Character Review: Lev Calder from the unwind Dystology by Neil Shusterman

Book/Series: Unwind Dystology by Neil Shusterman

Character Rating: * * * * *

Spoilers: Yes

Key Words:

• UnWinding: Unwinding is the process as to where they take all of the body parts of a person and the put them to use by grafting them to other people. The person is alive through the whole thing, and is revealed to never have died in the end, through another character.

• Stork: UnWinding came to be because of a war on whether or not abortion should be legal. when they came to a decision they said that when a child turns thirteen, the parent have the opportunity to send their child to be unwound, and when the child is born, the parent can put the baby on a doorstep. If they are caught, then they have to keep the child, ut if they are not, then the family whose doorstep it was on as to keep the child. This child is called a stork

• Ward: Wards are the orhanges

• Tithe: In this world, a tithe is no longer money, but a child of the family once they turn Thirteen. They are sent to be Unwound, but instead of being treated as if they were horrible people who deserved this, they are treated like royalty. (These people who said this was a better way to tithe have never read a bible, because any type of sacrifice displeased God :/ )

• Clapper: Someone who has laced their blood with explosives to when they clap, the explode. these people cause a lot of damage.

Backstory (No Spoils):

Lev was going to be his family's tithe. He grew up being told that this was his amazing destiny, and that he was the pride of his family. The only person who thought he wasn’t, was his older brother, who thought he shouldn’t be tithed at all.When he was on his way to his tithing, he was “Kidnapped” by Connor (the other of the three main characters) being used as a meat shield. he then is running from his unwinding with Connor, and Risa, the third main character.

Why is he my favorite?(No Spoils):

I love Lev (Levi is his full name, though he is just called Lev most of the time) because his story is such a roller coaster. He has a small, slow beginning where you just want to slap some sense into the kid that you can tell you are going to love, then, at such a young age, he is corrupted, thrown into a world where he knows so little, and he just wants to hurt those who are hurting others. Then, he redeems himself, and cleans up his act. I love how Lev just accepts everything thrown at him, and you can really see him grow in just a year, less even because he grows so much in just the first book. He has so much in his life, and he didn’t choose any of it, but it brought him people he would never give up, and that is why I give him *****

Him from book one to the end of Book two (Spoils):

When you first meet Lev, he is 100% content with being unwound. He does not like his brother, at all, for speaking against being tithed and unwinding in genera. When he is being taken to the harvest camp, where he would be until he would be unwound, when Connor, who is being sent to be unwound by his parents, cause a commotion on the highway while he tries to get away from being unwound himself. he is near Lev’s car when he decides he needs a meat shield. They weren’t going to shoot Lev, he thought. Soon, Lev in tranqued, and Risa joins them from the bus that crashed, that was also heading to an harvest came from her ward home.

After running with Connor and risa for a while, he finally breaks away from them. They were pulled into a school, because the only way to escape was to get on a school bus. When they get to the school, Lev goes to the school office and tells them about Connor and Risa (don’t worry, they make it out ok.)

While at the school, Lev calls is pastor, who then tells him to run, and not get tithed. Lev, confused and worried, does just that. When we meet him again, he is with a kid who we later found out when he was younger, had an injury, and was then given a brain piece. That brain piece shows that when you get unwound, you really don’t die. This part of his brain held the kleptomaniac part of his unwounded person tyler, which caused him to be a clepto himself, or, more correctly, gave him multiple personality disorder.

Once Lev leaves CyFi, he is seen later, at the graveyard, a place full of AWOL/Runaway unwinds. We find out later, that he became a clapper. he goes to a harvest camp with two other clappers. When they are about to blow the place where the unwinds are being done, Lev see’s Connor going in to b unwound, and Risa crying on the roof, as she was playing piano. None of the clappers were planning to clap first, so in the long run, it was going to be fine, that is until one of the other clappers is found and tranqued, causing him to explode, making the other clapper clap, leaving just Lev. Lev, not wanting to hurt either Connor or risa, helps them out of the rubble. Connor is unconscious and risa can't walk.

Since Lev put explosives in his blood, he can no longer be unwound. His parents refuse to take him back, so he is now legally being raised by his Pastor and his brother that didn’t want him to unwound in the first place. He is now known as the clapper who didn’t clap. He had blood transfusions, so he only has about 1% maybe less explosives in his blood, but he still can’t be unwound.

Other clappers are not happy by the fact that he didn’t clap, so they have sent other clappers after him. After someone comes posing as a girl scout comes and tries to blow him up, his pastor dies, and his brother is injured. The law does not want him to be in danger, so when a company says they will keep him. He has to have a chip that says where he is. He arrives to his destination, only to find that the company has lied to the juvenile Authority, and he is now the leader of a band of rogue tithes. Lev does not like this at all. He does not want to be worshiped as someone who is a tithe, but didn’t tithe, he just wants tithing and unwinding to top, without all the fame. A girl comes through and she was 100% content with being tithed. Right before she was tithed, her parents changed their mind, but she went anyway. She was rescued by the people rescuing tithes and taken to this place of solitude. She doesn't like Lev, because she wants to be tithed.

When a storm comes and she tries to run away, Lev catches her. instead of making her come back, he goes with her, because he doesn’t want to be in a place where he is worshiped for being a decent human. After being tortured by the Officer that Connor tranqued, and running all the way to the graveyard, Lev loses the girl (we later find out that since her parents didn’t sign off that she would be tithed, she was no longer going to be tithed, at this point she is okay with that, but she wants Lev back)

Lev then runs from the Graveyard which is being raided by the juvenile Authority, and that ends the second book.

Up next: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson book review

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