In America after the Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life
armies came to an agreement: The Bill of Life states that human life may
not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the
age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, a
parent may choose to retroactively get rid of a child through a process
called "unwinding." Unwinding ensures that the child's life doesn’t
“technically” end by transplanting all the organs in the child's body to
various recipients. Now a common and accepted practice in society,
troublesome or unwanted teens are able to easily be unwound.
With
breathtaking suspense, this book follows three teens who all become
runaway Unwinds: Connor, a rebel whose parents have ordered his
unwinding; Risa, a ward of the state who is to be unwound due to
cost-cutting; and Lev, his parents’ tenth child whose unwinding has been
planned since birth as a religious tithing. As their paths intersect
and lives hang in the balance, Shusterman examines complex moral issues
that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end.