Unsouled by Neal Shusterman

 

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Source: I purchased

This third book in the Unwind series takes us deeper into how unwinding began. Connor is rescued by Lev once again. The Graveyard is raided and most of the unwinds are captured. They are all searching for Sonia to get answers to hopefully stop the unwinding. What they learn is very nefarious.  The parts pirates turned my stomach. How could someone take people, whether they are to be unwound or not and sell them for parts? Oh yeah, we have people who kill others for their organs. Not much different than the parts pirates. We learn something from Sonia that could have prevented the unwinding. We also learn why unwinding wasn’t stopped.  Shusterman keeps the tension going. He keeps giving us more to learn about the characters we have come to care for so much, and at the same time introduces us to new characters. Some of them we love and some of them we love to hate. We have a group of teens who have had to grow up way too fast, yet still behave like teens.  You can feel the tension in regards to the unwinding situation building to a point where there will be no turning back. It is an all or nothing outcome.

Preparing for 2025

 I started to post this to my other blog, "Sandra's Writing Quest". I realized it has been almost two and a half years since I was last on that site.

Once a week I spend time with a writing group called "Unchained Writers" led by Joseph Michaels. It is a time I set aside to really focus one hour on my writing. Unfortunately it had been at least four weeks since I had joined the group. After 3 back to back hurricanes things with school and at home piled up. I put my writing on the back burner for a while, just like I had with my reading
Just to make things clear, doing this makes me cranky. I literally feel like a piece of me is missing. The same is true if I don't allow myself time to read for pleasure. I am working on finding the balance for the new year.

Writing takes many forms during this time. It could be a time planning my writing. Reading over what I had previously written, or continuing on with my work in progress. This morning I began to read over my previous chapter and realized I used two different names for one of my characters. When I searched my manuscript for the name I realized my whole last chapter had used that original name for the character. How did this happen? For every book I am working on I have a notebook. I have a set of questions I ask my characters and write down their responses. This allows me to get to know them better. I do the same with the setting, finding pictures, researching different aspects.

Once each school year when we start our horror/mystery unit I bring them in and show them to my students. My students will end up writing a horror/mystery story. I make them interview their main characters. I explain why it is important. I give them the example from my current book. It is a story of a teen who travels through time to the east side of the Berlin Wall. She must escape and help two other people escape. I had my preliminary characters planned until I started interviewing them. I realize that the character I had picked to betray them wouldn't work. When I showed them my main character and my picture of what I thought she looked like I had given her the name of Hannah. In the margin of the notebook I made a note I had changed her name to Jessica. Unfortunately I didn't change it at the top. The first name stuck in my head and I wrote almost two chapters before I caught it. One thing this did for me was let me know I definitely need to set a goal for my writing this year. My goal is to finish this book and get it out for edits. I need to put my writing first like I used to.

I have always enjoyed writing and telling stories. When people would ask where I was, my mom would tell them to look for a crowd of kids because I was usually in the middle of them telling them a story. Somewhere in the last few years I have done more talking than writing. I need to put this out there so people know and can hold me accountable.

So what are your goals for the new year? Have you thought about them? If not, why not. 2024 is quickly coming to a close. We need to prepare for the new year. What better time than now?

UnWholly by Neal Shusterman

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Source: Purchased

Years ago as the rest of the books in this series came out I read them, yet failed to write reviews on them. I decided to reread the entire series while home on break. This is the second book in this wonderful series by one of my favorite authors. In this second book a lot has happened. The Admiral is no longer running the “Graveyard”.  Conner is now in charge.  Risa has her own roll to play in front of the camera’s. Lev has come a long way. He started out a willing tithe until he was kidnapped and went one hundred percent the other way becoming a clapper. With the help of his former pastor he has a new purpose in life.  We meet a character named Cam who like Frankenstein was created from all unwound parts. Shusterman has done a wonderful job of making you love the characters that are so despicable.  In other words he does an excellent job of creating characters that you will love to hate. I think the thing I love the most about this series is that it shows what could happen in a future where the pro-choice and pro-life sides take things to the extreme.  No matter what side of the argument you are on when you read this book, you realize that the third option was definitely not the correct option.  It also touches on the questions about having a soul, especially if you are unwound.  This reminded me of Robin Wasserman’s series “Skinned”, for the same issues of whether the character still has a soul.  Highly recommend both series. I will say as I have before that Neal Shusterman and ALL of his books are some of my favorites of all time and I am thrilled to introduce them to another generation of teens.