The Unwanteds

The Unwanteds Quests

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I was not crying when something crazy ridiculous happened, but I was cheering for the characters. I cared about them, and they cared about me. There were so many clever and original aspects of Unwanteds that it would be a sin to give the book less than 4 stars. However, there is enough stuff to set it right at 4 stars. This is not a perfect book, but I guarantee that something somewhere in this book will click your interest, whether it be giant cheetah statues, ridiculing blackboards, or painting doorways in order to get to new places.

Not a bright, life-changing, heart-stopping song, but one worth hearing out and trying for yourself. I most certainly recommend this book because it brings back my imagination. It has reawakened my need to write. It can collect dust on your shelf for all I care, but that cover is one I can appreciate with the utmost respect. For all you writers out there: View all 14 comments. Without knowledge that life can be different, there can be no desire to change it. For twin brothers Alex and Aaron, this day is especially daunting as they are both now thirteen and reluctant to separate.

Or at least Alex is and would like to believe his brother reciprocates this sentiment. On the day of the Purge Alex is unsurprisingly categorized as Unwanted a ". On the day of the Purge Alex is unsurprisingly categorized as Unwanted and his brother Aaron is chosen as a Wanted. Feeling scared and helpless, Alex goes off to meet his death along with his fellow Unwanteds. But when he arrives at the Death Farmer's doorstep, he is surprised to find a land where magic and creativity thrive. Animated origami dragons; giant talking tortoises; and a montrous, winged cheetah named Simber are just a few of the many astonishing creatures that can be found in Artime.

Still, when the Unwanteds arrive in Artime they expect to be executed momentarily. But instead all of the children are quickly assured by Mr. Today that this shall not be their fate. Known to the people of Quill as the "Death Farmer," Mr. Today has spent many years perfecting Artime and making it a safe haven for the Unwanteds. As you can imagine, this revelation is as surprising as it is a saving grace for the kids.

But if any members of the Quilitary found out of their rebellion, it would mean a sure death for all involved. This, of course, means that neither Alex nor any of the other Unwanteds are allowed to contact anyone — friends, relatives, authorities — in Quill. Although sad at the prospect of never seeing his brother again, with his friends supporting him, Alex moves into Artime and begins a whole new life. This is not to say that I believe McMann is attempting to subtly copy the two bestselling series as a means to gain more attention for her fledgling series. No, I believe that she has — whether knowingly or not, I won't speculate — taken some of the very best aspects of each series and used them as the underpinning for a new middle-grade dystopian fantasy series that will surely gain many fans.

The Unwanteds turned out to be a rather pleasant surprise for me. Despite my having enjoyed some of McMann's earlier works, I somehow felt that her voyage into the dystopian genre wouldn't turn out to my liking, thus making my expectations low going in. Luckily for me, I was wrong. Albeit lacking a little in the personality department, the characters are fresh and full of potential. I can see them growing and coming into themselves as the series progresses.

Having her father, Quill's mayor, pull strings to get her into the Purge at the premature age of twelve in order to be rid of her view spoiler [ or so she believes hide spoiler ] has left her with only feelings of resentment and hatred for her father. But when she begins learning the art of magic — and the magic of art — she soon excels and finds new friends and a sense of belonging in Artime. With the head of an alligator and the appendages of an octopus, Alex's art teacher, Ms.

Octavia, is rather startling at first. But soon she teaches him all the tricks of the artist's trade. In Artime's school, Alex learns everything from how to use paper clips as a potentially lethal weapon to turning flowers into music boxes. I'll freely admit that, had The Unwanteds been more dystopian than fantasy, I'd probably not have enjoyed it nearly as much. The majority of the story is set in the beautiful and magical world of Artime, and so it doesn't have the bleak and depressing atmosphere of some dystopias.

