Literature / Unwind

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A YA novel by Neal Shusterman.

The premise is that a long time before the book started, there was a war called the Heartland War between the pro-life and pro-choice sides. The government compromised by making it illegal to abort a baby, but children ages 13-18 can be "unwound"- meaning that all their body parts get donated to other people.

Connor, a troublemaker from Akron, Ohio, is going to be unwound. He decides to run away and hitches a ride with a truck driver. His parents find him and he escapes the "juvie cops" (police who specialize in catching runaway "unwinds") and runs into Risa and Lev. Risa has been consigned to unwinding because at a State Home (or StaHo) her piano skills were not good enough and they needed to cut costs. Lev is a "tithe"—the 10th child of a rich, religious family who gives 10 percent of everything they have. Brought together by chance and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey knowing their lives hang in the balance.

If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can't be harmed — but when every piece of them from their hands to their hearts are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

A sequel, called UnWholly, was released on August 28, 2012. A third novel, UnSouled, was released in 2013. The conclusion to the series, UnDivided, was released in 2014. A novel with short stories from the universe, UnBound, was released in 2015.

A novella, called UnStrung has also been released as an e-book. It tells the story about how Lev became a clapper.

Constantin Films has the rights to the TV series in development , though it's been trapped in Development Hell for quite some time.

Unwind provides examples of:

• AB Negative: Roland's got AB- blood, and a shortage of AB- blood is one of the reasons he was given for his quick unwinding.
• Actually Pretty Funny: In UnWholly, at the Easter dance for the ex-tithes, the DJ starts putting the Hokey Pokey on, but realizes it's probably a bad idea to put on a song involving body parts to a group of kids who escaped being turned into living organ transplants. However, the kids themselves think it's hilarious.
• Action Bomb: Clappers are suicide bombers who inject themselves with high explosive and set themselves off by clapping.
• Alliance of the Alienated: Deconstructed with Starkey and the Stork Brigade he comes to lead. Because "storkies" like Starkey are especially prone to being put up for unwinding (the eponymous government-sponsered Organ Theft program) by their adoptive parents and are also otherwise frequent bullying targets of other teenagers (including other escaped Unwinds), Starkey united other storked Unwinds into the Stork Brigade, who see him as the one who'd overthrow the establishment and allow them to live without fear of being unwound or ostracized. Their violent actions only end up further demonizing Unwinds, especially those who've been storked, and are further encouraged by the Government Conspiracy behind unwinding to create further support for unwinding.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Graveyard is raided by juvie cops in UnWholly.
• And I Must Scream:
  • It's quite possible, though never fully confirmed, that you're still alive after being unwound. This is in fact the entire point.
  • If not all Unwinds, then certainly Tyler, the Unwind who is about 1/8 of CyFi's brain, though that's an atypical case. Still, Tyler is definitely conscious to a degree, and what's worse, doesn't even know he's been unwound. Not only that, but CyFi did not receive a part of Tyler's brain that uses words, and is trapped, unable to think using words.
  • The process of unwinding itself is a lot like this. The process is finally shared with the reader from Roland's point of view as he's being unwound. The person feels no pain, but is fully conscious for the entire procedure. Roland's thoughts get progressively simpler until all that's left is an ellipsis.
• Attempted Rape:
  • A parts pirate has unsavory intentions for Risa beyond selling her body parts. And then she gets him to impale himself on a pitchfork.
  • She also takes on three would-be rapists in an alley in Omaha. Ouch.
  • Roland attempts to assault Risa while they're on the way to the Graveyard, though we don't know if he was actually planning on following through or if he just did it to provoke Connor.
• Author Vocabulary Calendar: Neal Shusterman really likes the term 'boeuf'.
• Back from the Dead: While unwound people are still considered legally "alive", the characters treat it as death, and Camus Comprix in UnWholly is technically dozens of unwound boys come back to life. Connor is unwound at the end of UnDivided, but the others are able to find his parts quickly and put him back together.
• Better to Die than Be Killed:
  • Hayden and his techies to a man choose to suffocate in the burning heat of the ComBom rather than turn themselves into the Juvies to be unwound.
  • Starkey begs Connor to strangle him so that even if he's harvested, he can never be unwound.
  • Connor also wonders if the ostrich he hit was trying to end it on his own terms.
