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Arc of a Scythe #1
丿丕爻 賲乇诏
噩丕賳鈥屬囏� 乇丕 亘诏蹖乇
噩賴丕賳 丌蹖賳丿賴 趩诏賵賳賴 噩賴丕賳蹖 丕鈥屫池�.... 噩賴丕賳蹖 讴賴 丿乇 丌賳 丕夭 诏乇爻賳诏蹖貙 亘蹖賲丕乇蹖貙 噩賳诏 賵 亘丿亘禺鬲蹖 禺亘乇蹖 賳蹖爻鬲. 丕賳爻丕賳鈥屬囏� 賴賲賴鈥屰� 丕蹖賳鈥屬囏� 乇丕 丕夭 亘蹖賳 亘乇丿賴鈥屫з嗀� 丨鬲蹖 賲乇诏 賴賲 丿蹖诏乇 丿乇 讴丕乇 賳蹖爻鬲. 丨丕賱丕 丿丕爻鈥屬囏� 鬲賳賴丕 讴爻丕賳蹖 賴爻鬲賳丿 讴賴 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗁嗀� 亘賴 夭賳丿诏蹖鈥屬囏� 倬丕蹖丕賳 丿賴賳丿 賵 噩丕賳鈥屬囏� 乇丕 亘诏蹖乇賳丿: 亘賴 丌賳鈥屬囏� 賮乇賲丕賳 丿丕丿賴 卮丿賴 讴賴 亘乇丕蹖 讴賳鬲乇賱 噩賲毓蹖鬲 爻丕讴賳丕賳 夭賲蹖賳 丕蹖賳 讴丕乇 乇丕 丕賳噩丕賲 丿賴賳丿.
爻蹖鬲乇丕 賵 乇賵卅賳 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 讴丕乇丌賲賵夭 蹖讴 丿丕爻 丕賳鬲禺丕亘 卮丿賴鈥屫з嗀� 讴丕乇蹖 讴賴 賴蹖趩鈥屰屭� 丕夭 丌賳鈥屬囏� 鬲賲丕蹖賱蹖 亘賴 丕賳噩丕賲卮 賳丿丕乇賳丿. 丕蹖賳 丿賵 賳賵噩賵丕賳 亘丕蹖丿 丿乇 芦賴賳乇禄 诏乇賮鬲賳賽 噩丕賳鈥屬囏� 丨爻丕亘蹖 夭亘乇丿爻鬲 卮賵賳丿貙 趩乇丕 讴賴 賲蹖鈥屫з嗁嗀� 毓丕賯亘鬲 卮讴爻鬲貙 丕夭 丿爻鬲 丿丕丿賳 噩丕賳 禺賵丿卮丕賳 丕爻鬲.
丿丕爻 賲乇诏 賲噩賲賵毓賴鈥屫з� 賮賵賯鈥屫з勜关ж� 賲賴蹖噩 賵 噩丿蹖丿 丕孬乇 賳蹖賱 卮賵爻鬲賽乇賲賳貙 亘乇賳丿賴鈥屬� 噩丕蹖夭賴鈥屬� 讴鬲丕亘 賲賱賾賶 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 丕爻鬲 讴賴 丿乇 丌賳 丿賵 卮禺氐蹖鬲 丕氐賱蹖貙 芦爻蹖鬲乇丕禄 賵 芦乇賵卅賻賳禄貙 丿乇賲蹖鈥屰屫жㄙ嗀� 亘乇丕賶 丿丕卮鬲賳 丿賳蹖丕蹖賶 亘蹖鈥屫观屫ㄢ€屬堎嗁傌地� 亘丕蹖丿 亘賴丕賶 爻賳诏蹖賳賶 倬乇丿丕禺鬲. 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴鈥屰� 毓賱賲蹖-鬲禺蹖賱蹖 讴賴 丿丕爻鬲丕賳卮 丿乇 丌蹖賳丿賴 乇禺 賲蹖鈥屫囏屸€� 賲賮丕賴蹖賲 亘爻蹖丕乇 倬蹖趩蹖丿賴 賵 毓賲蹖賯 賴賲趩賵賳 賲乇诏 賵 夭賳丿诏蹖貙 丕乇夭卮 丕賳爻丕賳鈥屫堌池屫� 诏匕卮鬲賳 丕夭 禺賵丿 賵... 乇丕 賱丕亘賴鈥屬勜й� 倬蹖趩卮鈥屬囏� 賵 讴卮賲讴卮鈥屬囏й� 賳賮爻鈥屭屫� 丿丕爻鬲丕賳蹖 亘蹖丕賳 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�. 丕夭 倬蹖丕賲鈥屬囏й� 賲孬亘鬲 讴鬲丕亘 賲蹖鈥屫堌з� 亘賴 丕蹖賳 賳讴鬲賴 丕卮丕乇賴 讴乇丿 讴賴 丿丕賳爻鬲賳 丕蹖賳讴賴 丨蹖丕鬲 賮蹖夭蹖讴蹖 賲丕 賲丨丿賵丿 丕爻鬲貙 亘賴 夭賳丿诏蹖 賲丕 賲毓賳丕 賲蹖鈥屫囏� 賵 賲賴乇亘丕賳蹖 賵 丿賱爻賵夭蹖 丕夭 噩丕賴鈥屫焚勜ㄛ� 賵 倬蹖乇賵夭蹖 丕乇夭卮賲賳丿鬲乇 丕爻鬲.
噩賴丕賳 丌蹖賳丿賴 趩诏賵賳賴 噩賴丕賳蹖 丕鈥屫池�.... 噩賴丕賳蹖 讴賴 丿乇 丌賳 丕夭 诏乇爻賳诏蹖貙 亘蹖賲丕乇蹖貙 噩賳诏 賵 亘丿亘禺鬲蹖 禺亘乇蹖 賳蹖爻鬲. 丕賳爻丕賳鈥屬囏� 賴賲賴鈥屰� 丕蹖賳鈥屬囏� 乇丕 丕夭 亘蹖賳 亘乇丿賴鈥屫з嗀� 丨鬲蹖 賲乇诏 賴賲 丿蹖诏乇 丿乇 讴丕乇 賳蹖爻鬲. 丨丕賱丕 丿丕爻鈥屬囏� 鬲賳賴丕 讴爻丕賳蹖 賴爻鬲賳丿 讴賴 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗁嗀� 亘賴 夭賳丿诏蹖鈥屬囏� 倬丕蹖丕賳 丿賴賳丿 賵 噩丕賳鈥屬囏� 乇丕 亘诏蹖乇賳丿: 亘賴 丌賳鈥屬囏� 賮乇賲丕賳 丿丕丿賴 卮丿賴 讴賴 亘乇丕蹖 讴賳鬲乇賱 噩賲毓蹖鬲 爻丕讴賳丕賳 夭賲蹖賳 丕蹖賳 讴丕乇 乇丕 丕賳噩丕賲 丿賴賳丿.
爻蹖鬲乇丕 賵 乇賵卅賳 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 讴丕乇丌賲賵夭 蹖讴 丿丕爻 丕賳鬲禺丕亘 卮丿賴鈥屫з嗀� 讴丕乇蹖 讴賴 賴蹖趩鈥屰屭� 丕夭 丌賳鈥屬囏� 鬲賲丕蹖賱蹖 亘賴 丕賳噩丕賲卮 賳丿丕乇賳丿. 丕蹖賳 丿賵 賳賵噩賵丕賳 亘丕蹖丿 丿乇 芦賴賳乇禄 诏乇賮鬲賳賽 噩丕賳鈥屬囏� 丨爻丕亘蹖 夭亘乇丿爻鬲 卮賵賳丿貙 趩乇丕 讴賴 賲蹖鈥屫з嗁嗀� 毓丕賯亘鬲 卮讴爻鬲貙 丕夭 丿爻鬲 丿丕丿賳 噩丕賳 禺賵丿卮丕賳 丕爻鬲.
丿丕爻 賲乇诏 賲噩賲賵毓賴鈥屫з� 賮賵賯鈥屫з勜关ж� 賲賴蹖噩 賵 噩丿蹖丿 丕孬乇 賳蹖賱 卮賵爻鬲賽乇賲賳貙 亘乇賳丿賴鈥屬� 噩丕蹖夭賴鈥屬� 讴鬲丕亘 賲賱賾賶 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 丕爻鬲 讴賴 丿乇 丌賳 丿賵 卮禺氐蹖鬲 丕氐賱蹖貙 芦爻蹖鬲乇丕禄 賵 芦乇賵卅賻賳禄貙 丿乇賲蹖鈥屰屫жㄙ嗀� 亘乇丕賶 丿丕卮鬲賳 丿賳蹖丕蹖賶 亘蹖鈥屫观屫ㄢ€屬堎嗁傌地� 亘丕蹖丿 亘賴丕賶 爻賳诏蹖賳賶 倬乇丿丕禺鬲. 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴鈥屰� 毓賱賲蹖-鬲禺蹖賱蹖 讴賴 丿丕爻鬲丕賳卮 丿乇 丌蹖賳丿賴 乇禺 賲蹖鈥屫囏屸€� 賲賮丕賴蹖賲 亘爻蹖丕乇 倬蹖趩蹖丿賴 賵 毓賲蹖賯 賴賲趩賵賳 賲乇诏 賵 夭賳丿诏蹖貙 丕乇夭卮 丕賳爻丕賳鈥屫堌池屫� 诏匕卮鬲賳 丕夭 禺賵丿 賵... 乇丕 賱丕亘賴鈥屬勜й� 倬蹖趩卮鈥屬囏� 賵 讴卮賲讴卮鈥屬囏й� 賳賮爻鈥屭屫� 丿丕爻鬲丕賳蹖 亘蹖丕賳 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�. 丕夭 倬蹖丕賲鈥屬囏й� 賲孬亘鬲 讴鬲丕亘 賲蹖鈥屫堌з� 亘賴 丕蹖賳 賳讴鬲賴 丕卮丕乇賴 讴乇丿 讴賴 丿丕賳爻鬲賳 丕蹖賳讴賴 丨蹖丕鬲 賮蹖夭蹖讴蹖 賲丕 賲丨丿賵丿 丕爻鬲貙 亘賴 夭賳丿诏蹖 賲丕 賲毓賳丕 賲蹖鈥屫囏� 賵 賲賴乇亘丕賳蹖 賵 丿賱爻賵夭蹖 丕夭 噩丕賴鈥屫焚勜ㄛ� 賵 倬蹖乇賵夭蹖 丕乇夭卮賲賳丿鬲乇 丕爻鬲.
448 pages, Paperback
First published November 22, 2016
20.9k people are currently reading
449k people want to read
About the author
Neal Shusterman
89听books28.9k听followersAward-winning author Neal Shusterman grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he began writing at an early age. After spending his junior and senior years of high school at the American School of Mexico City, Neal went on to UC Irvine, where he made his mark on the UCI swim team, and wrote a successful humor column. Within a year of graduating, he had his first book deal, and was hired to write a movie script.
In the years since, Neal has made his mark as a successful novelist, screenwriter, and television writer. As a full-time writer, he claims to be his own hardest task-master, always at work creating new stories to tell. His books have received many awards from organizations such as the International Reading Association, and the American Library Association, as well as garnering a myriad of state and local awards across the country. Neal's talents range from film directing (two short films he directed won him the coveted CINE Golden Eagle Awards) to writing music and stage plays 鈥� including book and lyrical contributions to 鈥淎merican Twistory,鈥� which is currently playing in Boston. He has even tried his hand at creating Games, having developed three successful "How to Host a Mystery" game for teens, as well as seven "How to Host a Murder" games.
As a screen and TV writer, Neal has written for the "Goosebumps" and 鈥淎nimorphs鈥� TV series, and wrote the Disney Channel Original Movie 鈥淧ixel Perfect鈥�. Currently Neal is adapting his novel Everlost as a feature film for Universal Studios.
Wherever Neal goes, he quickly earns a reputation as a storyteller and dynamic speaker. Much of his fiction is traceable back to stories he tells to large audiences of children and teenagers -- such as his novel The Eyes of Kid Midas. As a speaker, Neal is in constant demand at schools and conferences. Degrees in both psychology and drama give Neal a unique approach to writing. Neal's novels always deal with topics that appeal to adults as well as teens, weaving true-to-life characters into sensitive and riveting issues, and binding it all together with a unique and entertaining sense of humor.