It is for these reasons that I'll be eagerly awaiting the release of its sequel due out next September, Island of Silence. If you're interested in The Unwanteds , may I suggest the audio verison? I believe Simon Jones 's narrative adds an extra-special something to the story. View all 4 comments. Mar 03, Bern rated it did not like it Shelves: The cover was beautiful, the synopsis was interesting and there were even critics raving on how the book was like Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games.

I figured that with all those credentials, The Unwanteds ought to be a pretty awesome read, but it seems I was horribly, dreadfully wrong. Narration The omniscient and omnipresent third person narration is awful.

That kind of narration has to be done properly if it's not to fall in one or more of the various writing potholes that come with it, and Lisa McMann didn't achieve that. Instead, McMann forsakes dialogue and uses the narrator to tell you how all of the characters feel, what they're thinking and what their plans for the future are.

This generates a complete lack of suspense and also makes the characters uninteresting, since you get to know them through information that is blatantly hurled at you by the narrator. Characters The characters in The Unwanteds are a complete mess. They're rough carbon copies of characters in other series, except the ones in this book are all lame, stupid, or uninteresting. They're all extremely childish and dumb, and before someone argues that it's a children's book, go read a Series of Unfortunate Events, or Harry Potter, or The Golden Compass.

Those are children's books, and people in them aren't so idiotic they're borderline retarded. A special shout out for the main character, Alex, for being a fourteen year old in love with a twelve year old girl whose primary reaction to everything is being disgusted, and who magically hazed him until he would pay attention to her not that she admits to this, this random tidbit of information is courtesy of the aforementioned wonderful narration.

Alex gets MORE cupcake points for finding out that his twin, Aaron, is a treacherous weasel, and still wanting to save him even after he called Alex a filthy and stupid unwanted who should be dead. What a wonderful character, indeed. On Writing For Children The Unwanteds is, painfully, the kind of middle grade book that treats the reader as if he or she were retarded. There are no plot twists that can't be seen kilometres away and that aren't manhandled into the story so they can hit you right in the face.

If character's intentions aren't clear enough, they either explain themselves verbally, or have the narrator give their reasons - or both. Predicate nominatives are barely used, which results in the kind of sentence that goes like: I actually ended up skimming the latter half of the book I don't know how other people skim, but I just read dialogue and enough description to understand what's going on, barely , and I loathe skimming because it's a drastic last resort, but it was either that or DNF this book, and that beautiful cover deserved better.

Main point is, The Unwanteds is a terrible book that wastes some actually good ideas and then always acts on the assumption that its reader is dumb as a box of rocks. It's neither charming and magical like Harry Potter nor interesting as The Hunger Games, and I wouldn't recommend it for children,teenagers or adults. I'll think twice in the future before buying another Lisa McMann book. View all 20 comments. Picked this up for my tween grad school project because I am asked for this series all the time at my job at the library.

But this turned out like The Lightning Thief for me and meh.

This is just one of those books that ain't for me. In the land of Quill there is a ceremony when its children turn thirteen; they are placed as Wanted, Necessary and Unwanted. The Wanteds go on to higher level, impo Picked this up for my tween grad school project because I am asked for this series all the time at my job at the library. The Wanteds go on to higher level, important positions.

The Necessaries become the laborers.

The Unwanteds, Book 1

And the Unwanteds are sent to be terminated. Alex and Aaron are twins, and on the day they are sorted, Aaron is chosen as a Wanted and Alex an Unwanted. Alex leaves his twin behind and accepts his fate, that is until he and the other Unwanteds discover that they are not to be terminated, but to live and thrive in a magical new land with all of the other Unwanteds.

Here they are expected to be creative, pursue their art and learn battle training. But as time goes by, the Unwanteds discover their safe haven is under threat, and they have to fight to save it. This book started off extremely morbid and did not strike me as tween at first. Thirteen year olds being sent off to die because they built a stick house or sang a tune? It felt pretty extreme. Once the plot developed into Artime, the magical land, it made sense in a way. There had to be a force brought in for all of the creative children to improve.

