The Unwanteds (Unwanteds, The)

At first, it seems like this is just another allegory about a society that gets rid of the weak and infirm. (Like The Giver, The Lottery, etc.). In Quill, the elderly are removed from society and at a certain age (between 10-16), kids are divided into Wanteds, Necessaries, and Unwanteds. Wanteds are strong and intelligent and invested in. They go to Wanted University to learn military skills. Necessaries are kept around for roles that are necessary (like burials) but not roles Wanteds play. Unwanteds are dumped into a lake of boiling oil.Except they aren’t. The Quillians think they are, and then they are actually dumped into a magical world that values art and creativity. It’s like Hogwarts for magical artists, and it’s all concealed from Quill. Students “major” in magical art, magical theater, or magical drawing. This is all very fun, and those majors actually translate to fighting skills should this magical world ever be attacked by Quill. For instance, you can put an enemy to sleep with a boring soliloquy. You can paint a door to another place, and step through it. You can splatter paint fight.At the end of Book one, Quill and Artime (the magical world) do come to a head. The military leader and high priest of Quill - Justine - discovers that her brother Marcus had been managing this magical world rather than disposing of Unwanteds and attacks. Predictably, Artime prevails.There are a few things I liked about this book as a parent:1- It’s interesting and my 9-year-old loved it. I got books 2-7 from the library and he read them all!2- The central conflict is good and evil, but it’s a little more interesting. It’s creativity vs. brute strength.3- The central Unwanted character -Alex- works to try to reconcile with this twin brother Aaron, who is a Wanted. Airtime is not looking for a fight, but for healing.4- While there is war, this is not gruesome. Most of Artime fighting incapacitates Quillians but doesn’t kill. They make a point of being able to win rather than trying to do maximum harm.5- Marcus, the grown up in Artime, is a true hero. He has saved all of these kids, and worked to build a place with values he believes in - even when it comes at a cost.6- The relationships between the kids in Artime seem real, and they value loyalty, forgiveness, and trust. For the most part, they are positive relationships. And when a kid reads a seven book series, I think they learn from the relationships in the book!I recommend this for 8-12 year olds!

Enjoyed reading this book. Very creative story line with action, emotional growth and courage displayed by many characters.Fun little world this author created and seems to be unlimited on where she can take this story.I’m over 30 and found this enjoyable and think my teenage self would enjoy this just as much. My 12 year old nephew started reading this over our reunion that he forgot his book. He wanted to keep reading this when he left so I think many ages will enjoy.The cover says “Hunger Games meets Harry Potter” I felt more like “Harry Potter meets The Giver”.

great

This cleverly written book was a fast and interesting read. All right, it's not on par with some of it's contemporaries, but it IS written for a younger audience, so I was willing to overlook a few of it's weaknesses. In my opinion the strengths made up for them. Plus it's the first in the series, so I'm hoping some of the holes will be filled in later...Likes: Well, I was drawn right in by a society that brands each member of it as either Wanted, Necessary, or Unwanted. The main character Alex is Unwanted and is being taken from his family and transported to his supposed death. It reminded me of The Giver, only even more cruel and unimaginable. It turns out the Unwanteds are actually taken to a wonderful fantasy land where they are free to indulge in all the behaviors that got them to be unwanted in the first place: creativity and emotions and thinking and being normal. I wish some of the emotional trauma of what it would have been like to be forced to live without love and compassion and friendship would have been better explored, but for the most part the kids seem pretty normal considering their experience. They are taught creative things like art and music and story telling, and taught how to use magic. The magic in this world can weaponize art and words if necessary. There are also numerous awesome magical creatures. There was an interesting plot and the pacing was good... I definitely wanted to know what would happen next. Character wise, I really liked Mr. Today although I didn't always understand all his motivations on not acting to stop the bad guys sooner.Dislikes: ******Some possible minor SPOILERS below!!!Some of the horribleness of the bad guys was just completely unbelievable to me. I can't believe that no one rebelled against never thinking, feeling, having emotion, or even dreams. It seems like there would be some sort of underground where parents cared for their children or something. That's a pretty hard emotion to just ignore or stamp out. Especially parents killing their children, that was awful and hard to believe. But ok, it's fine, it's a dystopian society. It was just weird that even the victims of that society did little if anything to protest the horror of it, even when they had nothing to lose. Also, I didn't understand why the leaders of Quill would care if the Unwanteds were killed or left to live in peace. Either way they were out of their society, so why did they want to kill everyone? And why did Justine stop using her magic? And how come the Unwanteds have magic but no one in Quill does? Or did they all have magic and no one told them? And what made Justine so evil, controlling, and vile? Her character has no depth, and neither does Aaron. I can't figure out why Aaron doesn't capitulate and join his brother at the end, after Justine threatens to kill him and after Alex sacrificed everything to save him even knowing he was a tattle-tale and a huge jerk. By his own admission he has nothing left in Quill but instead of changing he's just as malevolent as ever with no apparent motivation. And why was Mr. Today content to allow all the other people in Quill live such a horrible life?Anyway, good book I'll be willing to read the next one.