Of Everlost, School Library Journal wrote: 鈥淪husterman has reimagined what happens after death and questions power and the meaning of charity. While all this is going on, he has also managed to write a rip-roaring adventure鈥︹€�
Of What Daddy Did, Voice of Youth Advocates wrote; "This is a compelling, spell-binding story... A stunning novel, impossible to put down once begun.
Of The Schwa Was Here, School Library Journal wrote: 鈥淪husterman's characters鈥搑eminiscent of those crafted by E. L. Konigsburg and Jerry Spinelli鈥揳re infused with the kind of controlled, precocious improbability that magically vivifies the finest children's classics.
Of Scorpion Shards, Publisher's Weekly wrote: "Shusterman takes an outlandish comic-book concept, and, through the sheer audacity and breadth of his imagination makes it stunningly believable. A spellbinder."
And of The Eyes of Kid Midas, The Midwest Book Review wrote "This wins our vote as one of the best young-adult titles of the year" and was called "Inspired and hypnotically readable" by School Library Journal.
Neal Shusterman lives in Southern California with his children Brendan, Jarrod, Joelle, and Erin, who are a constant source of inspiration!
In the years since, Neal has made his mark as a successful novelist, screenwriter, and television writer. As a full-time writer, he claims to be his own hardest task-master, always at work creating new stories to tell. His books have received many awards from organizations such as the International Reading Association, and the American Library Association, as well as garnering a myriad of state and local awards across the country. Neal's talents range from film directing (two short films he directed won him the coveted CINE Golden Eagle Awards) to writing music and stage plays 鈥� including book and lyrical contributions to 鈥淎merican Twistory,鈥� which is currently playing in Boston. He has even tried his hand at creating Games, having developed three successful "How to Host a Mystery" game for teens, as well as seven "How to Host a Murder" games.
As a screen and TV writer, Neal has written for the "Goosebumps" and 鈥淎nimorphs鈥� TV series, and wrote the Disney Channel Original Movie 鈥淧ixel Perfect鈥�. Currently Neal is adapting his novel Everlost as a feature film for Universal Studios.
Wherever Neal goes, he quickly earns a reputation as a storyteller and dynamic speaker. Much of his fiction is traceable back to stories he tells to large audiences of children and teenagers -- such as his novel The Eyes of Kid Midas. As a speaker, Neal is in constant demand at schools and conferences. Degrees in both psychology and drama give Neal a unique approach to writing. Neal's novels always deal with topics that appeal to adults as well as teens, weaving true-to-life characters into sensitive and riveting issues, and binding it all together with a unique and entertaining sense of humor.
Of Everlost, School Library Journal wrote: 鈥淪husterman has reimagined what happens after death and questions power and the meaning of charity. While all this is going on, he has also managed to write a rip-roaring adventure鈥︹€�
Of What Daddy Did, Voice of Youth Advocates wrote; "This is a compelling, spell-binding story... A stunning novel, impossible to put down once begun.
Of The Schwa Was Here, School Library Journal wrote: 鈥淪husterman's characters鈥搑eminiscent of those crafted by E. L. Konigsburg and Jerry Spinelli鈥揳re infused with the kind of controlled, precocious improbability that magically vivifies the finest children's classics.
Of Scorpion Shards, Publisher's Weekly wrote: "Shusterman takes an outlandish comic-book concept, and, through the sheer audacity and breadth of his imagination makes it stunningly believable. A spellbinder."
And of The Eyes of Kid Midas, The Midwest Book Review wrote "This wins our vote as one of the best young-adult titles of the year" and was called "Inspired and hypnotically readable" by School Library Journal.
Neal Shusterman lives in Southern California with his children Brendan, Jarrod, Joelle, and Erin, who are a constant source of inspiration!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53,295 reviews
June 11, 2019
I struggled with rating because I initially liked the concept. A post-mortality society sounded interesting, but I just can't overlook how boring it was. I'm someone who finishes the average YA book in a couple of days, and this one was a painful week-long process.
In this future world, natural death is a thing of the past. The Internet is an all-powerful sentient being called the Thunderhead and all knowledge has been acquired. There is nothing left to learn. People have nanites in their blood that heal them and mask pain and, if they do die, they can be revived quickly and painlessly. However, in order to solve population issues in this utopia, appointed "scythes" perform random gleanings - true deaths from which one cannot be revived.
After demonstrating their strength and compassion, teenagers Citra and Rowan find themselves the newest apprentices to Scythe Faraday. Only one of them can become a scythe when their year of apprenticeship is up. Then the stakes get even higher when the scythes decide that the winner will have to glean the loser.
I think a whole lot about this world and the workings of it haven't been thought out very well. The morality is very black and white, making the characters equally so - the villain is a cackling, plain evil mad man - and so many things are left unexplained because it doesn't suit the plot to delve into them. Why, for example, are scythes simply allowed to kill people in any way they choose? Why have that rule in a supposed utopia? All it means is that the "good" scythes will choose quick, painless deaths, and the "bad" scythes will cause as much pain and fear as possible.
Similarly, a major decision the scythes make in the book seems so silly and contrived. Why do they do it? Just for shits and giggles it seems. Pretty much everything done by the evil characters is done simply because they can. They start firing flamethrowers at groups of people because YAY!
But, honestly, I think these things were trying (and failing) to add some excitement to a story that was actually quite dull. For the most part, is a 450-page apprenticeship, and it creeps along at a snail's pace while Citra and Rowan are learning important scythe lessons. An interesting concept dragged out far too long. Also, that reveal was so obvious. I was literally waiting for it to happen.
And, though it's not a romantic book, the romance that predictably surfaced between Citra and Rowan was devoid of any chemistry and felt so out of place. There was nothing, in my opinion, pulling them together. They seemed like friends at best, but they didn't even have much platonic chemistry. In a way, this reminded me of - male and female competitors pretend to actually be trying to win but really don't even bother because ROMANCE.
In fact, I never really warmed to either Citra or Rowan. Scythe Faraday and Scythe Curie were far more interesting characters and it was a shame we didn't get to see much of this world from their perspectives.
I can't say for sure, but I wonder if this ultimately didn't work because it wasn't that much of a dystopia. The utopia really did seem like a utopia to me. Everything bad and angsty that happened felt unnaturally thrown in to shake things up - pointless rules left unaddressed, and the Scythe Council being deliberately stupid - when really this society didn't seem that bad. I think Shusterman actually created a utopia that was, uh... utopian, and then was left without a nasty story so he had to orchestrate one. That's how it felt to me.
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In this future world, natural death is a thing of the past. The Internet is an all-powerful sentient being called the Thunderhead and all knowledge has been acquired. There is nothing left to learn. People have nanites in their blood that heal them and mask pain and, if they do die, they can be revived quickly and painlessly. However, in order to solve population issues in this utopia, appointed "scythes" perform random gleanings - true deaths from which one cannot be revived.
After demonstrating their strength and compassion, teenagers Citra and Rowan find themselves the newest apprentices to Scythe Faraday. Only one of them can become a scythe when their year of apprenticeship is up. Then the stakes get even higher when the scythes decide that the winner will have to glean the loser.
I think a whole lot about this world and the workings of it haven't been thought out very well. The morality is very black and white, making the characters equally so - the villain is a cackling, plain evil mad man - and so many things are left unexplained because it doesn't suit the plot to delve into them. Why, for example, are scythes simply allowed to kill people in any way they choose? Why have that rule in a supposed utopia? All it means is that the "good" scythes will choose quick, painless deaths, and the "bad" scythes will cause as much pain and fear as possible.
Similarly, a major decision the scythes make in the book seems so silly and contrived. Why do they do it? Just for shits and giggles it seems. Pretty much everything done by the evil characters is done simply because they can. They start firing flamethrowers at groups of people because YAY!
But, honestly, I think these things were trying (and failing) to add some excitement to a story that was actually quite dull. For the most part, is a 450-page apprenticeship, and it creeps along at a snail's pace while Citra and Rowan are learning important scythe lessons. An interesting concept dragged out far too long. Also, that reveal was so obvious. I was literally waiting for it to happen.
And, though it's not a romantic book, the romance that predictably surfaced between Citra and Rowan was devoid of any chemistry and felt so out of place. There was nothing, in my opinion, pulling them together. They seemed like friends at best, but they didn't even have much platonic chemistry. In a way, this reminded me of - male and female competitors pretend to actually be trying to win but really don't even bother because ROMANCE.
In fact, I never really warmed to either Citra or Rowan. Scythe Faraday and Scythe Curie were far more interesting characters and it was a shame we didn't get to see much of this world from their perspectives.
I can't say for sure, but I wonder if this ultimately didn't work because it wasn't that much of a dystopia. The utopia really did seem like a utopia to me. Everything bad and angsty that happened felt unnaturally thrown in to shake things up - pointless rules left unaddressed, and the Scythe Council being deliberately stupid - when really this society didn't seem that bad. I think Shusterman actually created a utopia that was, uh... utopian, and then was left without a nasty story so he had to orchestrate one. That's how it felt to me.
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September 4, 2018
5/5 Stars!! One of my absolute favorite books I have read in a while. A MUST MUST MUST READ. I can鈥檛 even begin to string coherent words together for a review. I love everything about this novel.
Check out my video review!:
TW: murder/death, suicide
The world of Scythe is fascinating. With so many advances due to technology and research, it becomes a plausible future for our society which is equal parts interesting and terrifying. This story poses a lot of thought-provoking conversations about morality and mortality. It is by far one of the most complex and well-developed YA worlds I have experienced in a very long time. My brain was running wild throughout the entire story.
The world and the plot of Scythe are my absolute favorite parts of the book. I鈥檝e seen many reviews claiming the story is boring, and while I can somewhat agree that the pacing is slower in the beginning, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time while reading. There are so many plot twists, all unexpected that completely fed the plot-driven reader in me. Every time I accepted the story was going in one direction, it would take a complete 180 which made for an exhilarating read. I鈥檓 thoroughly shook with how much I adored this story.
I also really loved the characters. Citra is super strong and intelligent, while Rowan goes through some serious development in a morally-grey way. I think they have a great dynamic, though I feel their romance was one of the weakest parts of the book. There was so much potential to see them grow together, yet I don鈥檛 feel we really got to see WHY they were so loyal to each other or WHY they were so attracted to each other. I thought they were really great friends who had a great chance of growing into something more, but the story sort of skipped over the development of feelings. I鈥檓 very hopefully things become more natural in Thunderhead because I can see so many good things to come with their relationship.
Scythe was amazing. I cannot stop thinking about it. Please please please read it!!
I received a free copy of this book from Simon & Schuster as a part of a paid YouTube campaign. I had no obligation to review this book as a part of that campaign and all opinions are my own.
Check out my video review!:
TW: murder/death, suicide
The world of Scythe is fascinating. With so many advances due to technology and research, it becomes a plausible future for our society which is equal parts interesting and terrifying. This story poses a lot of thought-provoking conversations about morality and mortality. It is by far one of the most complex and well-developed YA worlds I have experienced in a very long time. My brain was running wild throughout the entire story.
The world and the plot of Scythe are my absolute favorite parts of the book. I鈥檝e seen many reviews claiming the story is boring, and while I can somewhat agree that the pacing is slower in the beginning, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time while reading. There are so many plot twists, all unexpected that completely fed the plot-driven reader in me. Every time I accepted the story was going in one direction, it would take a complete 180 which made for an exhilarating read. I鈥檓 thoroughly shook with how much I adored this story.
I also really loved the characters. Citra is super strong and intelligent, while Rowan goes through some serious development in a morally-grey way. I think they have a great dynamic, though I feel their romance was one of the weakest parts of the book. There was so much potential to see them grow together, yet I don鈥檛 feel we really got to see WHY they were so loyal to each other or WHY they were so attracted to each other. I thought they were really great friends who had a great chance of growing into something more, but the story sort of skipped over the development of feelings. I鈥檓 very hopefully things become more natural in Thunderhead because I can see so many good things to come with their relationship.
Scythe was amazing. I cannot stop thinking about it. Please please please read it!!
I received a free copy of this book from Simon & Schuster as a part of a paid YouTube campaign. I had no obligation to review this book as a part of that campaign and all opinions are my own.
February 6, 2017
Pretty much a perfect teen adventure novel. In a conflict-free world where humans have conquered death, elected Scythes must cull the human population. Two teens find themselves volunteered as apprentice-Scythes, and discover that of all the things that Scythes can kill, corruption is not one of them.
