FefferBooks

Review first appeared on fefferbooks.com.

In UnSouled, the action picks back up again. Here, all of our characters’ lives converge, and we gain Grace, my new favorite, and Starkey, a champion of storked (abandoned) kids like himself. The teens also have several encounters with Nelson, the vengeful Juvey Cop who originally tried to arrest Connor, and got tranquilized instead. The whole novel builds in romantic tension, political intrigue, and action throughout, and it’s just plain crazy fun. We also (finally!) get more background on how unwinding came to be, and the governmental fallout since the laws have changed over the past couple of years. Shusterman takes many of his ideas and details straight from news articles from the last few years, which is just…well, it’s downright freaky. He gives us quotes and citations at each section break, and it was enough for me to exclaim out loud and read things to my husband almost every time I got to one of those pages. It’s clearly a fictional book–don’t get me wrong–but reading it is just enough to make you uncomfortable about how things could go if you never got involved, never voted, and if politicians were bad enough and left unchecked long enough. It’s just…creepy. But in a good, important way, if that makes any sense?

I loved this series, and I’m thrilled there’s yet another book coming. Creepy and awesome. 4.5 stars.