Quill itself reminded me of a mix of Pleasantville combined with the world in The Giver, with a dictator like President Snow from the Hunger Games series. I can see how tweens would love this book because the attributes that make them unique are celebrated in this book in the world of Artime, where they can sing and dance and act all day long with the added element of magic being involved. The land of Quill to me somewhat represented the oppression of the strict classroom where one is punished for being created.

Artime is a dream world that every tween would daydream about if it really existed. The twin bond was an interesting addition making the story a bit more unique than the typical fantasy jaunt. Even though Alex and Aaron are obviously very different from each other, they still love each other and feel that special bond that twins seem to have, and it made for a good conflict in the plot. Lisa McMann is a great writer, and she seems to have a knack for sucking tweens into her books. View all 6 comments. Sep 05, hayden rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Lovers of fantasy, but also lovers of McMann's other novels.

May I just say how clever the premise for this book is? Everyone with a single ounce of creativity is Unwanted and "executed," and everyone who's athletic or intelligent stay and are deemed Wanted? That is single-handedly the most clever premise I've read in a long time. That's true fantasy, a whole world spawned from just a single question.

McMann doesn't fall flat of what I expected from this wonderful idea. In fact, I didn't even know what this was going to be about until I read the Introduct May I just say how clever the premise for this book is? In fact, I didn't even know what this was going to be about until I read the Introduction.

And, also, may I say how big and how unexpected of a switch-up this is from McMann's normal stuff paranormal romance! I feel like this is a completely different author here, because her paranormal books are written in such short, edgy, gripping sentences and this book is written in vivid, languid, fluid prose that just jumps off the page and into your head. I can't say which I like better, because in her paranormal stuff, you're just constantly flipping pages and you're haunted by the story, but in this middle-grade fantasy novel, you're just completely entranced by the beautiful language and you can't stop reading.

I just made that! On a complete whim. How can you not agree with me? Freakin' polar opposites here, and she can do 'em both. That takes some serious writing mojo. This has to be the most creative book I've ever read. McMann doesn't fall short of my expectations, which I appreciate to the fullest extent. The ending of this book is totally open-ended, so you really have no idea of knowing whether or not this will be a series.

I strongly recommend you pick this up! Sep 12, Julia rated it did not like it Shelves: In fact, the base plot in this book has potential. Unfortunately,the author never ever meets that potential. The writing is bland, the characters are flat. Not to mention that there is a complete and utter lack of world building.

Sorry, but my verdict: Jul 29, TheBookSmugglers rated it liked it. Originally reviewed on The Book Smugglers: As a long-time lover of both dystopias and fantasy, the blend of these two seemingly incongruous components always wins me over. I'm a little chagrined to say, however, that while The Unwanteds is an undeniably fun book f Originally reviewed on The Book Smugglers: I'm a little chagrined to say, however, that while The Unwanteds is an undeniably fun book featuring some wonderful characters and an imaginative magical system, I had huge problems with the central premise of the story and plot aspects.

I liked the book well enough and am certain that both children and older readers will enjoy it, too - but I cannot shake my irritation even horror at the central dichotomy for the book. Maybe I'm taking things too seriously.

But more on that below. I don't think that Thea is taking things too seriously and I totally understand where she is coming from.

Although I think I liked the book a bit more than she did, I do think that there are considerable problems with the very premise of the novel. However, I made a conscious decision half way through to just accept it because I liked the characters and the writing and was able to enjoy the ride because of that. You can call it self-preservation and usually I would drive myself crazy over this.

Quill prevails when the strong survive - so the motto of the isolated nation-state that is Quill reverberates in each of its citizens. From birth, children are indoctrinated to this lifestyle wherein anything artistic and creative is seen as anathema, and only those that follow instructions and excel at the practical, hard sciences and related subjects math, economics, etc are allowed to survive and succeed.

