Top Ten Tuesday #60

Hey everyone! It’s hard to believe that this is my 60th TTT post! It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that I was doing my first TTT post, but that was over a year ago now. This week’s prompt was Ten Reasons Why I Love X, which could be absolutely anything. On the one hand this is cool, because I can pick absolutely anything to fill the gap. But on the other hand, there are so many topics to pick from and I don’t want to do something that everyone else is going to do! I figured I could do reasons why I love fantasy or why I love Percy Jackson or Harry Potter or Skulduggery Pleasant or The Hunger Games but I gush about them all the time. So instead, I’ve decided to talk about the ten reasons I love the Unwind Dystology, which yes I know I also talk about a lot, but it’s a series I love and not many people talk about it, so I wanted to share a bit of the love today!

1. The concept

The concept of a futuristic society where unwanted children are unwound as a result of a compromise between pro-life and pro-choicers after a big war over abortion, is very interesting and incredibly unique, I can honestly say I’ve never read anything else like it.

2. The humour

It’s a very dark series, so I like that it also has a healthy dollop of humour, but it’s the right kind of humour, sarcasm, wit, dark humour, humour that fits well with the series, rather than out of place goofy humour.

3. The use of real media articles related to the book

I love that he uses articles from the real media about organ transplants and the real life airplane graveyard etc, it makes the books seem so much real and really adds another dimension to the series. I actually loved the role in general that media played in this book, not just the real media articles, but the advertisements of Proactive Citizenry and Hayden’s radio broadcasts, they were tied in really well.

4. The characters

I love all of the main characters in this book and they go through such great development through the books. The Connor from the first book is unrecognizable from the Connor in the last book, same with Lev and even Risa goes through character development, though maybe not as noticeable as Connor and Lev. They are all brilliant characters though and I loved every single one of them. The side characters are equally brilliant as the main characters and just as well developed, they could all have their own individual stories that I would be interested in reading! They’re complex and interesting and flawed and realistic and I love it!

5. Multiple character narration

The books are narrated in third person present tense and from the POVs of multiple characters which gives the story a much wider scope than it would otherwise have and you get to view the world from multiple different angles and get to see the main characters through different eyes which I really liked, plus it works really well for the story because the characters aren’t always in the same place at the same time, so you get to see what all of the characters are up to. Plus it helps you understand the characters so much more than if you just had one or two main narrators.

6. The romance

Connor and Risa’s romance is really well done, it’s a slow burn romance, they don’t meet and instantly fall in love, their romance is developed through the course of the four books and it’s done in a really subtle way, that doesn’t overshadow the main plot of the book. There’s a bit of a love triangle in there when Cam is introduced, which I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled about, but it’s resolved well and I liked the way that their story was ended.

7. It explores really important topics

These books explore such important and deep topics, such as life, death, what it means to be a person (through the character of Cam), organ transplants, organ trafficking, abortion, religion, free will etc. Any adult who thinks that YA books are just for teenager should read this series, because there is such thoughtful treatment of deep issues that they would definitely change their minds!

8. The writing

Bar the occasional spelling and grammar mistakes (which are very occasional and really an editing problem rather than a writing problem), the writing in these books is very powerful and it really makes you feel and there are certain scenes (not mentioning anything in particular for spoilery reasons) that stick with you long after you read.

9. It makes you think

I love books that make me think and these books really did make me think. I suppose this really kind of goes with #7, but I wanted to include it as a separate point, because I think it’s really important. These books made me think about issues that sure I had considered before, but never really thought deeply about and I loved that. I also love that these books and the ideas in them have stayed with me long after I’ve read it.

10. It’s not biased towards one side or the other of the abortion debate

The debate which is central to this series, the issue of pro-life, pro-choice is an important one and one that a lot of people have a lot of opinions on. What I loved most about this series is that Neal Shusterman doesn’t come down hard on one side or the other of the debate, he lets his readers decide and it’s one of the many reasons that I think this series works so well.

I’m going to keep it to ten this week, though I could definitely come up with more reasons why I love this incredible series (and why you should all go out and read it ASAP) but I’ll stop myself before I go too crazy! What was your choice to fill in the gap left by X today? Any fellow Unwind Dystology lovers out there? Let me know in the comments! Next week’s topic is Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half of The Year, but that’s next week, in the meantime, I will have a new Wishlist Wednesday post for you guys tomorrow.