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I listened to the audiobook on my daily commutes but found myself bored senseless. The engaging storyline is practically nonexistent now in this final book. After reading a few other reviews I think I've made the right decision to abandon this and find something else to occupy me.

This just made me too sad so I've set it aside for now.

This needs a disclaimer that it's less hot-forbidden-sex-with-your-professor and more gross-call-me-uncle-faux-incest. Blegh...

DNF at 27% because I lost interest due to the somewhat dated writing style. I bet the story really picks up right after where I left off too. That'd serve me right. But I'd already picked up other books holding my attention more so I'm setting this aside. Not going to rate this though. It's not a bad read. I just didn't click with it the way I wanted to.

DNF at 19%, but I was really done at 10%. I'd skimmed to see if it got any better.Ok, Sylvia Day took [b:Fifty Shades of Grey 10818853 Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades, #1) E.L. James https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385207843s/10818853.jpg 15732562] and rewrote it. That's cool. All sorts of reviews rave that it's way better written than Fifty Shades, and I guess it is. Sort of.This is obviously erotica. Awesome. I'm totally here for the smut. The thing is is I need a decent story and characters. There will be no swooning from me when all I want to do is repeatedly throat punch the lead male character, Gideon Cross. This man is a lecherous boss in a position of power who will use and abuse his power because he thinks he's entitled to... well, everything. There's nothing sexy about sexual assault, which is what was continuously happening. No really does mean no. It doesn't matter what her body is telling you, pal.Cross said nothing until the car was on its way down; then he pushed the call button again and asked, “ Are you sleeping with anyone?”Um WHAT??? This is one of the first dialogue interactions they have and this is what he says? And when Eva asks him why the heck he's asking her:“Because I want to fuck you, Eva. I need to know what's standing in my way, if anything.”She tells him maybe she's not interested and from then on out no matter how many times she says no or pulls away he's trying to grope or kiss her. Just because the readers hear Eva's thoughts about how she finds Cross attractive her words and actions don't always show that. She's torn. But for all he knows she's not really fully interested. But he's not listening.It turns out Cross owns the building Eva lives in. Of course he does. But Eva finds out and is rightfully horrified. His reaction?“I accessed information you voluntarily made available to me.”“Not to you! Not for what you used it for! That has to violate some kind of privacy law.” I stared at him, more confused than ever. “Why would you do that?”He had the grace to look disgruntled at least. “So I can figure you out, damn it.”My skin crawled. Not only is Eva's livelihood in his hands, but so is her living situation. He's now pretty much completely able to cut her off and isolate her if he chooses. Or at least coerce. If you cajole someone into consent it's not really consent.The writing may be better than Fifty Shades of Grey in certain ways, but the story is just as abusive and disgusting and is nothing to emulate.Eva, run. Leave everything and run.

DNF at 47%. I just do not care a tinker's damn what happens to these characters. I'm not invested in them at all. I want to be, but I can't because this book is like Swiss cheese there are so many plot holes. It's too distracting.

There would be no plausible reason to have a war over reproductive rights. Wars are fought over money. Strip away all the crap and it always comes down to money in some way. If you want me to believe otherwise about this war then there needs to be sufficiently explained world building. Otherwise, who's making the money off of kids being unwound? Half way into a book it should be laid out how the hell we've gotten to where the story starts so things start to make sense. I still have no idea why the world is this way and I'm finding nothing worth keeping me reading to maybe find out if Shusterman ever sufficiently develops anything. How did we get from Roe v. Wade to unwinding kids in what seems to be just a few decades or less?

People don't want to be forced to keep random ass babies dropped on their doorstep. Society would shift in response to storking laws to say the least. The middle class communities portrayed would probably develop neighborhoods with security cameras and a guard watching them so someone can't plop a baby down at someone's door without getting caught. We already have gated communities where guards patrol on golf carts. But security isn't stepped up in the future in seemingly well-off areas? What kind of America IS this? I can't accept that this is just the way it is, and I think there would be large swaths of people who would never accept this either.

I can't accept that killing off teenagers to use them as transplant fodder is fine with both the pro-choice and anti-choice side of the abortion debate. The book uses the term “pro-life” to try to excuse chopping people up for their parts because the parts never really die, but I'm using the accurate real world wording. The premise of Unwind is interesting. It could be a poignant discussion while still being entertaining, but the reasoning for it is absolute bullshit, and again, there's not enough world building or even decent characters to explain how society has broken down so much. People just go about their normal lives the same way we do today. The suburban American dream nuclear family is happily having kids, until they decide to off them for being difficult teenagers. Just, WTF IS THIS HEARTLESS SHIT?!

DNF at 42% and I only got that far because I skimmed like crazy. Other reviews sum up why this is so awful. I have no clue how this is rated as highly as it is.

If reading about some womanizing asshat is your thing then have fun with this, but I'm not down. I don't need another book where the male MC is a creep and ends up insta-reformed by someone with The Magic Vag which seems like where this is going.

3% in and we already have:

...always make sure hook-ups drive themselves so they don't need anything else from me when I'm ready to dispose of them.

Once they've spread their legs in my bed it's adios for good.

I can't read any more. I can't spend every page hating every character. I just can't! I love sci-fi. I love space sci-fi. I freaking love sci-fi where a freaking planet is conquered. I don't care how much I want to read about Mars. I refuse to sit around gnashing my teeth constantly hoping it'll get better. Love triangles can take a hike; I hate them. Maybe this just isn't for me, which is why I don't really want to put a rating. Either way, from what I did read Chalmers is like the homicidal Holden Caulfield of Mars. Fuck them both.

Nope. Can't finish this. DNF at 17%. I'm all for literary smut, but I want my poetry to be teasing and my erotica to be sultry, not in-your-face crass. I don't want to feel like a voyeur or 3rd wheel into Leav and Faudet's relationship (or whatever is going on there). Reading this was like sitting on a couch while your friends have sex next to you and occasionally you get a foot to the head. I just don't need the mental images.

DNF at 24%
I got bored reading so many disconnected stories leading up to the robot apocalypse/war. Just get to it already. The individual stories are interesting, but how freaking many are there and I'm only 24% in? Not fast paced enough to keep me hooked.

DNF at 39% because the insulting comments about women and marital rape make me want to set my kindle on fire to purge it of this.

His name fell from her lips, and in the recesses of her blurry mind, she realized this was the first time she'd used it.

DNF at 8%. I wanted to stop at 2% but forced myself to keep going until I couldn't stand it. Absolutely not for me.

While I've chosen to abandon this book it doesn't mean it was bad. It just wasn't for me. I couldn't get into it. This could have been partly due to the fact that I watched the movie before trying to read this and that the movie seemed to do a good job of following the book. Or at least what I read of it.

DNF at 36% and wanted to quit at 21% but slogged on