Unwholly by Neal Shusterman

I haven't been blogging much - my apologies! I started back to school with the kiddos and then went on a few interviews and got a new job at a new school. It's been a bit crazy here.

Anyway - I have been doing some reading. I tackled Unwholly this past week. I heart Neal Shusterman. I mean, I heart him. Truly.

Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simltaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand to the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished.

Cam is a product of unwinding; made entirely out of the parts of other unwinds, he is a teen who does not technically exist. A futuristic Frankenstein, Cam struggles with a search for identity and meaning and wonders if a rewound being can have a soul. And when the actions of a sadistic bounty hunter cause Cam’s fate to become inextricably bound with the fates of Connor, Risa, and Lev, he’ll have to question humanity itself.

Rife with action and suspense, this riveting companion to the perennially popular Unwind challenges assumptions about where life begins and ends—and what it means to live.
Why? His ability to create a story, a story that is like a labyrinth that at the end all roads lead to David Bowie as the Goblin King. Based on the summary - I thought that we really wouldn't be seeing Connor, Lev, and Risa, that we would be dealing a lot with Cam. I was happily surprised that Cam became one of the main characters.

Cam is the modern Frankenstein. Shusterman stays really close to the plot line of Mary Shelley. The monsters, awakening, his realization of what Victor has done, his desire for a mate, his struggle in a world that understand him and does not want to accept him.  Cam's struggle was the one that I gravitated the most to. This surprises me because Connor and Risa were just so powerful to me in the first one.

Connor - as the new leader of the graveyard - is stressed and struggling and hurting his relationship with Risa. These two didn't get to as close as I wanted them to in this novel, but I'm hoping for more in the next installment, because they do love each other.

Risa - still bull-headed

Lev - goes on a very different path than I had anticipated him. His ex-clapper reputation and tithe background really catapulted him into a political leaderish role, one that is not for Lev. The world makes him out to be something he's not, and Lev rebels.

In a true number two installment - the ending left me frustrated, with no resolution, just all four main characters thrown in a whirlwind.