UnWholly

UnWholly by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Unwinding is a big business. The setbacks of the destruction of the Happy Jack Harvest Camp, the clapper who wouldn't clap, and subsequent law changes have led to a new ad campaign in favor of unwinding and encouraging adults to sell their bodies to unwinding to care for their families. It also led to something more unique and unusual than anyone would fathom a rewound teenager. Camus Camprix or Cam for short was created using all the best parts of unwound teens for unknown reasons by the corporate entities that hold sway over the Juvenile Authority.

I wasn't sure quite what to expect with UnWholly since in many ways Unwind felt complete as they clearly expressed their message in a hard to ignore story. UnWholly expands the world and story in ways I hadn't truly considered. Part Pirates now stalk AWOL Unwinds and every day people for the black market. The law stopping unwinding at 17 has only fueled the need for parts and the black market doesn't care where they came from. Connor and Risa are constantly worried about the Juvenile Authority since they are fully aware of The Graveyard. Camus Comprix is equally disturbing because it's hard to understand why he was made in the first place other than him being a walking advertisement for what unwinding can do for a person.

I think the most frightening aspect to me is that the Parts Pirates and Black Market aren't as scary as the Juvenile Authority as a whole. Terrible random illegal things happen in our world, but the idea that the government itself endorses surgically dismembering teens is still far more frightening because these teens don't know who they can trust or if they can trust anyone.

The overall storyline is still one that grips my heart hard because it's unfortunately a bit too realistic. It's sad to see that those in authority don't realize they've created the teenage threat they're dealing with. If the only choice is to steal or be dismembered most would steal. If the choice is to kill or be dismembered many would kill. Unwinding is all well or good until someone's loved one is the one being unwound or a person themselves is facing it. I'm sure few of the teens thought much about unwinding until the juvey-cops knocked on the door asking for them by name.

UnWholly is an emotional tale I can't quite capture with words, but I'll end this with a quote from the book:

"We are not just AWOLs! We are not just parts! We are whole human beings — and history will look back on these times in shame!"

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