# Unwind

**Author:** Neal Shusterman
**Grade range:** Grades 8–12
**Age range:** 13–17
**First published:** 2007
**Page count:** 335
**Genre:** Dystopian Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9781847387349`
**ISBN-10:** `1416912045`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/unwind
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Neal Shusterman's 2007 dystopia imagines a future in which a long conflict ends in a chilling compromise: parents may retroactively 'unwind' a child between thirteen and eighteen, harvesting them for parts so that, technically, the child never dies. Three teens marked for unwinding — Connor, Risa, and Lev — go on the run in a tense thriller about choice, identity, and what makes a life.

## Themes

- justice
- survival
- identity
- freedom
- power

## Where this book is assigned

### Connecticut Nutmeg Book Award

- **recommended** · 8th grade · Connecticut — [source: Connecticut Library Association + Connecticut Association of School Librarians — Nutmeg Book Award (student-choice; Elementary/Intermediate/Middle/Teen; annual since 1993)](https://nutmegaward.org/)

### Nevada Young Readers' Award

- **recommended** · 8th grade · Nevada — [source: Nevada Library Association — Nevada Young Readers' Award, Young Reader + Intermediate divisions (student-choice; annual since 1988)](https://nevadalibraries.org/nyra)

### Oklahoma Sequoyah Children's Book Award

- **recommended** · 8th grade · Oklahoma — [source: Oklahoma Library Association — Sequoyah Book Award, Children's (gr 3-5) + Intermediate (gr 6-8) divisions (student-choice; since 1959); winner roll 1959-2025](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah_Book_Award)

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_Generated from primary-source citations indexed on ReadingList.school. For the full HTML view with reading-list cross-references, see https://readinglist.school/book/unwind._