5 Reasons Why You Should Read...Unwind

[pambachorz]

Today's post launches what will be a regular feature on this page: 5 reasons why, as a writer, you should read a particular book.

First up: Neal Shusterman's Unwind. Pubbed in late 2007, Unwind is a dystopian YA set in a future where abortions are illegal. But when your kid is between the ages of 13-18, you can sign the papers to have them "unwound": basically becoming an involuntary organ donor. Creepy? Oh yeah. Great read? Oh yeah. But I'm not here to go all fangirl. I want to tell you why this book will school you, fellow writer, in your craft:

• Reason 1: Successful third-person narrative. Most YAs, including my own, use first-person. But I will say this book got me thinking. It might be worth playing with third person.
  
• Reason 2: Visceral writing without gore. Chapter 61 could have been bloody, terrible, graphic. But it was delicate and all the more horrifying for it. Hitchcock would swoon.
  
• Reason 3: Great example of what dystopian means. It's all the talk these days, dystopian fiction. But what does it mean? Shusterman shines in the genre by asking one simple question: what would happen in a technologically-advanced society without abortions? In his world it's a very dark answer. Great illustration of the power of asking "what if", when generating story ideas.
  
• Reason 4: No spare parts. Nothing goes wasted in this plot. If something happens on page 5, you can bet it will be important later, even if it's a hundred pages down the line. I'd kill to see Shusterman's plotting methods. He's a screenwriter, and I think that shows in his story discipline.
  
• Reason 5: Strong, unique male and female characters. Shusterman manages to crawl into the heads of two teenage boys, a teenage girl, and a retired military man. They are all unique and three-dimensional. It's clear he knows and loves his characters--even when they fail.
  

Read it. Learn from it. Just don't say I didn't warn you about Chapter 61. *shiver*