1. Over the years, I've heard many books touted as the successor to Hunger Games, but SCYTHE is the first one that I would really, truly stand behind, as听it offers teens a complementary reading experience to that series rather than a duplicate one. Like Hunger Games, SCYTHE invites readers to both turn pages quickly but also furrow their brows over the ethical questions it asks. Tone-wise, I would place it solidly between M. T. Anderson's FEED and Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series.
2. Over the years, YA has come to encompass a wide age range 鈥斕齩ne that I feel tends to skew ever older and sometimes forget the folks who are growing out of middle grade, but slowly. SCYTHE strikes me as a true teen novel, one that I will happily thrust into the hands of even reluctant 12-14 year old readers to show them what awaits them in genre fiction. It asks enough difficult questions to stick in the mind, but it never asks them at the expense of pacing or story. Although it's a series-starter and the end is tantalizing, it does feel like it satisfyingly stands alone (as is evidenced by its new Printz Honor sticker 鈥斕齮he Printz is very rarely awarded to series books as the novel's merit must be contained entirely within the volume awarded). Moreover, it is very light on the romance, something that younger readers often prefer (and somewhat difficult to find in YA).
3. Over the years, I have grown too lazy to make note of when sequels come out. I've made a note on my calendar for this one, though 鈥斕齆ovember 2017. I look forward to another good time.
1. Over the years, I've heard many books touted as the successor to Hunger Games, but SCYTHE is the first one that I would really, truly stand behind, as听it offers teens a complementary reading experience to that series rather than a duplicate one. Like Hunger Games, SCYTHE invites readers to both turn pages quickly but also furrow their brows over the ethical questions it asks. Tone-wise, I would place it solidly between M. T. Anderson's FEED and Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series.
2. Over the years, YA has come to encompass a wide age range 鈥斕齩ne that I feel tends to skew ever older and sometimes forget the folks who are growing out of middle grade, but slowly. SCYTHE strikes me as a true teen novel, one that I will happily thrust into the hands of even reluctant 12-14 year old readers to show them what awaits them in genre fiction. It asks enough difficult questions to stick in the mind, but it never asks them at the expense of pacing or story. Although it's a series-starter and the end is tantalizing, it does feel like it satisfyingly stands alone (as is evidenced by its new Printz Honor sticker 鈥斕齮he Printz is very rarely awarded to series books as the novel's merit must be contained entirely within the volume awarded). Moreover, it is very light on the romance, something that younger readers often prefer (and somewhat difficult to find in YA).
3. Over the years, I have grown too lazy to make note of when sequels come out. I've made a note on my calendar for this one, though 鈥斕齆ovember 2017. I look forward to another good time.
November 3, 2019
鈥淗ave we ever had an enemy worse than ourselves?鈥�
Reread! This book was genius. That is all.
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌�
HOLY. SHIT.
I AM IN AWE. I AM IN LOVE.
I鈥檓 blown away by what I鈥檝e just read.
I鈥檓 pretty sure I became high whilst reading it. And now, I鈥檝e been left exhausted by all the excitement!
Hello to my favourite new author.
I'm going to try and review this. Possible verbal diarrhoea ahead.
This story was ridiculously clever. I was not expecting to enjoy it, since I haven't been the biggest fan of the dystopia genre since The Hunger Games and the Divergent series. I stupidly assumed that it would be something along those lines.
Assuming is the dumbest thing I could鈥檝e done. Lesson learned.
This is an intricate story that dissects our society, where in this plot-line our current world has passed and the population is just reminiscing on it, whether that鈥檚 in a positive or negative light. This is all whilst they're living in a state of utopia. The future.
This book took a fresh and unique spin on the genre and I've fallen in love with it again. More so the author and his craft.
It follows two main characters: Citra and Rowan who have been selected to join the Scythedom as apprentices, led by Scythe Faraday. Their role is to become skilful at 'killing' or 'gleaning' as it is referred to in this world, as the Scythedom do not believe in killing, but ending your life when it is 'supposed' to end according to their order.
I don't want to give too much away of the plot as it is best to go in blind, because the surprises that awaits the reader are darn good! But we follow these characters on a journey that puts into question and pushes their values, beliefs and morality. My head was spinning by the during it and after it!
The world-building is pretty much perfect. We are introduced to it slowly and it is built upon as the story progresses in a way that does not get too overwhelming for the reader, but rather where the reader grasps it perfectly and falls right into it.
A lot of that had to do with the writing. It was pretty much mesmerising and told in the form of a narrative (coupled with some insightful journal entries), which created this illusion almost where I believed that the world actually existed. Or that it is not too far off from our world becoming as such. It boggled my mind.
As for the characters, Rowan was the most complex. I enjoyed the fact that we had two different characters on two sets of journeys, following individual experiences and it brilliantly overlapping. The roles they took on questioned everything they believed in and formed their character for better and worse.
It was an incredibly enjoyable and immersive reading experience. What becomes of people and a society when others have been given too much power and aren't scrutinised for it? How does one ensure that morals and ethics are kept in line with what鈥檚 appropriate? Who decides what鈥檚 appropriate?
There were so many questionable variables that were explored that are parallel to our current climate.
It was absolutely thrilling to read.
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺€�
BUDDY-READING WITH
LUCIE AND WE ARE SO HYPED! 馃ぉ
Please deliver. The last book I read butchered any form of emotions I had so I need you to revive it.
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺€�
Because the bookish-enabler known as Nani pretty much put a spell on me and so I bought the book.
I swear the hype better be real for this. My heart is too weak to handle disappointment.
Reread! This book was genius. That is all.
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌�
HOLY. SHIT.
I AM IN AWE. I AM IN LOVE.
I鈥檓 blown away by what I鈥檝e just read.
I鈥檓 pretty sure I became high whilst reading it. And now, I鈥檝e been left exhausted by all the excitement!
Hello to my favourite new author.
I'm going to try and review this. Possible verbal diarrhoea ahead.
This story was ridiculously clever. I was not expecting to enjoy it, since I haven't been the biggest fan of the dystopia genre since The Hunger Games and the Divergent series. I stupidly assumed that it would be something along those lines.
Assuming is the dumbest thing I could鈥檝e done. Lesson learned.
This is an intricate story that dissects our society, where in this plot-line our current world has passed and the population is just reminiscing on it, whether that鈥檚 in a positive or negative light. This is all whilst they're living in a state of utopia. The future.
This book took a fresh and unique spin on the genre and I've fallen in love with it again. More so the author and his craft.
It follows two main characters: Citra and Rowan who have been selected to join the Scythedom as apprentices, led by Scythe Faraday. Their role is to become skilful at 'killing' or 'gleaning' as it is referred to in this world, as the Scythedom do not believe in killing, but ending your life when it is 'supposed' to end according to their order.
I don't want to give too much away of the plot as it is best to go in blind, because the surprises that awaits the reader are darn good! But we follow these characters on a journey that puts into question and pushes their values, beliefs and morality. My head was spinning by the during it and after it!
The world-building is pretty much perfect. We are introduced to it slowly and it is built upon as the story progresses in a way that does not get too overwhelming for the reader, but rather where the reader grasps it perfectly and falls right into it.
A lot of that had to do with the writing. It was pretty much mesmerising and told in the form of a narrative (coupled with some insightful journal entries), which created this illusion almost where I believed that the world actually existed. Or that it is not too far off from our world becoming as such. It boggled my mind.
As for the characters, Rowan was the most complex. I enjoyed the fact that we had two different characters on two sets of journeys, following individual experiences and it brilliantly overlapping. The roles they took on questioned everything they believed in and formed their character for better and worse.
It was an incredibly enjoyable and immersive reading experience. What becomes of people and a society when others have been given too much power and aren't scrutinised for it? How does one ensure that morals and ethics are kept in line with what鈥檚 appropriate? Who decides what鈥檚 appropriate?
There were so many questionable variables that were explored that are parallel to our current climate.
It was absolutely thrilling to read.
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺€�
BUDDY-READING WITH
LUCIE AND WE ARE SO HYPED! 馃ぉ
Please deliver. The last book I read butchered any form of emotions I had so I need you to revive it.
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺€�
Because the bookish-enabler known as Nani pretty much put a spell on me and so I bought the book.
I swear the hype better be real for this. My heart is too weak to handle disappointment.
June 20, 2021
"Good afternoon, good people. Your lives are about to change in a fundamental way."
Even with all the hype behind this book, which is further supported by a very high rating, I was not expecting a lot from Scythe. The description of the book says, that it is about a future world, where humanity has conquered everything, including death, which didn't appear particularly original, nor intriguing, for, I feel like these concepts have already been thoroughly explored by many authors. This book is anything but that! I loved almost everything about Scythe.
Citra was well know for her temper. It often arrived before reason, and left only after the damage was done.
Let's start with the characters. I liked them all. Most of the main characters were interesting, vivid, and had a nice range of personalities. It would have been even better if the villain, Goddard, had some more complexity to his character, but he served his purpose as far as the plot was concerned. However, if I had to select a weakness in this book, it would have been the characters. They were not bad by any means, but do fall behind compared to other aspects, as everything else was near perfect. That being said, considering the way things ended, there is a lot of potential for some of the characters to develop in next books.
"Human nature is both predictable and mysterious; prone to great and sudden advances, yet still mired in despicable self interest.
But, what stood out the most in Scythe was the plot-line. It felt original, and used a very fascinating concept to move along. I'm certain, that most readers are going to be absorbed after the first couple of pages. Shusterman's writing style is quite good. From the outset, it was evident that he has got his plot figured out perfectly, considering how the events unfolded in a smooth flow. The author never rushed anything, nor lingered more than necessary, to give a nice pace to the story.
"People believe what they want to believe."
Though the underlying concept could have been expanded in a myriad directions, he has chosen his paths carefully, to make everything seems more realistic, and not too overwhelming. There were plenty of twists - including two or three major ones that I really loved - to make sure nothing was predictable. Building up of suspense until the end was well managed, leading to a very satisfying end. I was surprised not to see any cliffhangers at finish, but even without that, most of the readers will probably jump to the next immediately. There is a lot of unexplored territory to investigate! Base on this first promising book, I'm expecting many great things from this series.
"Be good or the Grande Dame will get you"
Even with all the hype behind this book, which is further supported by a very high rating, I was not expecting a lot from Scythe. The description of the book says, that it is about a future world, where humanity has conquered everything, including death, which didn't appear particularly original, nor intriguing, for, I feel like these concepts have already been thoroughly explored by many authors. This book is anything but that! I loved almost everything about Scythe.
Citra was well know for her temper. It often arrived before reason, and left only after the damage was done.
Let's start with the characters. I liked them all. Most of the main characters were interesting, vivid, and had a nice range of personalities. It would have been even better if the villain, Goddard, had some more complexity to his character, but he served his purpose as far as the plot was concerned. However, if I had to select a weakness in this book, it would have been the characters. They were not bad by any means, but do fall behind compared to other aspects, as everything else was near perfect. That being said, considering the way things ended, there is a lot of potential for some of the characters to develop in next books.
"Human nature is both predictable and mysterious; prone to great and sudden advances, yet still mired in despicable self interest.
But, what stood out the most in Scythe was the plot-line. It felt original, and used a very fascinating concept to move along. I'm certain, that most readers are going to be absorbed after the first couple of pages. Shusterman's writing style is quite good. From the outset, it was evident that he has got his plot figured out perfectly, considering how the events unfolded in a smooth flow. The author never rushed anything, nor lingered more than necessary, to give a nice pace to the story.
"People believe what they want to believe."
Though the underlying concept could have been expanded in a myriad directions, he has chosen his paths carefully, to make everything seems more realistic, and not too overwhelming. There were plenty of twists - including two or three major ones that I really loved - to make sure nothing was predictable. Building up of suspense until the end was well managed, leading to a very satisfying end. I was surprised not to see any cliffhangers at finish, but even without that, most of the readers will probably jump to the next immediately. There is a lot of unexplored territory to investigate! Base on this first promising book, I'm expecting many great things from this series.
"Death makes the whole world kin."
December 22, 2017
Re-Read on Audio because the 2nd books comes soon =)
Here's the youtube video of the book. It's pretty awesome!
I freaking love this book!
