levi is the most interesting of the three, at least initially. He actually wants to be unwound. Raised as a Tithe he believes that it’s his religious duty to sacrifice himself to be unwound.

This isn't a review for that book but let me just say that it caught my interest. I read the second one almost straight after and now, finally, the third one is out.

Um…..it’s ok.

It’s usually not a great thing if all you can say about a book is that it’s ok but I’m not sure I can give it much more praise. My main problem is about the plot. The first two books, Unwind and Unwholly, are both pretty much self-contained. You get the whole story from them. Unwholly does set up for Unsouled quite well but it had enough content to leave me satisfied. Unsouled feels more like a set up book, one that is all about setting things up for the next one. It’s not that stuff doesn’t happens and that the plot doesn’t advance but I don’t feel like I’m getting as much of the story as I did in the previous two.

This book was definitely about backstory, understanding the people working behind the scenes and their possible motivations. And honestly, meh. It’s not something we haven’t seen before and personally I’d have preferred it if there were multiple threats, not one big bad guy. But that’s just a personal preference.

The other main issue I have with it is that it doesn’t have a great moment. The other two books have both had a moment that crystallises in my mind as a great piece of writing. In the first book it was a chapter where the narrator is unwound. But Unsouled doesn’t have that.

Still, those two things aside it’s worth buying, if only because I have a feeling that the next book is going to be amazing. This series have always had great characters and their development is well thought out and interesting. The writing itself is ok, nothing to really write home about, but it does the job well. All in all I’d definitely recommend the series and if that means this book as well then I guess you should get this book as well. My meaningless rating is six out of ten and it can be bought on Amazon here.