BY IAN JIN AND KAIA KARPE
STAFF WRITERS
THIS WILL CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS ON THE UNWANTEDS *YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*
The Unwanteds is a book about a dystopian society called Quill in which at the age of twelve all people are sorted into one of these three categories: Wanted, Unwanted and Necessary. The strong and intelligent Wanteds are the high class of society and are sent to college. The lower class Necessaries work as laborers for the Wanteds. And finally, the creative and artistic Unwanteds are killed… or so they thought. Instead, the man known as “The Death Farmer”: Marcus Today brings them to Artime, a surreal paradise for all those Unwanteds with their creative minds. But in Artime the Unwanteds soon learn to defend themselves using magical and artistic methods. The protagonist of this story is a twelve-year-old named Alex. He and the rest of that year’s Unwanteds were sent to “The Death Farmer ” right outside of the desolate city of Quill to be executed. But soon, instead of finding themselves dead, they find themselves in the wonderful land of Artime where Mr. Today asks them the timeless question that he asks every Unwanted: “How does it feel to be eliminated?” But not long after arriving at Artime Alex begins longing to see his lost counterpart and twin, Aaron. In the family, Alex was always known as the creative one, but Aaron was known as the one who would most likely become a Wanted. On the other hand, Alex always knew in a part of him that he would turn out as an Unwanted. But one rainy day while Alex and Aaron were digging a hole outside, Alex drew a house with a stick in the mud, if anybody found out this would be a one-way ticket to becoming Unwanted later. Aaron even threatened to report his brother at first, but then eventually Alex convinced Aaron to give it a try. But it was at that moment that their father came out of the house to check on them. Seeing Aaron drawing with a stick their father mistakenly thought that Aaron was Alex and grabbed Aaron by the arm and told him to get inside. Meanwhile, Aaron silently begged Alex to keep quiet. This was the reason why Alex believed that if he could bring Aaron into Artime Aaron would love it here and stay with him. And despite all the warnings (and to the absolute AGONY of the reader) Alex attempted to bring Aaron into Artime. But when he does, a confused and horrified Aaron downright rejects Alex’s offer. And this incident leads to Quill discovering the existence of Artime and that leads to a full out war between the people of Artime and Quill.