Citra and Rowen are two teenagers who get the pleasantry of meeting the honorable Scythe Faraday. No one wants to run into a scythe, much less talk to one or spend any kind of time with one. They have the ability to kill you if they see fit. That is their duty. But Citra and Rowan had the chance to meet this particular scythe and they were both not very pleasant to him. In some cases this could mean they would be gleaned depending on the unpleasantness, but Scythe Faraday was taken with these two individuals and brought them both under his wing as apprentices. Of course neither of them wanted to be apprentices and possibly become scythes themselves. Although there could only be one and it's not the norm for a scythe to take on two apprentices, but such is life.
To be a scythe you have to give up many things, but they are necessary in this new world where there are no illnesses and you do not die. So there has to be an executioner if you will. There are some evil scythes in the book that enjoy the killing and this goes against their creed but everything works out at some point.
I love these characters. I loved them so much. Citra and Rowen are just awesome and Honorable Scythe Faraday is awesome too. Even though he is a killer and has lived hundreds of years, he's a nice man and JUST READ THE BOOK!
Some things happen and Citra and Rowen get separated and are training under different scythes. Citra is under Honorable Scythe Curie and Rowen gets the evil Scythe Goddard <--- I'm not even calling him honorable. He's a twat!
There is a lot more going on in the book and reasons for this that and the other but you can read all of that for yourself.
For me, the book was awesome and that's all I care about. And that ending . . .
YES, JUST YES!!!! 鈾�
MY BLOG:
Here's the youtube video of the book. It's pretty awesome!
I freaking love this book!
Citra and Rowen are two teenagers who get the pleasantry of meeting the honorable Scythe Faraday. No one wants to run into a scythe, much less talk to one or spend any kind of time with one. They have the ability to kill you if they see fit. That is their duty. But Citra and Rowan had the chance to meet this particular scythe and they were both not very pleasant to him. In some cases this could mean they would be gleaned depending on the unpleasantness, but Scythe Faraday was taken with these two individuals and brought them both under his wing as apprentices. Of course neither of them wanted to be apprentices and possibly become scythes themselves. Although there could only be one and it's not the norm for a scythe to take on two apprentices, but such is life.
To be a scythe you have to give up many things, but they are necessary in this new world where there are no illnesses and you do not die. So there has to be an executioner if you will. There are some evil scythes in the book that enjoy the killing and this goes against their creed but everything works out at some point.
I love these characters. I loved them so much. Citra and Rowen are just awesome and Honorable Scythe Faraday is awesome too. Even though he is a killer and has lived hundreds of years, he's a nice man and JUST READ THE BOOK!
Some things happen and Citra and Rowen get separated and are training under different scythes. Citra is under Honorable Scythe Curie and Rowen gets the evil Scythe Goddard <--- I'm not even calling him honorable. He's a twat!
There is a lot more going on in the book and reasons for this that and the other but you can read all of that for yourself.
For me, the book was awesome and that's all I care about. And that ending . . .
YES, JUST YES!!!! 鈾�
MY BLOG:
November 13, 2020
{\__/}
( 鈥� . 鈥�)
/ > 馃摃Kelly, can u handle this?
{\__/}
( 鈥� . 鈥�)
/ > 馃摃Michelle, can u handle this?
{\__/}
( 鈥� . 鈥�)
/ > 馃摃 Beyonc茅, can u handle this?
{\__/}
( 鈥�- 鈥�)
馃摃< \ I don鈥檛 think Kai can handle this
Update:
{\__/}
( 鈥� . 鈥�)
/>馃摃<\ Kai handled it.
and here is what he says:
Scythe was fun but not perfect. I enjoyed the dystopian world and the concept behind it: what if, instead of an apocalypse or WWIII, humanity's future turned out to be a bright one? Death is conquered, humanity has turned immortal, diseases have been wiped out, and where you might have been killed in a car accident in the "mortal age", now, you are can be revived in an instant.
To keep overpopulation in check, Scythedom has been created. At a young age, a few chosen ones are trained to "glean" people, to end their immortal lives forevermore. Citra and Rowan, the main characters, are two of the chosen ones. They are thrown into a world of corruption and deadly secrets.
What I like the most about this book turns out to be its biggest flaw at the same time: the pacing. It's quite fast-paced, which makes it an exciting read because so many things are happening. Then again, because so many things are happening, they become unbelievable, they feel forced and a little exaggerated. I would have loved to see a much slower setup. It would have given Citra and Rowan more depth, it would have added to the world-building, it would have left more room for them to develop a relationship that might eventually turn romantic. At this stage, the feelings they have for each other seem almost staged, because neither character was given enough time and room to really let their personality shine.
Furthermore, I think the Scythedome aka the society of Scythes would have needed a little tweaking. It is such a corrupt system - which, of course, this book is all about - that its existence or creation does not make sense to me in the first place. The Scythes, who are supposed to be wise, well-trained, and therefore very respected people, are actually naive, gullible, and easily manipulated. It did not seem credible to me.
And one last issue that I had with this world: if this is the peak of humanity, why is everything still divided into male and female? A gender-revolution must have happened centuries ago. Where are the non-binary characters? Why is everybody still so very straight?
Okay, I know I talked a lot about this book's flaws and it may seem that I did not actually enjoy it but, on the contrary, I really liked it. It was a new take on dystopia, it had lots of interesting characters (e.g. Scythe Curie or Volta) and great plot twists. I was hooked from the first page and liked where the story went from there on.
I wonder if we will really get to see the film adaption of this book. You can never really tell because so many rights are sold, so many books are optioned for films or TV shows, so many scripts are written, but most of them don't even make it as far as a casting. And if they do, it is not guaranteed that the adaption will be good - most times they aren't. I would still love to see it happen. All we can do is wait and see.
( 鈥� . 鈥�)
/ > 馃摃Kelly, can u handle this?
{\__/}
( 鈥� . 鈥�)
/ > 馃摃Michelle, can u handle this?
{\__/}
( 鈥� . 鈥�)
/ > 馃摃 Beyonc茅, can u handle this?
{\__/}
( 鈥�- 鈥�)
馃摃< \ I don鈥檛 think Kai can handle this
Update:
{\__/}
( 鈥� . 鈥�)
/>馃摃<\ Kai handled it.
and here is what he says:
Scythe was fun but not perfect. I enjoyed the dystopian world and the concept behind it: what if, instead of an apocalypse or WWIII, humanity's future turned out to be a bright one? Death is conquered, humanity has turned immortal, diseases have been wiped out, and where you might have been killed in a car accident in the "mortal age", now, you are can be revived in an instant.
To keep overpopulation in check, Scythedom has been created. At a young age, a few chosen ones are trained to "glean" people, to end their immortal lives forevermore. Citra and Rowan, the main characters, are two of the chosen ones. They are thrown into a world of corruption and deadly secrets.
What I like the most about this book turns out to be its biggest flaw at the same time: the pacing. It's quite fast-paced, which makes it an exciting read because so many things are happening. Then again, because so many things are happening, they become unbelievable, they feel forced and a little exaggerated. I would have loved to see a much slower setup. It would have given Citra and Rowan more depth, it would have added to the world-building, it would have left more room for them to develop a relationship that might eventually turn romantic. At this stage, the feelings they have for each other seem almost staged, because neither character was given enough time and room to really let their personality shine.
Furthermore, I think the Scythedome aka the society of Scythes would have needed a little tweaking. It is such a corrupt system - which, of course, this book is all about - that its existence or creation does not make sense to me in the first place. The Scythes, who are supposed to be wise, well-trained, and therefore very respected people, are actually naive, gullible, and easily manipulated. It did not seem credible to me.
And one last issue that I had with this world: if this is the peak of humanity, why is everything still divided into male and female? A gender-revolution must have happened centuries ago. Where are the non-binary characters? Why is everybody still so very straight?
Okay, I know I talked a lot about this book's flaws and it may seem that I did not actually enjoy it but, on the contrary, I really liked it. It was a new take on dystopia, it had lots of interesting characters (e.g. Scythe Curie or Volta) and great plot twists. I was hooked from the first page and liked where the story went from there on.
I wonder if we will really get to see the film adaption of this book. You can never really tell because so many rights are sold, so many books are optioned for films or TV shows, so many scripts are written, but most of them don't even make it as far as a casting. And if they do, it is not guaranteed that the adaption will be good - most times they aren't. I would still love to see it happen. All we can do is wait and see.
October 28, 2020
WHAT WAS THAT OMG
From all the reviews I expected this book to be good but not this good.
I went in completely blind and this know anything about the plot and it was the best decision because you can't explain a book like this.
At some points I felt so stressed while reading becaude of the plot twist that I just had to put down the book and have a breather. This book was just crazy from begging to end and now I just can't wait to read the next one.
From all the reviews I expected this book to be good but not this good.
I went in completely blind and this know anything about the plot and it was the best decision because you can't explain a book like this.
At some points I felt so stressed while reading becaude of the plot twist that I just had to put down the book and have a breather. This book was just crazy from begging to end and now I just can't wait to read the next one.
February 23, 2020
鈥淢y greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There鈥檚 no version of God that can help us if we ever lose that.鈥�
Every once in a while there comes a book I鈥檓 not prepared for and I guess this year this nomination goes to 鈥沦肠测迟丑别鈥�. I read the blurb and the idea sounded intriguing, all of my fellow goodreaders seemed to enjoy it and so I didn鈥檛 even hesitate when I decided to put the book on 鈥淢y Book List 2020鈥�. So much to the thought process that led me to read this book.
What I didn鈥檛 know and therefore didn鈥檛 take into account was how invested I would be! I mean HOLY FEAKING MOLY!!! This was one hell of a freaky ride and even though my mind is reeling faster than a rat race I still loved every second of it. There were plenty of moments I thought I鈥檇 go bananas and even though the plot twists in 鈥沦肠测迟丑别鈥� weren鈥檛 as brutal as in 鈥� let鈥檚 say 鈥淚lluminae鈥� 鈥� they were still pretty ferocious! Like, really, really, fierce. *lol*
I lost count of how often I went all 鈥淲HAT??!! NO!!! THIS CAN鈥橳 BE TRUE!鈥� and 鈥淎DSFJKLMN脰AKDJASKDFJ鈥� because I just couldn鈥檛 put my exasperation into words! If you take a closer look at my updates while I read the book you might get an idea though! ;-P Still, regardless of my crazy reactions this book was nothing but amazing! I loved how it made me think and question the decisions of the MCs and I adored that even though at first everything in this world seemed to be black and white it ultimately turned out to be all different shades of grey! From light grey to dark-grey and everything in between. Okay, admittedly there was one character that was completely black but I鈥檒l get to that in my characters section.
So without further ado, let鈥檚 get ready to rumble!
The characters:
Beware! You are about to enter the all-seeing and all-knowing Thunderhead! Nothing is secret in here and spoilers will hit you at every corner! If you鈥檙e not ready to know it all you better retreat and come back another time! ;-P
Citra Terranova:
鈥漎ou see through the facades of the world, Citra Terranova. You鈥檇 make a good scythe.鈥�
Citra recoiled. 鈥淚鈥檇 never want to be one.鈥�
鈥淭hat,鈥� he said, 鈥渋s the first requirement.鈥�
Then he left to kill their neighbor.
I just noticed that this is the only quote I wrote down when it comes to Citra! Which is pretty strange but then again I think nothing gives a better first impression about her character than this statement. Citra doesn鈥檛 want to be a Scythe and when she starts her apprenticeship with Scythe Faraday she always seems to ask the right questions. Citra was a really interesting character because she never took things for granted. There was always her curiosity that caused her to second guess decisions others made and I loved to watch how she grew into her role! I鈥檓 sure she鈥檒l make a really good Scythe and I have absolutely no doubt that she鈥檒l glean with compassion. Citra was lucky to have Scythe Faraday and Scythe Curie as her mentors and boy did I wish Rowan would have had the same training! >_<
Rowan Damisch:
鈥滳an you at least give him a few minutes to prepare?鈥� Rowan asked.
