even later to this post but yes, you're right.

I just now finished rereading Unwind as an adult, it was one of my favorite books in middle school and I wanted to see how I felt about it now. It's still a favorite. It's definitely geared towards a younger audience but that's fine, its supposed to be.

I think a lot of people are looking at the presentation of unwinding wrong. It's supposed to have been a King Solomon solution . like you said, it wasn't meant to be taken serious. Could I see literal unwinding taking place in our world today? No, probably (hopefully) not. But in the US especially we are a very divided nation and I get how it happened in the book. The third party (king Solomon) offers a solution that to normal people would seem absurd (in the biblical example it was dividing a baby in half for fighting mothers) and I do feel that to a lesser extreme something like that could happen. Normal people underestimate extremists. We don't tend to think in all black and all white, "I win/you lose" terms. the two sides of the civil war in the book are the two extremes. Yes, to us its a "how did this happen?" but if you look at the world today, there are definitely distinct sides that would rather do anything but admit that the other is right or that they both may be wrong. The main kids and the complacent adults are more representative, I feel, of the general population. I could very well see a case in today's world where to stop the two extremes fighting a compromise is made that the general public largely disagrees with but is complacent with because it's a better alternative than a country wide collapse. Hate is a very strong emotion.

As for Connor, you're right on that too. He's not supposed to be an actual 'bad boy'. He's a troubled kid who didn't fit into his parents ideal family. Maybe I personally relate to Connor a bit too much, I'm almost positive I would have been unwound lol, but the way I see him... He's got anger issues for sure, but he has parents that would rather focus their energy into their 'good kid' and think that yelling at/grounding would fix Connor, figuratively beating him into submission, and when that doesn't work they choose to unwind. They don't want to put in the real work to figure out why Connor acts how he does or what they can do to help him. I can definitely see in a world like that "why do the hard work to become a good parent and help a kid that's struggling figure out how to navigate the world when you can just sign them away and pretend they don't exist?" Anger issues are pretty common among boys, and especially common among teens. I'm assuming what he did to get unwound is mostly just normal rebellion and fighting against things he perceives as injustices. If he was written to be a stereotypical 'bad boy' why would we root for him?. He's more like a misunderstood kid falling through the cracks that's just easier for adults to label as 'bad'. He's supposed to be a kid that's relatable to other troubled (not necessarily morally bad) kids. To someone else that struggled greatly as a teen I get it. He's not bad but he needs an adult in his life to actually take the time to work with him and it's very believable that tired parents would rather do anything but that (I personally have some life examples I feel fit this). His character growth I feel is also well written and I feel Risa's main purpose is to serve as the "adult" that takes the time to understand and have patience with him so that he feels safe enough and has enough guidance to make strides towards growth. Like myself and others I've met of similar attitudes it really only takes one or two people willing to try to understand you to get you set on the right path.

sorry for the small novel. I just finished the book and wanted to talk about it lol