• Betty and Veronica: Cam and Connor for Risa. Going by personality, hot-tempered ex-delinquent Connor is the Veronica and charming, loyal Cam is the Betty. However, Connor is also a Humble Hero who's known Risa longer and has much more history with her, while Cam is a constructed human being (frequently exotified by Risa and others) with some Yandere tendencies.
  “You have visitors,” Sonia tells her.
  The look on [Risa's] face is too guarded to be hopeful. “What sort of visitors?”
  Sonia smiles wickedly. “The angel and the devil on your shoulders, Risa. I hope you’re wise enough to know which is which.”
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Roland's family. His sister was "never right again" after a babysitter shook her too hard, his stepfather beat up his mother, and his mother sent him to be unwound after he beat up his stepfather.
• Body Horror: Unwind gives a first person account of an unwinding from Roland's perspective. The surgeons systematically cut their patient apart while they are still alive and conscious, (but on anesthesia) so they never legally "die", starting with the legs and ending with the brain.
  • In Unnatural Selection, from UnBound, it's revealed that the Dah Zey do human experiments on kids who aren't unwound. Such lovely experiments include a boy with hands on his feet, a girl with four eyes and four arms, and another boy with ears instead of eyes.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: Connor's coldness toward Risa in UnWholly and UnSouled stems first from his disgust at his transplant and fear he'll lose control of Roland's arm and later because he doesn't want her tagging along for his dangerous lifestyle when she's found refuge elsewhere.
• Bulletproof Human Shield:
  • Lev takes tranq bullets meant for Connor, letting them both escape.
  • Similarly, Starkey uses Ashley to block tranq bullets during the Graveyard raid.
• Character Name Alias: A pair of clappers introduce themselves as Sid and Nancy.
• Childhood Brain Damage: Roland's younger sister was "never right again" after a babysitter shook her too hard.
• Church Militant: Many of the parents who give up their children as "tithes" believe the Bible told them to do it.
• Confessional: Cam goes to Confession in UnSouled, but it's less for absolution and more to ask the priest whether or not he's a person.
• Crapsaccharine World: The Harvest Camps, being decorated and organized in a manner which are supposed to make the unwinds feel safe and at home. Obviously, these are horrific places where the unwinds know their fate, but the Harvest Camps are decorated with pastel colors and many other cheery decorations to cover up their true nature. Risa even describes her experience there as "Hell disguised as Heaven."
• Create Your Own Villain:
  • The juvie cop that Connor tranqs with his own gun loses his job and his wife and becomes an object of national ridicule, causing him to become a parts pirate and blame Connor for ruining his life. Of course, juvie cops aren't exactly heroes to begin with.
  • Argent was of questionable moral standing, but it's his run-in with Connor that gives him the nudge he needs to be a full-fledged villain.
• Cruel Mercy:
  • The Tashi'ne family decides not to execute Fretwell, instead locking him in a blank cell without human contact for the rest of his life, being given only enough bread and water to survive daily and a rope to hang himself with when he decides he wants out.
  • In Undivided, after orchestrating her Engineered Public Confession, Cam offers Roberta a chance to shoot herself.
• Darker and Edgier: While Unwind is already pretty dark and edgy, UnWholly keeps the stomach-turning premise and adds more explicitly sexual content, cursing, and a brand-new illegal organ trade. And then in UnSouled, Connor is forced to smoke tranq bullets and Risa calmly stabs a guy with a pitchfork (granted, it was in self-defense, but it's still jarring).
• Deadly Euphemism: Unwinding is really having every single body part taken away and used as transplants.
• Deprogram: The business of the Cavenaugh mansion is helping to retrain tithes so that they no longer want to be unwound.
• Disney Death: Connor is unwound in Undivided, but is able to be put back together.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Unwinding is a high price to pay for being a "difficult" teenager.
• Divorce Assets Conflict: Hayden's parents, who, after several years of courtroom throwdowns, were still fighting over who should get what — including Hayden, before deciding to have him unwound instead.
• Doorstop Baby: Since birth control and abortion are illegal, young mothers often drop their babies on doorsteps hoping someone takes them in. It is called being "storked", and those children are called "storks". Connor relates an anecdote about a storked baby who kept getting storked from one house to another until it died of exposure. People who get storked are legally required to raise the baby, but many people resent being forced to raise a child that's not theirs. They become Abusive Parents to their storks and turn them over for unwinding as soon as they're 13. There is also social stigma around being a stork; when Starkey was a child, the other kids would tease him and call him "Storky", and one of his neighbors would always make his children go inside the house if he saw him around the neighborhood.