鈥淎re you telling me how to do my job?鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 asking you for some mercy!鈥�
I LOVED ROWAN!!!! Mostly because I could relate to him so much! That boy had guts and whilst Citra asked the right questions he refused to make the wrong decisions. <3 I hated that he became Scythe Goddard鈥檚 apprentice and I felt so damn sorry for him! I wish he would have gotten a nice Scythe like Curie but of course he had to end up with Goddard. =(( I swear I felt so much with him. He had to survive his apprenticeship with that despicable man and all the time he knew that he鈥檇 eventually die at the hands of Citra in the end. For Rowan there was no doubt that she鈥檇 become a Scythe and it broke my heart!!! T_T His constant fight against becoming a monster was so painful to watch. It were his circumstances that forced him to act in a way he never wanted to and it were his circumstances that made him the man he became at the end. Gosh, my heart is still bleeding for him! There is so much good in Rowan and no one is able to see it because they only see Scythe Goddard鈥檚 training. It鈥檚 so unfair, I can鈥檛 even!!!!! ADFLKASDFJASLKDFJASDLKFSAJDF! Erm, yes, I guess it鈥檚 obvious that I still feel very strongly about this! *lol* My poor boy! *sobs* Also Scythe Volta鈥� I鈥檒l never get over his death. He was so broken at the end. T_T
鈥漀umb. Rowan could feel himself growing numb 鈥� and while it might have been a good thing for his beleaguered sanity, it was not a good thing for his soul.鈥�
鈥滱nd Rowan found himself smiling. Something had torn loose inside of him. He didn鈥檛 know whether it was a good thing or not. And while part of him felt like falling to his knees and hurling up breakfast, another part of him wanted to howl to the moon like a wolf.鈥�
鈥滺e was too quick. He hurled himself like a fireball down the center aisle. The scythes closest to him leaped into action, trying to stop him, but he kicked and spun, and sliced and flipped. No one could get a hand on him. To Scythe Anastasia he seemed some deadly force of nature.鈥�
Scythe Goddard:
鈥滾et鈥檚 clarify,鈥� Goddard said calmly. 鈥淲e are not here to barter and bargain. We are scythes 鈥� which means that by law, anything we want we can take. Any life we wish to end, we will. Simple as that. You have no power here. Do I make myself clear?鈥�
I ABSOLUTELY HATED THIS MAN!!! With the fierce fire of a thousand hells and the burning eternity of the sun!! ARGH!!! Just to think about him already makes me angry! How dare he to play god? How dare he to kill for pleasure?! In his hands Scythedom became nothing but a brutal sport! He misused his power in the worst possible way and I was not okay with his training methods! Those people they killed for sport were still living, breathing and feeling human beings! Just because they could be revived doesn鈥檛 mean that it was okay to slaughter them like that. His teachings were so unacceptable and morally reprehensible, I have no words!!! The problem with Goddard was that between his madness and his wish to feel pleasure when he did this job, there were still moments when his words rang true and appealed to people like us who still live in a world in which you feel pain and die. I mean if you can live forever and never have to worry about death when you do something stupid, are you even capable of enjoying your life? Isn鈥檛 every day just like the last? There comes a certain thrill with being mortal and I suppose they lost this after the Thunderhead and Scythedom were invented. So maybe people like Goddard were a homemade problem of the invention of those two? I dunno. Boy, this book made me think so much. >_<
鈥漈ake great satisfaction and pleasure in this, Rowan,鈥� said Scythe Goddard, 鈥渙r you鈥檒l be nothing more than a killing machine.鈥�
锟斤拷锟絎e are angels of death,鈥� said Scythe Goddard. 鈥淚t is only fitting that we swoop in from the heavens.鈥�
Scythe Faraday:
鈥滺a!鈥� said the unsavoury, puffing up at his strategic triumph. 鈥淚鈥檝e got immunity for a year 鈥� and you can鈥檛 undo it! I know the rules!鈥�
Scythe Faraday was unfazed. 鈥淵es, good for you,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou have three hundred sixty-five days of immunity.鈥� And then, looking him in the eye, said, 鈥淎nd I鈥檒l be seeing you on day three hundred sixty-six.鈥�
I really liked Scythe Faraday and the way he taught Citra and Rowan. If there would have been more Scythes like him they probably would have never had the trouble with Scythe Goddard. Faraday still had compassion for the people he gleaned even though I鈥檝e to admit that I sometimes didn鈥檛 like the way he did it. I understand that he wanted to give every person an individual death because in our world people die from various and different reasons and he wanted to keep close to the origins of mortality. I would have never been able to drown someone though. It鈥檚 a cruel way to go and if the people you glean are already afraid of you it would have been merciful to gift them with a quick death. I mean the moment a Scythe tells you that you鈥檙e going to be gleaned you feel afraid, you feel all those feelings you eluded for decades, maybe even centuries. So they ARE scared shitless and worry about their family and friends. With the prospect of imminent death they become so very human again and I couldn鈥檛 for the life of me, glean them with a painful or cruel method. So yeah, I suppose even Scythe Faraday had his grey sides.
鈥漀ever lose your humanity,鈥� Scythe Faraday had told him, 鈥渙r you鈥檒l be nothing more than a killing machine.鈥�
Scythe Curie:
鈥漈he killers are rising to power,鈥� Scythe Curie said. 鈥淎nd if they do, the days of this world will be very dark indeed. It is left to the truly honourable scythes to stand firm against it. I look forward to the day you join in that fight.鈥�
Judging by the way Scythe Curie acted I would have never believed that she and Scythe Faraday had a romantic relationship! They did though and that was quite some revelation. *lol* I admit at first I was no big fan of her. I mean the first test Citra and Rowan had to take was so unfair! All the others got questions that had to do with their apprenticeship and Citra and Rowan got really personal questions no person in their right mind would have answered truthfully in a room full of Scythes! Like seriously! How could you even ask them a question like that!? I mean okay, Rowan鈥檚 question would have been easy to answer but still, I understand why he didn鈥檛 want to yell it out into the world. XD Still, the more I got to know Scythe Curie the better I began to understand her motives. I was glad that she didn鈥檛 only believe Citra but also helped her to escape into another country. The machinations of Scythe Goddard were quite effective but in the end Citra鈥檚 reputation was restored and no one believed that she killed Faraday. Jeez! His suicide was a surprise and that Citra was accused of murdering him was just the icing on the cake! I never saw those plot twists coming!
The relationships & ships:
Citra & Rowan:
鈥漈hey were partners; they were adversaries 鈥� and Rowan found it increasingly hard to parse his feelings about her. All he knew was that he liked watching her write.鈥�
Their relationship was doomed right from the moment they met! At first they had to compete for an apprenticeship neither of them even wanted and then they were sentenced to kill whoever failed to get said apprenticeship! Which was so UNFAIR I CAN鈥橳 EVEN!!!! Hell, was I angry when I read about the decision of the Conclave. How dare they to force them to make each other their first gleaning? ARGH!!! There were so many obstacles that got in their way and all I wanted was for them to be happy! No matter what happened, no matter how much they grew apart they still loved each other and this made all the difference! They trusted each other even though others didn鈥檛 and I loved them for their faith! <33 That moment when Rowan broke Citra鈥檚 neck though!!! AAKDFSAFJDSAKFDJ! I can鈥檛 believe he actually did this and I can鈥檛 believe Citra saw through it!!! And that FREAKING ENDING??!!! I was just glad I wasn鈥檛 on my lounger at my parent鈥檚 garden. Otherwise I would have swallowed about a thousand gnats. Yes, I was so gobsmacked I wasn鈥檛 able to close my mouth! *lol* Citra saving Rowan by getting his blood on her ring was such a calculated and smooth move I couldn鈥檛 help but be in awe of her genius! Just brilliant! Also they said I love you!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!! *dies a thousand deaths*
鈥滻t鈥檚 good to see you, Citra,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it hurts to see you. It hurts a lot, and I don鈥檛 know what to do about it.鈥�
He thought he could not be more impressed by her. She had just proved him wrong.
鈥淚 love you,鈥� he said.
鈥淪ame here,鈥� she responded. 鈥淣ow get lost.鈥�
Scythe Goddard & Rowan:
鈥漈hat鈥檚 such a load of crap.鈥� Rowan said, not even caring what response it might evoke.
Goddard merely raised an eyebrow. 鈥淧erhaps 鈥� but you can鈥檛 deny this is a turning point in your life, and every turning point must be marked by an event 鈥� one that burns itself into you as indelibly as a brand.鈥�
O_o Their relationship was sooo twisted and it blew my mind big time. And their dynamic? Well, it was crazy! I mean Goddard was Rowan鈥檚 mentor and taught him all the wrong things, yet Rowan refused to become the killing machine Goddard wanted him to be. He became a killing machine with a conscience instead and I still don鈥檛 know if this is good or bad. Rowan certainly didn鈥檛 choose the easy path and I loved how he defied Goddard whenever he got a chance. Also one of the strangest things about their relationship was that Goddard actually seemed to be awed by Rowan鈥檚 skill. He was proud of him the way a parent would have been and he sort of admired him as well?! Their relationship was so weird鈥� Poor Rowan, I guess in the end he partly became what he never wanted to be. The suicide of Scythe Volta was such a shock but what shocked me even more was how Rowan slaughtered Goddard and his followers. That chapter at the Tonist cult was so 鈥� OMG!! Hell, he killed them all and made it look like it was an accident! He killed Scythes and no one could prove it! JEEZ! He gleaned them and made sure that nothing of their remains was left so they couldn鈥檛 be resurrected again! ADLFASDFJSALDFJASLDFJALSDFJSALDFJ! I think I鈥檒l never get over this! I love Rowan so much but this was so, so鈥� wrong. ARGH! Also his name as a Scythe! Scythe Lucifer!!! So perfect but also so GAH! Seriously, I just can鈥檛 put my emotions into words. *pulls at hair*
鈥漌e could have been called reapers,鈥� Goddard said, 鈥渂ut our founders saw fit to call us scythes 鈥� because we are the weapons in mankind鈥檚 immortal hand. You are a fine weapon, Rowan, sharp, and precise. And when you strike, you are glorious to behold.鈥�
鈥滻 am what you made me,鈥� he told Goddard. 鈥淎nd you鈥檙e right: I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that more than anything I鈥檝e ever done in my life.鈥�
Conclusion:
The more I think about this book the more I get agitated! 鈥沦肠测迟丑别鈥� blew my mind in the best and worst possible way and I think it鈥檚 undeniable that it was thought-provoking as hell! It is one of those rare books that still resonates in your head even though you finished it weeks ago! It poses the right questions but leaves the answers up to you and I don鈥檛 know about you, but I for my part, am hooked! Suspenseful, mind blowing, thought-provoking and extremely unsettling! Ladies and Gents, this is the real deal! ;-)
Every once in a while there comes a book I鈥檓 not prepared for and I guess this year this nomination goes to 鈥沦肠测迟丑别鈥�. I read the blurb and the idea sounded intriguing, all of my fellow goodreaders seemed to enjoy it and so I didn鈥檛 even hesitate when I decided to put the book on 鈥淢y Book List 2020鈥�. So much to the thought process that led me to read this book.
What I didn鈥檛 know and therefore didn鈥檛 take into account was how invested I would be! I mean HOLY FEAKING MOLY!!! This was one hell of a freaky ride and even though my mind is reeling faster than a rat race I still loved every second of it. There were plenty of moments I thought I鈥檇 go bananas and even though the plot twists in 鈥沦肠测迟丑别鈥� weren鈥檛 as brutal as in 鈥� let鈥檚 say 鈥淚lluminae鈥� 鈥� they were still pretty ferocious! Like, really, really, fierce. *lol*
I lost count of how often I went all 鈥淲HAT??!! NO!!! THIS CAN鈥橳 BE TRUE!鈥� and 鈥淎DSFJKLMN脰AKDJASKDFJ鈥� because I just couldn鈥檛 put my exasperation into words! If you take a closer look at my updates while I read the book you might get an idea though! ;-P Still, regardless of my crazy reactions this book was nothing but amazing! I loved how it made me think and question the decisions of the MCs and I adored that even though at first everything in this world seemed to be black and white it ultimately turned out to be all different shades of grey! From light grey to dark-grey and everything in between. Okay, admittedly there was one character that was completely black but I鈥檒l get to that in my characters section.
So without further ado, let鈥檚 get ready to rumble!
The characters:
Beware! You are about to enter the all-seeing and all-knowing Thunderhead! Nothing is secret in here and spoilers will hit you at every corner! If you鈥檙e not ready to know it all you better retreat and come back another time! ;-P
Citra Terranova:
鈥漎ou see through the facades of the world, Citra Terranova. You鈥檇 make a good scythe.鈥�
Citra recoiled. 鈥淚鈥檇 never want to be one.鈥�
鈥淭hat,鈥� he said, 鈥渋s the first requirement.鈥�
Then he left to kill their neighbor.