In the year of their thirteenth birthdays, all the children of Quill participate in The Purge and are sorted into three groups - Wanteds who will go on to study at Quill's university and become vital members of government and social planning , Necessaries those who will do the menial labor for the good of the nation , and Unwanteds. The Unwanteds are immediately loaded on a transport and sent to the Great Lake of Boiling Oil to be killed, so they will no longer a blight on Quill's perfect society of intelligence and strength.

Alex has long known that he will be deemed an Unwanted, but he is still shocked and terrified when he hears his name called on the list for execution during the year of his Purge. Meanwhile, his twin brother, Aaron, has surpassed their Necessary parents and has become a full-fledged Wanted.

Alex steels himself for his fate and with the rest of the Unwanteds leaves Quill forever and faces imminent death Except Alex doesn't die. When they reach the Great Lake of Boiling Oil, the devastated and terrifying landscape melts away to reveal a luscious paradise where emotions and artistic abilities are honored, and magic is commonplace. As it turns out, Today is an immensely powerful mage that has been duping High Priest Justine, the iron-willed leader of Quill, for years. Let's start out with the good. I loved the brutality of Quill, how instead of simply imprisoning or segregating Unwanteds they chose to have their children murdered - it's terribly bleak but also incredibly believable in this type of black and white society.

On the other side of the spectrum, I loved the idea of magic derived from art - there are very unique and wonderful spells that these children learn and create together, from origami paper dragons that attack, paintbrushes with invisibility spells, magic three dimensional doors, and rhyming couplets that can kill. The writing and the story itself are executed well enough and the pages will fly by, even if there is an annoying degree of repetition to certain plot elements let's put it this way - every scene in Quill had at least one chant of "Quill prevails when the strong survive!

I have two huge, un-overlookable problems with The Unwanteds that seriously put a damper on my enjoyment of the story. The biggest problem is the central premise of the novel, and Ms. McMann's portrayal of "creativity. ONLY those who are artistic in terms of painting, acting, musical instruments or dancing are considered "creative" and only they are singled out as Unwanteds and only they are the ones that can wield magic.

Let me use a few quotes to illustrate: You know they are not mourning for you. They're doing what they do every day, which is to work to build Quill into a place of extreme power and super intelligence. You, dear children, are what they call creative. The government, and especially High Priest Justine, wants to eliminate creative thinkers like you - they see creativity as a weakness. After all, it could lead to something horrible First for his excellent work in solving the beef problem for the high priest, second for his insight into the matter of the Favored Farm at large, and third for his program, which outlined precisely how to run the farm most efficiently.

It had been his last assignment in math class, and since all of the university students' work was checked by the governors, it did not take long for Governor Strang to notice Aaron's penchant for economics. And economics was something that the High Priest Justine was very fond of.

Especially because it always benefited her. This drives me absolutely insane. Some of humanity's most brilliant and creative minds have been mathematicians, scientists, engineers, and yes, even economists as an economics graduate, I resent these implications so very much. The central premise of the novel precludes the possibility - nay, the reality - that it takes creativity to be in the sciences or related subjects.

Coming Soon from The Unwanteds Quests

You're trying to tell me that Einstein's theorems are the product of a non-creative mind? That brilliant economists like John Nash or Adam Smith, or that Watson, Crick and Franklin in their discovery of the double helix structure of DNA have not an iota of creativity in their being? The dichotomous environment that Ms. On the other side of the spectrum, Quill is a dilapidated, rusty wasteland with brainwashed zombie-like inhabitants, crumbling infrastructure and a shortage of both food and water.

Is this really the type of comparison that we want to see, especially in a time when math and the hard and applied social sciences including the dreaded, "selfish" economics are seeing a decline in enrollment and interest from students at all ages? So many children already think of these subjects as icky, terrible burdens, and books like The Unwanteds sure ain't helping much. By the way, can you imagine the magic that someone could do with math!?

