Unwind by Neal Shusterman (possible spoilers later)

((I also posted this on ASN: http://forums.avatarspirit.net/index.php?topic=17692.0 ))

Anyone else read this book before? I finished it a couple weeks ago, and I really liked it. It's a hard one to get out of your head.

Unwind on Amazon

Unwind tells the story of three teens in an unspecified time in the future, after a second Civil War called "The Heartland War" over the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice debate. The solution of said war was the concept of unwinding, which was created after a scientist discovered "neurografting", which made it possible to donate every part of a donor to someone. After the Heartland War, the "Bill of Life" was signed in, protecting life from conception up until age 13, at which point parents or guardians of a child between that age and 18, can choose to retroactively "abort" a child, on the condition that the child remains "alive". Unwinding is basically giving parents and guardians the power to take an adolescent, send them to a harvest camp, and get them unwillingly scrapped for their parts, most often because they are unwanted, can't afford to be taken care of, or are being sacrificed.

The three teens, Connor, Risa, and Lev, represent the three most common, or uncommon, situations for why a teen would be unwound. Connor has anger problems, and gets in fights a lot, and his parents decide they can't handle him anymore. Risa is a ward of the state, who has incredible piano talent, yet, is not "talented enough" and is sent to be unwound because of financial constraints. Lev is a religious tithe, because of his parents' rather corrupt belief that 10% of everything, including your own children, should be sacrificed to the church/God. In an unexpected turn of events, the teens come into contact with each other and decide to run.

Now the plot may sound really far-fetched, almost offensive, yet, the book really grasps your attention, and is one of the most thought-provoking novels I've read in a long time.

So, if you've read it, tell me what your thoughts were about it. And those who hadn't... I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend it to you.