• The Dog Bites Back: Nelson is killed by Argent in Undivided in revenge for his betrayal (and for taking half of Argent's face).
• Every Car Is a Pinto: A few police vehicles catch fire or explode during the raid in UnWholly.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • While the government chases down runaways, they spare the handicapped, regardless of age. Risa takes advantage of this after the explosion at the graveyard paralyzes her. Connor is also spared after the same explosion costs him an arm and eye, which a nurse replaces with Roland's and is given a fake ID to further this.
  • Even parts pirates refuse to unwind mentally disabled people.
  • Divan, a leader in the organ black market and a man with few scruples about unwinding, finds the methods of the Burmese Dah Zey—primarily that they unwind with aenesthetic and over a period as long as a week—to be barbaric.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Connor's larger-than-life legend leaves people a little underwhelmed when they realize the Akron AWOL is just a kid, in spite of everything he's done.
• Fantastic Racism: Storks and wards are both subjected to significant classism, even at the Graveyard. Starkey was a stork, and when he was growing up, one of his neighbors would always make his children go inside whenever he saw him.
• Feghoot: The urban legend of Humphrey Dunfee, whose father was one of the most prominent advocates of unwinding. Said father was all but forced to unwind Humphrey, but completely snapped afterwards, trying to track down every person who received an organ from Humphrey. Unfortunately for him, "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humphrey back together again." The story isn't completely false, and in the end, all the recipients are gathered for a reunion of sorts.
• Folk Hero: Generally deconstructed. Connor, Risa, and Starkey all reach this status throughout the course of the series, but usually for things they didn't do, or for their morally questionable actions.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: UnSouled follows Lev and Connor's journey to find Sonia, Risa's life on the run, Cam working against Proactive Citizenry, Nelson and Argent's hunt for Connor, Starkey and the Stork Club, and the Rheinschilds' lives after the passage of the Unwind Accord.
• Future Slang: Lots of it.
  • A "boeuf" is a young person looking for military service.
  • To be "storked" means having a baby left on your doorstep. Children raised by parents who adopted them this way are referred to as "storks."
  • "Kicking-AWOL" means running away in order to escape Unwinding.
  • "ChanceFolk" is the politically correct term for a Native American. "SlotMonger" is the politically incorrect term.
  • "Umber" is the new word for African-Americans, while "Sienna" is the new word for Caucasians. "Lily-sienna" means a blonde-haired, blue-eyed person.
  • "Low-cortical" refers to those with special needs.
  • "Caps-lock" is used as a modifier in order to emphasize something.
    Sonia: This is an old building. Way back in the early twentieth century, during the first Prohibition, they hid hooch down there.
    Connor: Hooch?
    Sonia: Alcohol! I swear, this whole generation's the same. Caps-lock ignorant!
• Gilded Cage: Proactive Citizenry holds Cam and Risa captive in incredible luxury and privilege.
• Gilligan Cut: At the end of a chapter, Connor denies that he's a hero and is told that 'a true hero never believes he is one'. The next chapter begins.
  Mason Starkey knows he is a hero.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Bambi tells a guard to go get her a drink. He points out that their water store is in the room with him. She tells him to go get her some sushi. He just acts confused. She gives up and tells him to get the hell out.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Connor and the Holy of Whollies plan one so that the others can make a run for it when the Juvie cops raid the Graveyard.
  • Of the non-lethal kind when Cam allows himself to be taken back into custody at the end of UnSouled so he won't give Risa and Connor away to the authorities.
• Hopeless Suitor: Cam, for Risa. In a disturbing twist, he knows this, but is certain he can make her love him. His flawless plan involves Murdering The Hypotenuse. This eventually becomes moot, as Cam has all of his memories of Risa erased, and thus his drive to make her love him.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Starkey, immobilized on the Lady Lucrezia, has to beg Connor to kill him.
• If I Can't Have You…: Hayden's parents. They both decided in the middle of their bitter divorce that they would rather have their son unwound than live with the fact that the other had won.
• Instant Sedation: Tranq bullets knock an opponent out so quickly and effectively that they're called more effective than real bullets.