I just noticed that this is the only quote I wrote down when it comes to Citra! Which is pretty strange but then again I think nothing gives a better first impression about her character than this statement. Citra doesn鈥檛 want to be a Scythe and when she starts her apprenticeship with Scythe Faraday she always seems to ask the right questions. Citra was a really interesting character because she never took things for granted. There was always her curiosity that caused her to second guess decisions others made and I loved to watch how she grew into her role! I鈥檓 sure she鈥檒l make a really good Scythe and I have absolutely no doubt that she鈥檒l glean with compassion. Citra was lucky to have Scythe Faraday and Scythe Curie as her mentors and boy did I wish Rowan would have had the same training! >_<
Rowan Damisch:
鈥滳an you at least give him a few minutes to prepare?鈥� Rowan asked.
鈥淎re you telling me how to do my job?鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 asking you for some mercy!鈥�
I LOVED ROWAN!!!! Mostly because I could relate to him so much! That boy had guts and whilst Citra asked the right questions he refused to make the wrong decisions. <3 I hated that he became Scythe Goddard鈥檚 apprentice and I felt so damn sorry for him! I wish he would have gotten a nice Scythe like Curie but of course he had to end up with Goddard. =(( I swear I felt so much with him. He had to survive his apprenticeship with that despicable man and all the time he knew that he鈥檇 eventually die at the hands of Citra in the end. For Rowan there was no doubt that she鈥檇 become a Scythe and it broke my heart!!! T_T His constant fight against becoming a monster was so painful to watch. It were his circumstances that forced him to act in a way he never wanted to and it were his circumstances that made him the man he became at the end. Gosh, my heart is still bleeding for him! There is so much good in Rowan and no one is able to see it because they only see Scythe Goddard鈥檚 training. It鈥檚 so unfair, I can鈥檛 even!!!!! ADFLKASDFJASLKDFJASDLKFSAJDF! Erm, yes, I guess it鈥檚 obvious that I still feel very strongly about this! *lol* My poor boy! *sobs* Also Scythe Volta鈥� I鈥檒l never get over his death. He was so broken at the end. T_T
鈥漀umb. Rowan could feel himself growing numb 鈥� and while it might have been a good thing for his beleaguered sanity, it was not a good thing for his soul.鈥�
鈥滱nd Rowan found himself smiling. Something had torn loose inside of him. He didn鈥檛 know whether it was a good thing or not. And while part of him felt like falling to his knees and hurling up breakfast, another part of him wanted to howl to the moon like a wolf.鈥�
鈥滺e was too quick. He hurled himself like a fireball down the center aisle. The scythes closest to him leaped into action, trying to stop him, but he kicked and spun, and sliced and flipped. No one could get a hand on him. To Scythe Anastasia he seemed some deadly force of nature.鈥�
Scythe Goddard:
鈥滾et鈥檚 clarify,鈥� Goddard said calmly. 鈥淲e are not here to barter and bargain. We are scythes 鈥� which means that by law, anything we want we can take. Any life we wish to end, we will. Simple as that. You have no power here. Do I make myself clear?鈥�
I ABSOLUTELY HATED THIS MAN!!! With the fierce fire of a thousand hells and the burning eternity of the sun!! ARGH!!! Just to think about him already makes me angry! How dare he to play god? How dare he to kill for pleasure?! In his hands Scythedom became nothing but a brutal sport! He misused his power in the worst possible way and I was not okay with his training methods! Those people they killed for sport were still living, breathing and feeling human beings! Just because they could be revived doesn鈥檛 mean that it was okay to slaughter them like that. His teachings were so unacceptable and morally reprehensible, I have no words!!! The problem with Goddard was that between his madness and his wish to feel pleasure when he did this job, there were still moments when his words rang true and appealed to people like us who still live in a world in which you feel pain and die. I mean if you can live forever and never have to worry about death when you do something stupid, are you even capable of enjoying your life? Isn鈥檛 every day just like the last? There comes a certain thrill with being mortal and I suppose they lost this after the Thunderhead and Scythedom were invented. So maybe people like Goddard were a homemade problem of the invention of those two? I dunno. Boy, this book made me think so much. >_<
鈥漈ake great satisfaction and pleasure in this, Rowan,鈥� said Scythe Goddard, 鈥渙r you鈥檒l be nothing more than a killing machine.鈥�
锟斤拷锟絎e are angels of death,鈥� said Scythe Goddard. 鈥淚t is only fitting that we swoop in from the heavens.鈥�
Scythe Faraday:
鈥滺a!鈥� said the unsavoury, puffing up at his strategic triumph. 鈥淚鈥檝e got immunity for a year 鈥� and you can鈥檛 undo it! I know the rules!鈥�
Scythe Faraday was unfazed. 鈥淵es, good for you,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou have three hundred sixty-five days of immunity.鈥� And then, looking him in the eye, said, 鈥淎nd I鈥檒l be seeing you on day three hundred sixty-six.鈥�
I really liked Scythe Faraday and the way he taught Citra and Rowan. If there would have been more Scythes like him they probably would have never had the trouble with Scythe Goddard. Faraday still had compassion for the people he gleaned even though I鈥檝e to admit that I sometimes didn鈥檛 like the way he did it. I understand that he wanted to give every person an individual death because in our world people die from various and different reasons and he wanted to keep close to the origins of mortality. I would have never been able to drown someone though. It鈥檚 a cruel way to go and if the people you glean are already afraid of you it would have been merciful to gift them with a quick death. I mean the moment a Scythe tells you that you鈥檙e going to be gleaned you feel afraid, you feel all those feelings you eluded for decades, maybe even centuries. So they ARE scared shitless and worry about their family and friends. With the prospect of imminent death they become so very human again and I couldn鈥檛 for the life of me, glean them with a painful or cruel method. So yeah, I suppose even Scythe Faraday had his grey sides.
鈥漀ever lose your humanity,鈥� Scythe Faraday had told him, 鈥渙r you鈥檒l be nothing more than a killing machine.鈥�
Scythe Curie:
鈥漈he killers are rising to power,鈥� Scythe Curie said. 鈥淎nd if they do, the days of this world will be very dark indeed. It is left to the truly honourable scythes to stand firm against it. I look forward to the day you join in that fight.鈥�
Judging by the way Scythe Curie acted I would have never believed that she and Scythe Faraday had a romantic relationship! They did though and that was quite some revelation. *lol* I admit at first I was no big fan of her. I mean the first test Citra and Rowan had to take was so unfair! All the others got questions that had to do with their apprenticeship and Citra and Rowan got really personal questions no person in their right mind would have answered truthfully in a room full of Scythes! Like seriously! How could you even ask them a question like that!? I mean okay, Rowan鈥檚 question would have been easy to answer but still, I understand why he didn鈥檛 want to yell it out into the world. XD Still, the more I got to know Scythe Curie the better I began to understand her motives. I was glad that she didn鈥檛 only believe Citra but also helped her to escape into another country. The machinations of Scythe Goddard were quite effective but in the end Citra鈥檚 reputation was restored and no one believed that she killed Faraday. Jeez! His suicide was a surprise and that Citra was accused of murdering him was just the icing on the cake! I never saw those plot twists coming!
The relationships & ships:
Citra & Rowan:
鈥漈hey were partners; they were adversaries 鈥� and Rowan found it increasingly hard to parse his feelings about her. All he knew was that he liked watching her write.鈥�
Their relationship was doomed right from the moment they met! At first they had to compete for an apprenticeship neither of them even wanted and then they were sentenced to kill whoever failed to get said apprenticeship! Which was so UNFAIR I CAN鈥橳 EVEN!!!! Hell, was I angry when I read about the decision of the Conclave. How dare they to force them to make each other their first gleaning? ARGH!!! There were so many obstacles that got in their way and all I wanted was for them to be happy! No matter what happened, no matter how much they grew apart they still loved each other and this made all the difference! They trusted each other even though others didn鈥檛 and I loved them for their faith! <33 That moment when Rowan broke Citra鈥檚 neck though!!! AAKDFSAFJDSAKFDJ! I can鈥檛 believe he actually did this and I can鈥檛 believe Citra saw through it!!! And that FREAKING ENDING??!!! I was just glad I wasn鈥檛 on my lounger at my parent鈥檚 garden. Otherwise I would have swallowed about a thousand gnats. Yes, I was so gobsmacked I wasn鈥檛 able to close my mouth! *lol* Citra saving Rowan by getting his blood on her ring was such a calculated and smooth move I couldn鈥檛 help but be in awe of her genius! Just brilliant! Also they said I love you!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!! *dies a thousand deaths*
鈥滻t鈥檚 good to see you, Citra,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it hurts to see you. It hurts a lot, and I don鈥檛 know what to do about it.鈥�
He thought he could not be more impressed by her. She had just proved him wrong.
鈥淚 love you,鈥� he said.
鈥淪ame here,鈥� she responded. 鈥淣ow get lost.鈥�
Scythe Goddard & Rowan:
鈥漈hat鈥檚 such a load of crap.鈥� Rowan said, not even caring what response it might evoke.
Goddard merely raised an eyebrow. 鈥淧erhaps 鈥� but you can鈥檛 deny this is a turning point in your life, and every turning point must be marked by an event 鈥� one that burns itself into you as indelibly as a brand.鈥�
O_o Their relationship was sooo twisted and it blew my mind big time. And their dynamic? Well, it was crazy! I mean Goddard was Rowan鈥檚 mentor and taught him all the wrong things, yet Rowan refused to become the killing machine Goddard wanted him to be. He became a killing machine with a conscience instead and I still don鈥檛 know if this is good or bad. Rowan certainly didn鈥檛 choose the easy path and I loved how he defied Goddard whenever he got a chance. Also one of the strangest things about their relationship was that Goddard actually seemed to be awed by Rowan鈥檚 skill. He was proud of him the way a parent would have been and he sort of admired him as well?! Their relationship was so weird鈥� Poor Rowan, I guess in the end he partly became what he never wanted to be. The suicide of Scythe Volta was such a shock but what shocked me even more was how Rowan slaughtered Goddard and his followers. That chapter at the Tonist cult was so 鈥� OMG!! Hell, he killed them all and made it look like it was an accident! He killed Scythes and no one could prove it! JEEZ! He gleaned them and made sure that nothing of their remains was left so they couldn鈥檛 be resurrected again! ADLFASDFJSALDFJASLDFJALSDFJSALDFJ! I think I鈥檒l never get over this! I love Rowan so much but this was so, so鈥� wrong. ARGH! Also his name as a Scythe! Scythe Lucifer!!! So perfect but also so GAH! Seriously, I just can鈥檛 put my emotions into words. *pulls at hair*
鈥漌e could have been called reapers,鈥� Goddard said, 鈥渂ut our founders saw fit to call us scythes 鈥� because we are the weapons in mankind鈥檚 immortal hand. You are a fine weapon, Rowan, sharp, and precise. And when you strike, you are glorious to behold.鈥�
鈥滻 am what you made me,鈥� he told Goddard. 鈥淎nd you鈥檙e right: I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that more than anything I鈥檝e ever done in my life.鈥�
Conclusion:
The more I think about this book the more I get agitated! 鈥沦肠测迟丑别鈥� blew my mind in the best and worst possible way and I think it鈥檚 undeniable that it was thought-provoking as hell! It is one of those rare books that still resonates in your head even though you finished it weeks ago! It poses the right questions but leaves the answers up to you and I don鈥檛 know about you, but I for my part, am hooked! Suspenseful, mind blowing, thought-provoking and extremely unsettling! Ladies and Gents, this is the real deal! ;-)
May 10, 2022
I skip the auction part! Five gazillion stars! Sold!
This is deliciously mind blowing, entertaining, heart throbbing, visionary, intelligent, powerful and fantastic page-turner!
Can you hear the banging sounds? That鈥檚 me again! I鈥檓 so angry with myself to wait too long for reading this precious, amazingly yummy masterpiece at my tbr mountain( this is officially highest place on the earth. At the weekends I start to rent my tbr list to the climbers to exceed their records!)
Citra, powerful, straightforward, brave, disciplined and Rowan; loyal, honest, smart, depressed. I love how they compete each other. I think their romance parts are a little haphazardly developed because I still have doubts how they attracted each other and fell in love so quickly. But I love their story鈥檚 riveting progression. Especially the parts when they are separated and instructed by different scythes, I love to see how they grow instantly and start to carry the big burden of the profession they were chosen to perform!
