UnWholly

Connor’s character, whether he is present in the scene or not, permeates Shusterman’s novel. While Connor does not appear in UnWholly until Part 2, his reputation from the first book of the Unwind series precedes him. In UnWholly’s first chapter, Starkey considers Connor’s “notoriety” (10) as the Akron AWOL as inspirational for his escape from being unwound. Before Lev and Connor intersect in UnWholly, Lev develops the characterization of Connor, believing that he “would never do the Juvies’ dirty work” (179). When the Admiral, the only adult POV character from the first book, makes an appearance in UnWholly, he shares positive thoughts about Connor, such as his “genes might actually be worth passing on” (245), yet he condemns Connor’s excessive, undirected anger.

Also, Risa describes Connor in both positive and negative terms. She spends much of her time away from Connor thinking about him and talking about him. When describing Connor to Cam, Risa offers this collection of adjectives: “Impulsive. Brooding. Occasionally self-loathing [...] clever, loyal, passionate, responsible, and a strong leader, but is too humble to admit all that to himself” (286). However, Connor’s biggest failure as a leader is getting too wrapped up in his feelings to see Starkey as a threat.