• Is That Cute Kid Yours?:
  • Played for Drama in Unwind, when Connor impulsively rescues a storked baby from an uncaring family. Naturally, people assume the baby is his and Risa's, which they play to their advantage in some instances and deny in others. It also opens them up to some wildly inappropriate comments — like they should have another, because the government wouldn't unwind a pregnant girl. They end up leaving the baby with a woman who works in the underground movement.
  • Played for Laughs (kind of) in UnSouled, when Connor and Risa, along with Cam and Grace, take shelter at Hanna's house—the woman who took in the storked baby, who is now a toddler. Connor and Risa discuss their history with Dierdre, and Cam gets his hackles up thanks to their Ambiguous Syntax. He assumes the child is Connor and Risa's, which Connor corroborates to get under his skin. Risa is not amused with either of them.
• It Will Never Catch On: In a dramatic example, Sonia refuses to believe that parents will be willing to unwind their children after it's legally extended to all teens in addition to ferals.
• Karma Houdini: Divan gets away with all of his crimes.
• Keeping the Handicap: Risa. She could have regained the use of her legs with a replacement spine but since it would come from an unwound teen, she refuses it. It also keeps her from being unwound, since there are laws against unwinding the disabled.
• Killed Off for Real:
  • In the second book, a clapper disguised as a Girl Scout kills off Pastor Dan.
  • Trace by the end of UnWholly drowns in the Salton Sea after a plane crash.
• Known Only by Their Nickname: One of the Unwinds got the nickname "Emby" (short for mouth breather because of his breathing problems). Only the Admiral calls him by his real name, Zachary.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Invoked. After Proactive Citizenry retrieve Cam after he's taken off with Connor, Roberta has all memories of Risa removed from Cam's brain. It's supposed to help, but Cam can sense the absence, and it unsettles him. This is never repaired.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: Downplayed when Starkey has to smash the bones in his hand to escape handcuffs so that he can attempt to seize control of the Graveyard.
• Light Is Not Good: The harvest camps. Between the Pushing Daisies-esque decor (bright pastel colors on everything, including the surgeons' sunshine yellow scrubs) and the sickening platitudes painted on every wall...it would give even Tim Burton nightmares.
• Line in the Sand: Connor gives the Holy of Whollies the chance to opt out of acting as a distraction so that the others can escape the Graveyard. It's noted that it's really an empty offer, as no one can take it without seeming cowardly and abandoning their friends.
• Love Before First Sight: Cam's infatuation with Risa begins before he meets her, when he sees a surveillance photo and one of the unwinds whose brain he received recognizes hers.
• Love Dodecahedron: In the first book, Connor may have had something with Ariana before Risa got into the picture; Roland also vies for her attention, but it's really more to rile Connor up. In UnWholly, Cam develops feelings for Risa as well, but she doesn't return them. Later, Cam falls in love with Una, who initially hates him because he was given the hands of her unwound fiancé, Wil.
• Manly Tears: The male heroes cry, which is understandable given the situations that they're often placed in.
• Meaningful Name: Wards of the state, such as Risa, are given the last name of "Ward."
• Medical Horror: The unwinding procedure involves systematically dissecting the patient while they're still alive and awake (but fortunately on anesthesia), so they never legally die.
• Mercy Kill: Connor strangles Starkey before he can be unwound.
• Messiah Creep:
  • Connor gets this over the course of the series. In UnWind, he takes over the Graveyard and the care of the AWO Ls who live there, but with no Christ-like undertones. UnWholly adds betrayal by Starkey, who he had adopted into his inner circle and an attempt to sacrifice himself for his followers. Most of UnSouled involves him being persecuted by Proactive Citizenry and the Juvenile Authority while fostering the burgeoning social movement against unwinding. And of course, UnDivided has his unwinding and subsequent "resurrection."
  • Lev to a lesser extent. Not only is he occasionally called 'blond Jesus' in the later books, he becomes a quasi-religious figure to the rescued tithes at the Cavenaugh Mansion and gets himself shot, planning to sacrifice himself to bring attention to the evils of unwinding. He even gets 'crucified' in the first book!
• Native American Casino: In UnSouled, Connor, Lev, Grace, and eventually Camus spend most of the book on a "Casino Rez", which has gotten very wealthy over the years and is now practically independent. They hunt for their food and live in luxurious homes that are carved into the walls of a gorge.