The structure of the Scythedom and 10 commandments of Scythe world are impeccably builded. We鈥檙e talking about a future world already solved the crucial threats: There are no wars,hunger, plagues. If you have an accident, pushed down from stairs or crashed by a truck, don鈥檛 worry, they can fix you! But nobody wants to live in over populated world because resources are limited and somebody should be GLEANED! And scythes are for this job! So they鈥檙e both playing God as decision maker and grim reapers! What a fantastic job, I should check out my resume! (Kidding! I鈥檒l never be fair by starting gleaning or cleaning my irritating neighbors!!!)
I haven鈥檛 read something provocatively intriguing, testing your conscious and your beliefs, values about human鈥檚 lives so intensely! Shusterman is a magician who easily touches the words, developing amazing, futuristic design and creative, exciting story-lines which you pray it never ends and in the meantime makes you curious what鈥檚 gonna happen next!
And of course I couldn鈥檛 expect more than this cliffhanger and surprising, witty ending!
Do I want to spend more time in Scythedom! Yes please, this is best holiday deal a person can get!!!
This is deliciously mind blowing, entertaining, heart throbbing, visionary, intelligent, powerful and fantastic page-turner!
Can you hear the banging sounds? That鈥檚 me again! I鈥檓 so angry with myself to wait too long for reading this precious, amazingly yummy masterpiece at my tbr mountain( this is officially highest place on the earth. At the weekends I start to rent my tbr list to the climbers to exceed their records!)
Citra, powerful, straightforward, brave, disciplined and Rowan; loyal, honest, smart, depressed. I love how they compete each other. I think their romance parts are a little haphazardly developed because I still have doubts how they attracted each other and fell in love so quickly. But I love their story鈥檚 riveting progression. Especially the parts when they are separated and instructed by different scythes, I love to see how they grow instantly and start to carry the big burden of the profession they were chosen to perform!
The structure of the Scythedom and 10 commandments of Scythe world are impeccably builded. We鈥檙e talking about a future world already solved the crucial threats: There are no wars,hunger, plagues. If you have an accident, pushed down from stairs or crashed by a truck, don鈥檛 worry, they can fix you! But nobody wants to live in over populated world because resources are limited and somebody should be GLEANED! And scythes are for this job! So they鈥檙e both playing God as decision maker and grim reapers! What a fantastic job, I should check out my resume! (Kidding! I鈥檒l never be fair by starting gleaning or cleaning my irritating neighbors!!!)
I haven鈥檛 read something provocatively intriguing, testing your conscious and your beliefs, values about human鈥檚 lives so intensely! Shusterman is a magician who easily touches the words, developing amazing, futuristic design and creative, exciting story-lines which you pray it never ends and in the meantime makes you curious what鈥檚 gonna happen next!
And of course I couldn鈥檛 expect more than this cliffhanger and surprising, witty ending!
Do I want to spend more time in Scythedom! Yes please, this is best holiday deal a person can get!!!
July 25, 2023
4,25/5
No witaj, przysz艂a ulubiona trylogio!
No witaj, przysz艂a ulubiona trylogio!
August 14, 2023
Aug 2023 
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Jan 2018: Spontaneous reread in anticipation of :)
the thought process went a little like this -
Me: I should focus on my planned reads for this month and not get behind when we鈥檙e only 3 days into the new year!
Insidious inner voices: ssssssssssscythe!!!
Me: you make some really good points
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Scythe defies all YA tropes and is incredibly quotable. What more can you ask for?
Exhibit A:
The story takes place in a world beyond natural death, where disease and aging is eradicated and accidental death can be reversed in a hospital. It's a pretty great place to live, overall.
If, at this point, you're thinking, "Oh of course, I know this story type. They'll fall in love and it'll be star-crossed and I've definitely read this kind of book before." STOP. This book is full of surprises and ass-kicking plot twists that will blow your mind. Obviously since it concerns professional killers there is quite a bit of moral and philosophical talk, but it only adds to the unique value of Scythe.
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺€斺€斺€�
Jan 2018: Spontaneous reread in anticipation of :)
the thought process went a little like this -
Me: I should focus on my planned reads for this month and not get behind when we鈥檙e only 3 days into the new year!
Insidious inner voices: ssssssssssscythe!!!
Me: you make some really good points
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺€斺€斺€�
Scythe defies all YA tropes and is incredibly quotable. What more can you ask for?
Exhibit A:
"I think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity."
"Welcome to life as a god," Scythe Volta said to him. While behind them the building burned to the ground.
The story takes place in a world beyond natural death, where disease and aging is eradicated and accidental death can be reversed in a hospital. It's a pretty great place to live, overall.
The concept of a B seat, where one had to sit between two other airplane passengers, had been eliminated along with other unpleasant things, like disease and government.The only way to die permanently is to be murdered ("gleaned" is the euphemism used) by a Scythe, a socially condoned killer whose job is to keep the population in check. All of earth is ruled an AI called the Thunderhead, both an omniscient database and a conscious benevolent entity; the only thing not controlled by the Thunderhead is the Scythedom, which has a self-governing body reminiscent of the current US Congress. The action kicks in when two teenagers, Rowan and Citra, are chosen to become Scythe apprentices.
If, at this point, you're thinking, "Oh of course, I know this story type. They'll fall in love and it'll be star-crossed and I've definitely read this kind of book before." STOP. This book is full of surprises and ass-kicking plot twists that will blow your mind. Obviously since it concerns professional killers there is quite a bit of moral and philosophical talk, but it only adds to the unique value of Scythe.
Want to read
December 9, 2019The ratings are insane. Is it THAT good?
February 10, 2017
I didn't know what to expect going into this book, and wanted to read it because 1. Neal Shusterman is an incredible writer and 2. Anything with a scythe on the cover has my interest.
This turned out to be a fascinating book that made me think much more deeply about death, but more importantly, about modern life and how the challenges we face in it are what make it worth living. Neal creates a truly original utopian world that looks great on the surface, but has a pretty nasty underbelly (like all realistic utopias.) The politics in the world of Scythes is intricate and realistic and well done. The characters were quite distinct (it's a dual narrative) and their development is portrayed very honestly. Though there were a few plot devices I wasn't quite sure about at first, they all smoothed out in the end to make for a book that's fast-paced, but also deeply thoughtful. Definitely recommend this one.
This turned out to be a fascinating book that made me think much more deeply about death, but more importantly, about modern life and how the challenges we face in it are what make it worth living. Neal creates a truly original utopian world that looks great on the surface, but has a pretty nasty underbelly (like all realistic utopias.) The politics in the world of Scythes is intricate and realistic and well done. The characters were quite distinct (it's a dual narrative) and their development is portrayed very honestly. Though there were a few plot devices I wasn't quite sure about at first, they all smoothed out in the end to make for a book that's fast-paced, but also deeply thoughtful. Definitely recommend this one.
September 2, 2019
THE HYPE IS REAL WITH THIS ONE GUYS!
鈥淗umanity is innocent; humanity is guilty, and both states are undeniably true.鈥�
This book got me through my 2 hour long delay at the airport on my way back from Turkey. I鈥檇 heard such good things, I had pretty high hopes, and I was not disappointed.
In a world where humans have conquered death, Scythes are chosen to glean which effectively means to methodically kill people, to ensure that the Earth鈥檚 population doesn鈥檛 overrun. All matters of life are now controlled by the Thunderhead 鈥� a conscious AI that handles all food and wealth distribution, medical care and anything else required for living on Earth.
Rowan and Citra are chosen by Scythe Faraday to be apprentice Scythes, to learn what it takes to become a Scythe, and Faraday will select one of them in the end to become a fully pledged Scythe. However, the Scythedom is full of corruption, and the other Scythes decide that to spice things up, the winner must Glean the loser.
Rowan and Citra are now in a battle for their lives, and as the evil within the Scythedom grows, there is worry for its future. Scythes than Glean hundreds or thousands of people at a time, Scythes that deliberately choose unnecessarily cruel methods for their Gleaning, Scythes that have begun to lose their humanity.
This was such a unique concept. It鈥檚 pretty dark, but so believable; a dystopia handled with enough fear and detail to weave an intricate tale of what would happen to humans if we no longer had natural death.
4 stars!
鈥淗umanity is innocent; humanity is guilty, and both states are undeniably true.鈥�
This book got me through my 2 hour long delay at the airport on my way back from Turkey. I鈥檇 heard such good things, I had pretty high hopes, and I was not disappointed.
In a world where humans have conquered death, Scythes are chosen to glean which effectively means to methodically kill people, to ensure that the Earth鈥檚 population doesn鈥檛 overrun. All matters of life are now controlled by the Thunderhead 鈥� a conscious AI that handles all food and wealth distribution, medical care and anything else required for living on Earth.
Rowan and Citra are chosen by Scythe Faraday to be apprentice Scythes, to learn what it takes to become a Scythe, and Faraday will select one of them in the end to become a fully pledged Scythe. However, the Scythedom is full of corruption, and the other Scythes decide that to spice things up, the winner must Glean the loser.
Rowan and Citra are now in a battle for their lives, and as the evil within the Scythedom grows, there is worry for its future. Scythes than Glean hundreds or thousands of people at a time, Scythes that deliberately choose unnecessarily cruel methods for their Gleaning, Scythes that have begun to lose their humanity.
This was such a unique concept. It鈥檚 pretty dark, but so believable; a dystopia handled with enough fear and detail to weave an intricate tale of what would happen to humans if we no longer had natural death.
4 stars!
May 13, 2021
Humanity has reached the great plateau - there's truly nothing left to do. They've conquered world hunger, disease, war....even death itself.
The world is at a standstill and there truly isn't a thing left to do.
But...such begs the question.
If the world is plateauing...how would you deal with population control?
The answer is scythes - the only approved way to render someone dead - not deadish, but actually dead.
Citra and Rowan are both chosen to be apprenticed under the honorable scythe Faraday. An older scythe who teaches them the art of gleaning - with heavy emphasis on respect and honesty.
And as they learn the practice, they begin to understand and appreciate the nobility and strength that one needs to undergo such a career.
However, something nefarious is underfoot. Not all scythes are as good as Faraday...in fact, some of them are just plain murderous.
All in all, I was pretty dang impressed with this book.
It started really slow - and it was almost to the point that I was going to put it down and just not deal with it for a while...but then...wow.
The book turned around so well at the halfway point and then boom-boom-boom - one sucker punch to the gut after another.
It was absolutely amazing. I literally could not want for any more.
Now excuse me, book 2 is calling my name!
| | | | | Snapchat @miranda_reads
May 29, 2017
This book was a very pleasant surprise! Since the YA library of fiction has become saturated with dystopian tales, it is often hard to find originality. Because of that, the stories quickly become boring because we have "been there, done that". That is not the case here!
Key pros:
- Unique story, well presented
- Great characters
- Action and suspense
- Little (if any) filler
- Left me wanting more
Key con:
- St. Louis is not the capital of Missouri
If you are a fan of YA - especially YA dystopian fiction - you owe it to yourself to check this out. I am 99.9% sure you will love this, too.
Key pros:
- Unique story, well presented
- Great characters
- Action and suspense
- Little (if any) filler
- Left me wanting more
Key con:
- St. Louis is not the capital of Missouri
If you are a fan of YA - especially YA dystopian fiction - you owe it to yourself to check this out. I am 99.9% sure you will love this, too.
June 6, 2017
Pros:
- The world-building is surprisingly unique and deep for a YA dystopian novel. Shusterman goes beyond the dystopian hook and explores the dynamics of an immortal society that implements controlled deaths.
- My favorite parts were the journal excerpts from the scythes - they really strengthen the theme of the book and ask readers to think more critically about morality.
- The side characters (Curie, Faraday, and Goddard) and their different ideologies are interesting to read about - more so than the main characters themselves. I'd be willing to read standalone books from their perspectives.
- Very quotable.
Cons:
- The main characters and their dynamic are basically the Diet Coke version of Katniss and Peeta. Their romance is completely unnecessary and they would have fared better as childhood friends.
- The universe is portrayed as very black and white, where scythes are either obviously good or bad. There aren't any gray areas, which would have helped make the story deeper.
- The inner turmoil that Rowan faces is told but not shown. He constantly frets about turning evil and enjoying his misdeeds, but never actually does so - this eliminates any tension of his character turning bad because he still stays pretty vanilla.
- The world-building is surprisingly unique and deep for a YA dystopian novel. Shusterman goes beyond the dystopian hook and explores the dynamics of an immortal society that implements controlled deaths.
