2. AUTHOR
• Born Brooklyn, NY
• Nov. 12, 1962
• Avid reader
• Age 16 moved to
Mexico City
• Attended University of
California
3. Author’s other works
• Novels
– Dissidents
– Downsiders
– Full Tilt
– Piggyback ninja
– 11 other novels
4. PLOT
• Three kids
• Going to be “unwound”
• Find each other
• Stick together
• Trying to escape death
5. SETTING
• Set in the future
– After second civil war “the heartland war”
– Updated technology
• Various places
– The forest, protective houses, motels
• Eerie mood
6. “In a perfect world mothers would all want their
babies, and strangers would open up their
homes to the unloved. In a perfect world
everything would be either black or white, right
or wrong, and everyone would know the
difference. But this isn’t a perfect world. The
problem is people who think it is.” (p. 75)
7. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
• Connor
– Starts as an isolationist
– Becomes more and more trusting
• Risa
– Started very self protective and guard up
– Then worked towards helping others
• Lev
– Wanted to be unwound; very brainwashed
– Connor and Risa did not trust him
8. • "Which was worse, Risa often wondered - to
have tens of thousands of babies that no one
wanted, or to silently make them go away
before they were even born?" (p.115)
9. LITERARY QUALITY
• Entertainment
• Similes, metaphors
• Third person narration
• Basic use of words but strong sentences
• Chapters switch between characters
10. • "Sure, I can talk like you but I choose not to.
It's like art, you know? See, if you paint wrong
because that's the best you can do, you just a
chump. But you do it because you want to?
Then you're an artist.“
-CyFi (p. 125)