• Near-Rape Experience: Roland begins to force himself on Risa before Connor interrupts. It's not clear whether he would have gone through with it if or if it was just a bluff to upset Connor, but it's still horrible.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Many of Starkey's stork-rescue operations slip into this due to his Revenge Before Reason mindset.
• Non-Indicative Name: In UnSouled it comes out that Connor dislikes his folk-hero nickname of "The Akron AWOL." Not because of anything he did to earn the name...but because he's from Columbus, and not Akron.
• Nothing Personal: Risa is consigned to unwinding because of budget cuts at the state children's home where she lives. Ulimately subverted as Unfinished Symphony, one of the short stories in UnBound reveals that Risa wasn't selected for unwinding. However, another girl, Brooklyn, was selected and switched her name with Risa's due to a Petty Childhood Grudge. Brooklyn feels little remorse over this, scoffing that "it's not like [Risa] is going to change the world."
• Offing the Offspring: From ages 13 to 18, a parent can have their child unwound, at any time, for any reason, and it's fully legal.
• Oh, Crap!: Many times over. A couple of examples are Lev and Miracolina when Nelson pulls a tranq gun on them and Connor when the Whollies change direction to try to reach the escape jet.
• Opt Out: Lev deciding to stay with the Tashi'ne family instead of going on to Akron.
• Organ Theft: Unwinding refers to the process of killing teenagers and donating all their body parts. The worst part is that it's legal and government-sanctioned. And then there's the formation of parts pirates in UnWholly.
• Outlaw Couple: Connor and Risa eventually become this, although the crimes they commit are always about doing the right thing even if it's illegal.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Proposition 73 involves legalizing the unwinding of adult criminals.
• Perp Walk:
  • Connor is paraded around Happy Jack when he arrives in order to humiliate him and break the spirits of the kids already there. It galvanizes them instead.
  • Fretwell also gets one when he's brought back to the reservation.
• Pulling Your Child Away: As Starkey, a storked teenager, is taken away to be unwound, he remembers his unhappy childhood. One of his memories is of a neighbor who would always make his kids go inside whenever he saw Starkey out and about in the neighborhood.
• Publicity Stunt Relationship: The main reason for Risa and Cam's Fake Relationship is to humanize him and make the public amenable to the concept of rewinding.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Most of the heroes are intermittently-homeless teenage criminals. But the good kind.
• Refuge in Audacity: The idea of unwinding itself is an accidental example. It was suggested in an attempt to shock everyone into ending the war — but coincidentally, medical technology was released at about the same time that enabled the use of 100% of a donated body, and the idea was implemented shortly thereafter.
• Resentful Guardian: Just because parents are legally obligated to raise storked babies dropped on their doorsteps doesn't mean they'll love them. Many can't wait until their storks turn 13 and they can send them away to the unwinding camps. Starkey remembers that when he was three, his adoptive mother took him to a fire station and begged them to make him a ward of the state.
• Retcon: Fairly minor, but the first book has a mention of Florida StaHo 18. In the second book, an AWOL boy points out that the State Homes in Florida are all named after flowers instead (his was called Magnolia).
• Revenge Before Reason: Starkey burns down the house of parents who attempt to have their storked children unwound, which is what finally prompts the Juvenile Authority to take the Graveyard out.
• Risking the King: Connor reassures another kid that he'll be fighting right alongside the rest of them. Another boy points out that in chess, you don't put your king on the frontline, but Connor doesn't care.
• Room 101: The room where unwinding happens is almost one of these, save for the fact that everyone knows what goes in the "chop shop."
• Sadistic Choice: In UnWholly, Risa is given the choice to publicly endorse unwinding, or see the Graveyard and all the unwinds who live there taken down.
• Schmuck Bait: The Juvey-cops leave traps to catch runaway Unwinds like abandoned houses with comfortable mattresses and unlocked trucks full of canned food. Some Juvey-cops even pretend to be members of the Anti-Divisional Resistance.
• Second American Civil War: In the backstory, a Second American Civil War happens over abortion. It ends with the compromise allowing "unwinding" that sets up the main plot.
• Secret Test of Character: Grace offers to give the printer away for free to see if the company will take advantage of her, thereby testing its integrity and the likelihood that it will bury the technology.
