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Throwdown Thursday is a new meme started by Kate at The Neverending Shelf. This is a weekly thing where we tackle books with similar characters, covers, themes, etc. to determine which one rocks more. And it is up to YOU to determine the winner!
Last week, my throwdown was between Cyn Balog’s Fairy Tale and Aprilynne Pike’s Wings. And the winner was…
Actually, it was a tie. It seems you guys think this blog is big enough for the both of ’em, and I would have to agree.
My throwdown this week is between two YA books in the speculative fiction genre where, whatever else the protagonists do, there's a pretty good chance they're going under the knife. In the first, all teenagers undergo drastic surgery at sixteen - new noses, new teeth, new bones… whether they want them or not. In the second, any teenager who isn’t wanted can be ‘unwound’ for their body parts: dissected while they’re still alive… until they’re not.
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld?
Or Unwind by Neal Shusterman?
Which one gets your vote?
10 comments:
Wow.. you had to pick a hard one... grr. These are two of my all time favorite books. Since I have to pick one, I will vote for Unwind. The only reason is because it left me so emotionally drained after reading it. And that can be a good thing.
I read both these recently and put up a review of Uglies last night. I'm afraid I was underwhelmed by both of them, but I connected more to Shay and Tally in Uglies than the characters in Unwind. There was something kinda off about Unwind, really. I haven't been able to review it yet because I can't put my finger on it. I think, for me, that Shusterman didn't make unwinding believable. Retroactively aborting teenagers is NOT the middle ground between pro-choice and pro-life, and instead of making the story realistic he went for shock value, and appealed to his target audience's sense of outrage by making them the vilified individuals in his book. Which is a cheap shot in my opinion.
There, that's my point. Maybe I can write a review now.
Both books are also similar in that their extremely cinematic, which annoys me a little as well. Books are books, and if you want to write a movie, write a damn screenplay. I feel cheated as a reader when it feels like someone's only writing a book because there's a chance if it becomes popular that it will get on the big screen.
Phew. That was a rant.
Tough choice! However, my vote would have to go to Unwind.
The new covers for Uglies and Unwind are creepy, by the way.
Hey, I just noticed it but that new Uglies cover is totally going for the Unwind look! Doesn't really fit though...
Umm... I haven't read Unwind yet but I love the Uglies series. So my vote goes to Scott Westerfeld!
Ha! I love a rant. I haven't previously picked a 'team' out of my picks on a Throwdown Thursday, but I do have to say I found Unwind hard to read. I felt I was told instead of shown a lot of the time, and the premise - while interesting to me - was odd. However, I found it worth reading overall because of a few elements that I did really like. The unwinding scene was one of those. It was strange to read, but I was really glad that we got to read that instead of the boy just being 'taken away'.
Unwind for me, as I haven't read Uglies yet!
This is a hard one, Lauren! Can I vote for them both? :)
That's a REALLY REALLY hard one! i love both these books but I didn't read then with such odd covers! Those are...different. I don't really like them. I think I have to go with uglies as much I love Unwind.
I think definitely Uglies. I liked both novels, but the world Westerfeld created and continued throughout the series was more thought-out in my opinion.
I absolutely love the covers for these two books though! They're amazing.
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