UnBound

UnBound
Author:	Neal Shusterman
Publication Date:	December 15, 2015
Published By:	Simon & Schuster
Publication Order
Preceded by UnDivided	Followed by N/A

UnBound is a collection of short stories and novellas in the Unwind Dystology. Some stories are prequels, some take place in the midst of the series' time span, and some take place after the end of UnDivided. It was released on December 15, 2015. It also included the novella UnStrung.

Neal co-wrote some stories with other writers, including Michelle Knowlden, Terry Black, and his sons Jarrod and Brendan.

Synopsis

Find out what happens to Connor, Risa, and Lev now that they've finally destroyed the Proactive Citizenry in this collection of short stories set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman.

Connor Lassiter's fight to bring down Proactive Citizenry and find a suitable alternative to unwinding concluded in UnDivided. Now Connor, Risa, and Lev are free to live in a peaceful future—or are they? Neal Shusterman brings back his beloved Unwind characters for his fans to see what's left for those who were destined to be unwound.

Stories

UnSchooled

This is a story giving insight into J.T. Nelson's backstory, telling his life as a child in the Heartland War.

As a child, Nelson envied the feral children and tried to impress Alph, the leader of one of the nearby gangs who had taken over an old theater. Alph told him off, saying he should be grateful for what he has, and beat him as a warning to never come back.

Meanwhile, Nelson's father was suffering from heart problems, but he was behind a whole list of people waiting for a heart transplant before him. Things looked dire for him.

A few years later, after the Unwind Accord was passed, Nelson convinced Alph's (real name Kevin) mother to sign to allow him to be unwound. He told the police of their location, and the police raided the theater of Alph's gang. Alph was captured, and while trying to run away, Nelson took a nearby Juvey-cop's tranq gun and shot him down.

Because of Nelson's efforts, his father was moved all the way to the top of the list for heart transplants and was saved.

Unfinished Symphony

This story captures the events leading up to Risa Ward's unwinding sentence at Ohio State Home 23. The story centers around Brooklyn Ward, a girl who, unlike Risa who has taken the arts path, is training to become a military boeuf.

It is revealed that Brooklyn considers Risa to be her long standing nemesis, because of a time when they were younger, when Brooklyn accused Risa of stealing her shirt and Risa spat in Brooklyn's face in response. It is also clear that Brooklyn has always been jealous of Risa and her musical talents. Even so, after Risa makes efforts to be exceedingly nice to Brooklyn, Brooklyn realizes that it may be time to move on from their previous spat.

When Brooklyn's deaf best friend, Thor, reveals that all of the wards will be tested, and the 21 wards who score the lowest will be unwound due to budget cuts, Brooklyn knows she must ace her tests- both physical and mental, and be on her best behavior; something which isn't her strong suit.

Thor hacks into the system to see Brooklyn's results. Due to a sabotaged weapon and a uncalled for fight, Brooklyn finds out she was one person away from being safe, and that she will be unwound. Thor says he can save her by switching her name with Logan's, Brooklyn's dim-wittted squad mate, or Risa's, who bombed her piano recital. At first, Brooklyn wants to switch her name with Logan's, but after her previous spat with Risa is brought up later that day, she makes the decision to tell Thor to switch her name with Risa's.

UnDevoured

This story focuses on Roland's back story. It consists of two separate stories interwoven.

The first consists of memories from Roland's childhood. When he was eight, his abusive stepfather coerced him into jumping off a pier, with the promise that if Roland did it, he would follow. When Roland's nerves got the best of him, his stepfather picked him up and threw him off the pier. When Roland emerged and looked up to wait for his stepfather to join him, he saw his stepfather was too much of a coward and a liar to join him.

To prove he was nothing like his stepfather, he returned to the pier when he was eleven, this time with his sister. He tried to force her to jump off the pier, making the same promise of joining her that his stepfather did. He eventually threw her off the pier, but unlike his stepfather, mustered up the courage to jump in after her.

Later, when he was thirteen, he was swimming in the water and his sister watched from the pier, when suddenly he was attacked by a shark. He got pulled further and further from the pier, until eventually nobody could hear his cries for help. After many futile attempts at trying to escape the shark's attention, Roland finally managed to kill the shark.

The second story centers around Roland at age seventeen. After losing a wrestling match to Zane, an all-state wrestler, and thus not gaining a spot on the varsity wrestling team, Roland vowed to make Zane pay. To rile Zane up, he kissed Zane's girlfriend. When Zane found out, he punched Roland, and Roland suggested a rematch for the match Roland had lost. Zane accepted, but let his emotions get the best of him, and thus Roland won and took his varsity position.

UnClean

This story takes place after the Heartland War, but before unwinding was deemed illegal. It deals with Heath Calderon's plan to end unwinding.

When Heath was younger, his liver failed and his family sold his brother to black market unwinders in order to buy a new one for Heath. Heath resented him for it and ran away, vowing to come up with a way to end the evils that took his brother.

Teenagers with fatal diseases, such as cancer, can not be unwound as whoever received their parts would be subjected to the disease as well. Heath finds a way to hide these diseases and plans to send these teenagers back to be unwound as tithes. He predicts this will bring enough chaos that unwinding will be ended once and for all.