• Shout-Out:
  • CyFi's "Old Umber patois" includes the phrase "I pity the foo'," Catchphrase of Mr. T. Lampshaded when Lev says that a lot of CyFi's patois probably comes from old TV shows.
  • Apparently Risa has seen Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
• Somebody Else's Problem: Connor tells Risa and Lev the story of when his family was storked, which means to have an abandoned baby left on the doorstep of your house. Once you're storked, the baby is legally yours, but a family that doesn't want a baby will just put it on someone else's doorstep when no one is looking, which is what his dad did. Two weeks later, the same baby showed up on their doorstep, passed around the neighborhood from one house to another because no one wanted it. It was now deathly ill, and Connor's parents took it to the hospital, but it passed away.
• Suicide Attack: Clappers, who can blow themselves up at any time. Near the end they try specifically to blow up the operating room at a harvest camp.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Played with in the second book with Starkey, a boy who is being unwound for delinquency (much like Connor). Ultimately subverted, though. He's a much worse troublemaker than Connor ever was, not to mention he's perpetually defiant and even takes to militant action and lets Trace die.
• Teenage Wasteland: The Graveyard becomes one when Connor takes over for the Admiral. Fear of teenage riots and growing unrest was also a factor in the passing of the Unwind Accord.
• Teens Are Monsters: Horrifically deconstructed in book two. During the Heartland War, many teens, with their present and future lives potentially ruined beyond repair, took to the streets to protest, and were viciously cut down by cops armed with newly-invented tranq bullets. The media categorized them as "Feral Teens" and this heavy sensationalization is implied to have led to the rushed passage of the Unwind Accords, with the express purpose of eliminating this "Terror Generation," morality be damned.
• Teen Hater: All of society seems to have turned against teenagers. From ages 13 to 18, it is legal for parents to have their teenage children "unwound", which means to be dissected alive and have 100% of your body used as living organ transplants. Parents can have their teenagers unwound for being a troublemaker, being born the wrong gender, being mentally ill, being a financial burden, as a religious sacrifice, to spite their ex in a divorce—in fact, legally they don't need a reason; all they have to do is sign off on the order and the Juvey-cops will take their "troubled teen" away to a harvest camp, no questions asked. A special police force exists specifically to hunt down Unwinds who "kick-AWOL" (i.e. run away) and deliver them to the harvest camps. It is revealed that after the Heartland War, the teenagers who protested the terrible state of society were labeled "Feral Teens" and the "Terror Generation", and the Unwind Accord was signed into law so the government would have an excuse to get rid of them.
• Teen Pregnancy: Starkey knocks up a few of his followers in UnSouled.
• Tuckerization: Whenever Neal Shusterman needs a name for a character, he'll describe the character on his Facebook page and ask his fans "Who wants the character to be named after them?" He'll either take the entire name of a fan, or combine two people's first and last names.
• 20 Minutes into the Future: Specifically, after "The Heartland War" broke out over the legalization of abortion. Certain current cultural references are referred to as "pre-war", such as Mr. T and iPods. Biomedical technology seems to have advanced the most, including the eponymous Unwinding technique.
• The Un-Favorite: Mothers who stork their babies usually leave them at the home of a family with at least one child, but many storked parents resent being forced to raise an additional child that's not theirs and favor their biological child(ren) over their stork.
• Wanted a Son Instead: Mai is a Chinese girl whose parents kept having daughters until they finally got the son they wanted. She was the fourth, and her parents decided to unwind her.
• We Will Use WikiWords in the Future: State group homes are called StaHo.
• Wham Line: "Dunfee? Your last name is Dunfee?"
• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": The state home's lawyer admonishes Risa for being "inflammatory" when she refers to being unwound as "dying." He prefers to describe it as being "alive, just in a divided state."
• Worthy Opponent: Divan says that he respect Connor quite a bit and would be tempted to let him go...if not for the money he stands to make.
• Wouldn't Harm the Disabled: Those with disabilities are legally protected from unwinding, and even parts pirates who unwind people illegally won't usually touch them. Risa uses this to her advantage after she becomes paralyzed from the Clapper Incident at the Happy Jack Harvest Camp, knowing that rejecting a unwound spine transplant would make her immune to an unwind order.
• You Won't Feel a Thing!: There's a sequence where a Walking Transplant on the operating table is notified that he may feel something in his feet, but not to worry. Then, a little later, he's told that he may feel something in his legs. This proceeds far longer than you might expect.