UnDivided by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, now that the series is done, I have to re-order my expectations.

Did I expect a bigger, more creative, and crazy end? Possibly. Did I expect a revolution? Yes.

Was I satisfied with the whole perception of reality resolution and the legal niceties and sacrifices? Yes.

So what's my problem? The YA conforms to all the general YA standards. The kids are given horrible situations but not TOO horrible situations. It's mostly dealing with their own expectations and plodding their way toward changing everyone ELSE's expectations. It didn't become a horror masterpiece with tons of shambling Cthulhu monstrosities of added limbs with full personalities active in every limb. We didn't have a full society of rejects or all the old unwound kids rebelling WITHIN all the bodies they were transplanted to. Alas. That would have been brilliant.

Instead, we have legal bills, special interests, public perception, and protests.


Not that I have anything against protests. Far from it.

I mean, the whole idea that any society could be set up to drive another segment of its population crazy is not very crazy at all. I mean, with all the destruction of human rights and dignity going on, we really SHOULDN'T be surprised that the disenfranchised are so upset.

Of course, to blame that same population for being angry after having been beaten down for so long and initiate draconian measures against them is pretty much a Fascist Playbook kind of thing.


Unfortunately, when I look at society now and compare it with the mildness of these books, I think this is a case of reality being stranger than fiction. Or at least wilder.

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