Anissa Pruitt is an AWOL who helped Heath decide where he could start his plan, not knowing his evil intentions. Anissa had told Heath to conduct his research in an old fire station in an abandoned town, abandoned because of the raging fire that had burned underneath it in the town mines for long enough for it to become a safety hazard. She chose this place because her dad was a firefighter, before he died because he was unwilling to amputate one of his limbs to survive, knowing that to replace it he would have to use an unwind part.

Heath tells Anissa of his plans and she feels betrayed, as she thought Heath was a good person. Heath locks her up and sets out to send his first batch of disease ridden unwinds to harvest camps. Moments after he sends them off, a clapper arrives and detonates the fire station.

The explosion has unforeseen consequences; it opens up the mines and burns everything in sight. The van with Heath's unwinds crashes, and one of them, Jobe, gets out, vowing to do something useful with his few minutes of life he has left. He hears cries for help, and goes to check out what the problem is. He soon finds Anissa is still trapped in her cell, and uses his last dying breaths to save her.

Now safe, Anissa frantically puts on a fire proof suit, just in time before the ground collapses and she finds herself in the burning mine, and she is not alone. Someone is chasing her.

After a painful journey through the mines, barely escaping her follower, she eventually makes it to safety. Right behind her, she sees her chaser tumble out of the mines, critically injured. She has a choice: she can leave safely and leave him to die, or she can risk her life and call for help. She thinks of what her father would do and realizes the choice is obvious.

UnStrung

A short while after leaving Cy-Fi, Lev is still haunted by their time together, finally concluding that he does not want to be unwound. He then climbs up a reservation wall in Colorado and soon awakes inside a Hi-Rez, a rich ChanceFolk (Native American) reservation, that provides sanctuary for AWOL children, as the ChanceFolk tribes never signed the Unwind Accord. There, he is taken in and sponsored by the Tashi'ne family, a very highly regarded family in the reservation.

Lev meets Wil Tashi'ne, a boy who is slightly older than him, who is a brilliant guitar player and is an exceptional music therapist. It is Wil's playing that makes Lev feel like he has finally gotten a home. Even though Wil is so good, Lev isn't allowed to clap for him because Wil isn't allowed to accept applause. Wil shares with him that he secretly dreams of getting applause and being able to accept it wth a clear conscience one day.

Wil refuses to play for his dying grandfather to ease his death, claiming using his gifts in this situation isn't right. But Wil eventually agrees to play for his grandfather when he realizes his grandfather really has no hope left to survive. His grandfather's dying request is that Wil takes Lev on a vision quest, a journey young members of the tribe undergo to find their "spirit animal" or their guide.

On Lev's vision quest, things take a turn for the worse. Their group gets ambushed by parts pirates, who plan to illegally unwind them and sell them for a profit. Wil thinks fast and offers himself up in exchange for everyone else being able to go free. At first, the parts pirates are unsure, so Wil starts playing the guitar, and the parts pirates are impressed. Lev realizes what is going on and realizes this is Wil's last change to recieve applause and claps for him. Soon, others in the group join in. The parts pirates agree to Wil's deal and take him, leaving everyone else alone.

Everyone blames Wil's unwinding on Lev, since he was the outsider, and the Tribal Council forces him to leave the reservation. Even so, Lev has found a new purpose. He realizes the power of applause and decides he wants to use the force of clapping to change the world.

UnConfirmed

This story takes place after the end of UnDivided.

The newly rich, Grace Skinner invites Hayden Upchuch over to her mansion to ask him for help finding her brother. They end up talking about Risa and Connor.

They talk about how during Risa and Connor's first public appearance, there was a shooting, and Risa and Connor were ushered off into hiding. No one had heard from them since.

Grace theorizes they are on some kind kind of boat sailing across the Mediterranean, maybe trying to save other places from unwinding. She theorizes Connor offered his family a choice- to go home and pretend they never reunited or to join him in hiding. Grace says they probably chose to join him, because they sold their house recently and hadn't been heard from since. Grace guesses Risa's family is with them too. She says that proof for her theory will be if there is a Lucas who was just enrolled in a Mediterranean private school.

After agreeing to help her find her brother, Hayden searches for a Lucas in a Mediterranean private school. He finds a Lucas Saltries, and realizes Saltries is an acronym for Lassiter. Thus, it can be assumed that Grace's theory was correct.

Characters

Unknown Holly Zane Valery Kip Kelsi Malavika Armando Natalie Keaton Pettigrew Pruitt Marin Bivens Unknown J.T. Nelson Kevin "Alph Unfinished Symphony Abigail Naomi Logan Kip UnClean Jobe Andrew Marin Heath Calderon Sebastian Anissa Pruitt Brent Lynch

Unnatural Selection Ryan Colton Ellis Karissa Valerie Griffin Kevin Mullen Rewinds Sean Armando Ethan Seth Joel Deavon Ahmed Keaton Miguel Shelton Dirk Zachary Durbin Dr. Pettigrew Untithed Jenson Todd Unknown Quantity Malik TBA