How badass would those magical tools and spells be? McMann's skewed world of The Unwanteds , we shall never know. The other main problem I had with the story was in the bizarre lack of power structure for magic - it becomes clear at the end of the novel that Mr. Today could vanquish the entire Quill army with a single phrase. If that's the case, then why have a "war" at all? Why wouldn't he have stopped Justine years and years ago and liberated the people of Quill, rather than let it fall into ruin and then live in supposed fear? It doesn't make any sort of logical sense.

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Beyond that, I didn't really buy that Quill was so dilapidated after some fifty less? What exactly happened to this society? Was there a devastating war, or something of that nature? There's never really any explanation given, so as things stand, Quill seems to be such a terrible place just because it has to be in order for this to be a real dystopia.

And I'm not buying it. It is the strangest thing. I was not able to finish that book, because I found it really hard to accept the premise that the society in that book chose to eradicate LOVE because it was such a negative emotion. Not only because the premise itself is ridiculous why love and not hate for example? Surely hate is a more negative emotion but also because it is hard to understand how "love" can be defined as one single, straight forward emotion when there are so many things that come attached to it lust, compassion, friendship, jealousy, etc.

Kids are sent to a death farm, thinking they will be exterminated in a lake of boiling oil. Readers learn about the terror the year-old victims feel, even though the threat is never carried out. Later kids develop magical weapons based on their specific creative talents, and in the end a huge battle ensues between the two societies.

It's complete with all sorts of injuries, children killing fathers and vice versa, as well as a variety of deaths. A little hand-holding and a stolen kiss between two of the hero year-olds, and their awakening romance, is about the extent of the sexual activity in this story. Harsh tones, practical jokes, bantering, a bit of name calling Parents need to know that this dystopian novel begins with a rather disturbing scene: What follows is a fast-moving fantasy for kids, especially the more reluctant readers, who are not quite ready for Harry Potter , but are looking for an adventure -- and a little magic.

There is a very obvious good-vs. Add your rating See all 3 parent reviews. Add your rating See all 31 kid reviews. Quill is a gray, oppressive world where -- on one day each year -- year-olds are separated into three castes: Wanted, Necessaries, and Unwanted. Wanteds go to the Academy, Necessaries get to work, and the Unwanteds, mostly creative kids, are sent to the Death Farm to be thrown into a lake of boiling oil.

Told from the point of view of one boy, Alex, marked Unwanted because he draws pictures in the mud, the story really begins when the Unwanteds arrive at the Death Farm and instead discover a place called Artime, which is very different from their terrible expectations. There, they meet Marcus Today, the magician-leader of Artime, who has created a world where each individual is valued and encouraged to grow. But it's not long before Alex and his fellow Unwanteds will have to use their creativity in a violent battle between the two societies.

The beginning chapter is a bit shocking, though most kids, especially those who love touching the edges of terror, will find themselves pulled into the story immediately. The rest is filled with fast-paced action and magic, and kids who were labeled as "Unwanted" are empowered through their own talents.

The writing is not complicated, which makes the story approachable for reluctant readers. More mature readers may wish the characters, societies, and plot points were a bit more developed.

Overall, this is an entertaining read: Families can talk about dystopian novels and fantasy books. What makes these books so intriguing?

The Unwanteds, Book 1 Book Review

Do dark fantasy worlds help us talk about fears and terrors we might have? This book grew out of the author's concern that the art and music classes were being cut from her children's school. She said that seemed like a punishment for the creative kids. Have you seen this happen at your school? Should schools offer more art and music, or stick to more practical subjects? Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization, earns a small affiliate fee from Amazon or iTunes when you use our links to make a purchase. Thank you for your support. Our ratings are based on child development best practices. We display the minimum age for which content is developmentally appropriate. Check out the options available through Archway Publishing. See great eBook deals. Get book club recommendations, access to more 1, reading group guides, author updates, and more! Learn a language anytime, anywhere in just 30 minutes a day with Pimsleur. Get your free lesson today!

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