- My favorite parts were the journal excerpts from the scythes - they really strengthen the theme of the book and ask readers to think more critically about morality.
- The side characters (Curie, Faraday, and Goddard) and their different ideologies are interesting to read about - more so than the main characters themselves. I'd be willing to read standalone books from their perspectives.
- Very quotable.
Cons:
- The main characters and their dynamic are basically the Diet Coke version of Katniss and Peeta. Their romance is completely unnecessary and they would have fared better as childhood friends.
- The universe is portrayed as very black and white, where scythes are either obviously good or bad. There aren't any gray areas, which would have helped make the story deeper.
- The inner turmoil that Rowan faces is told but not shown. He constantly frets about turning evil and enjoying his misdeeds, but never actually does so - this eliminates any tension of his character turning bad because he still stays pretty vanilla.
March 6, 2024
Imagine if in a few decades, they discover something that makes human life鈥檚 eternal? Do you think life would take a change for the worst, or the better?
What if because of that, the Earth鈥檚 population was so grand that they had to come up with an organization that kills people to limit chaos? Do you think corruption would be worst, the same or that there鈥檇 be none?
* The scythes not being allowed to have lovers鈥� they should鈥檝e learned that mistake from Star Wars 馃檭*
This was a MASTERPIECE. It was a 5馃専 from chapter one and stayed this way the whole book. I didn鈥檛 want it to end. I had chills at the last chapter - even got teary eyed (out of happiness). I expected nothing of the twists and turns and I am DYING FOR MORE
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌�
Pre read ; The first chapter was 5馃専. I have a feeling this will blow my mind 馃く (It did, in fact, blow my mind)
What if because of that, the Earth鈥檚 population was so grand that they had to come up with an organization that kills people to limit chaos? Do you think corruption would be worst, the same or that there鈥檇 be none?
* The scythes not being allowed to have lovers鈥� they should鈥檝e learned that mistake from Star Wars 馃檭*
This was a MASTERPIECE. It was a 5馃専 from chapter one and stayed this way the whole book. I didn鈥檛 want it to end. I had chills at the last chapter - even got teary eyed (out of happiness). I expected nothing of the twists and turns and I am DYING FOR MORE
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌�
Pre read ; The first chapter was 5馃専. I have a feeling this will blow my mind 馃く (It did, in fact, blow my mind)
March 14, 2018
听Human: Did you hear that?
Me: Yeah, that was just the sound of my expectations shattering on the concrete after jumping from the tenth floor.
*Sighs*
Where do I even start?
Somebody please explain the hype to me because I honestly don鈥檛 get it. Usually when I dislike a popular book, I can at least see why other people might enjoy it. This time however, I do not see it.
Okay! Before anyone bites my head off, let me just explain everything I disliked about the book.
The writing style
"Rowan let out his breath, not even realizing he had been holding it."听
听鉃╓hy is this sentence still a thing? Why is it still legal to use? I thought the human race had moved on from this. I thought we were making progress! *Lets out a breath she perfectly knew she had been holding*
If it wasn鈥檛 for the hype, I would have DNFed it right after reading that sentence. You just can鈥檛 expect anything good to come out of a book that has the holding breath sentence, that鈥檚 just not possible. I should have known better.
鉃═here鈥檚 also something about the head-hopping/ omniscient narration(?) that just rubbed me the wrong way. We kept randomly jumping from one character鈥檚 head to the next and this might be just a personal preference thing, but I did not enjoy it at all.
The Romance
鉃↖t鈥檚 been a while since I read a romance that felt this cringy. To be fair, it takes a lot for me to like the romance in any book. What can I say, I have high standards when it comes to romance (blame Colleen Hoover). But, I can tell you this isn鈥檛 me being picky about my ships. The romance in this book felt extremely forced, insta-lovey and just weird at times. I basically skimmed most of the second half of the book, but I swear there was something in there about her licking his blood.
听The Plot
鉃‥ven though this book is essentially about murdering people, it鈥檚 surprisingly uneventful. I found myself bored out of my mind for a good chunk of the book and that鈥檚 just something I never expected based on the premise.
鉃═he amount of plot holes in this book is just concerning. There were a lot of things that didn鈥檛 add up and so many 鈥榬ules鈥� of the world that were just ignored whenever convenient. UGH.
鉃ˋlso, every single 鈥減lot twist鈥� in this book can be seen from two miles away. Without glasses. In the dark. Just sayin鈥�.
Overall, Scythe was not for me. If you鈥檝e enjoyed this book, please let me know in the comments what aspects of it you liked. I would genuinely love to know.
Thanks for reading! Please share your thoughts.
-----------------------------------------------
Pre-reading
I remember loving Unwind by Neal Shusterman so I'm very excited to dive into his newer series. I've heard great things about it so let's see how I feel about it.
September 6, 2024
Already knew it was a 5 star half way through it. The way this dystopian had me up late at night and reading it every chance I could get needs to be studied. Makes you question what would a world be like without any natural mortality but only a certain set of people can bring about your end.
This book was nuts and I am excited to continue the series.
5/5 for sure
This book was nuts and I am excited to continue the series.
5/5 for sure
June 21, 2018
i honestly had no expectations for this book whatsoever, so i think its pretty safe to say that this was so much better than i thought it would be! and i can definitely understand the hype - the concept was just so fascinating. maybe its because i havent read a dystopian novel in quite some time, but i found this to be so interesting!
the writing was so nicely done, as well. it was quite crafty in a way - i felt like there were so many little cliffhangers throughout the book that i had the immense need to just read without stopping. however, i could have done without the journal entries before each chapter (i actually started skipping them once i realised they werent relevant to the immediate plot).
overall, this was quite enjoyable, and im so glad the second book recently came out because now i dont have to wait to find out what happens next!!
4 stars
the writing was so nicely done, as well. it was quite crafty in a way - i felt like there were so many little cliffhangers throughout the book that i had the immense need to just read without stopping. however, i could have done without the journal entries before each chapter (i actually started skipping them once i realised they werent relevant to the immediate plot).
overall, this was quite enjoyable, and im so glad the second book recently came out because now i dont have to wait to find out what happens next!!
4 stars
November 13, 2018
5, I am dead now and this review is my eulogy, never has a rating been easier stars!!!
Full review along with a recipe for my Mimi's chicken noodle soup on my blog
Christina Loeffler (Jones) 鈥� Born: September, 21 1989. Died: November, 6 2018. Cause of Death: Scythe by Neal Shusterman.
Ok, ok, all jokes aside I鈥檓 obviously not dead because I still have to finish the second installment of this series! However, this book SLAYED me with it鈥檚 sheer magnificence and brilliance. The world building was epic beyond all reason, the character development was top notch, the forward progression was steady without sacrificing any other areas of the story and the writing was spectacular.
My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There鈥檚 no version of God that can help us if we ever lose that.
Scythe takes place in a distant future where humans have cured the earth of nearly all strife. Disease, aging and even accidental (or purposeful) death has been completely eradicated. The one issue that is left in question is population control. Enter: Scythes. Scythes are trained in the art of death and are charged with the 鈥済leaning鈥� (killing) of citizens of the world in order to keep the population in check. Earth is now ruled by an AI named the Thunderhead (developed from the cloud) and the only thing the Thunderhead has no control, say or sway in 鈥� is the Scythedom.
This premise is what initially drew me into this read and what kept me the most intrigued throughout. The unique vision Shusterman puts forth with the Scythedom and the Scythe鈥檚 in general is absolutely riveting. Each Scythe has their own moral code, their own compass for how they choose which citizens to glean and how to glean them. The development into this world and the choices made by it鈥檚 characters is absolutely inspired.
Without the threat of suffering, we can鈥檛 experience true joy.
Our main players in this read are Citra and Rowan 鈥� both young, vibrant and ballsy teens who are chosen by Scythe Faraday to apprentice to be Scythes. Citra nor Rowan particularly want to become Scythe apprentices but they ultimately take the leap and begin a journey that is full of incredible twists and turns. If you鈥檙e thinking to yourself any of the following: A) obvi they fall in love B) I am not really into YA or Fantasy, I don鈥檛 think this is going to be up my alley or C) meh, I can already tell how this is going to end 鈥� let me tell you, you are dead ass wrong my dude 鈥� this is not a predictable novel.
While this is ticketed as young-adult, and it is without a doubt a fantasy novel, you鈥檇 absolutely be missing out if you didn鈥檛 pick it up. It defies all of the traditional YA / Fantasy tropes that so many novels fall into and was a complete and total slam dunk. The development into Citra and Rowans story lines were just as compelling as the world building. This isn鈥檛 an all out race to the finish with cheap thrills along the way 鈥� this was an incredibly in-depth look into a unique world that had its twists and turns expertly placed and that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
Innocence is doomed to die a senseless death at our own hands, a casualty of the mistakes we can never undo. So we lay to rest the wide-eyed wonder we once thrived upon, replacing it with the scars of which we never speak, too knotted for any amount of technology to repair.
If you can鈥檛 tell by now, I am completely enamored with this book. There is a subtlety here that surprised and impressed me. The lessons that can be taken away from this story are numerous, and their depth was incredible. I found myself pondering the questions and situations presented and asking myself if I would make the same choices given the same circumstances. I read this one with my husband and it鈥檚 a real treat to be able to discuss the ins and outs of the moral dilemmas presented and I highly suggest reading it with others because the discussion was almost as much fun as reading it!
Along with the development into the Scythedom, the world, and our main characters we also learn that there is upheaval going within the Scythe鈥檚 ranks. There is the old-guard and the new-guard and soon Citra and Rowan are pitted against one another as the fight to hold on to morality in the face of immortality collapses upon one another. The story lines, the characters, the world and the development into this entire book was so solid I鈥檓 not sure I have even one complaint to make. Scythe asks difficult questions and doesn鈥檛 spoon feed the reader the answers, but rather allows the reader to meditate on the moral dilemmas presented on their own.
Death makes the whole world kin.
In the end, I have been completely taken by this book. I immediately requested the next installment from the library and moved it ahead of some other scheduled reads because I just can鈥檛 step away from it. If you love good books, regardless of your typical genres 鈥� I can鈥檛 suggest picking this one up enough!
Full review along with a recipe for my Mimi's chicken noodle soup on my blog
Christina Loeffler (Jones) 鈥� Born: September, 21 1989. Died: November, 6 2018. Cause of Death: Scythe by Neal Shusterman.
Ok, ok, all jokes aside I鈥檓 obviously not dead because I still have to finish the second installment of this series! However, this book SLAYED me with it鈥檚 sheer magnificence and brilliance. The world building was epic beyond all reason, the character development was top notch, the forward progression was steady without sacrificing any other areas of the story and the writing was spectacular.
My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There鈥檚 no version of God that can help us if we ever lose that.
Scythe takes place in a distant future where humans have cured the earth of nearly all strife. Disease, aging and even accidental (or purposeful) death has been completely eradicated. The one issue that is left in question is population control. Enter: Scythes. Scythes are trained in the art of death and are charged with the 鈥済leaning鈥� (killing) of citizens of the world in order to keep the population in check. Earth is now ruled by an AI named the Thunderhead (developed from the cloud) and the only thing the Thunderhead has no control, say or sway in 鈥� is the Scythedom.
This premise is what initially drew me into this read and what kept me the most intrigued throughout. The unique vision Shusterman puts forth with the Scythedom and the Scythe鈥檚 in general is absolutely riveting. Each Scythe has their own moral code, their own compass for how they choose which citizens to glean and how to glean them. The development into this world and the choices made by it鈥檚 characters is absolutely inspired.
Without the threat of suffering, we can鈥檛 experience true joy.
Our main players in this read are Citra and Rowan 鈥� both young, vibrant and ballsy teens who are chosen by Scythe Faraday to apprentice to be Scythes. Citra nor Rowan particularly want to become Scythe apprentices but they ultimately take the leap and begin a journey that is full of incredible twists and turns. If you鈥檙e thinking to yourself any of the following: A) obvi they fall in love B) I am not really into YA or Fantasy, I don鈥檛 think this is going to be up my alley or C) meh, I can already tell how this is going to end 鈥� let me tell you, you are dead ass wrong my dude 鈥� this is not a predictable novel.
While this is ticketed as young-adult, and it is without a doubt a fantasy novel, you鈥檇 absolutely be missing out if you didn鈥檛 pick it up. It defies all of the traditional YA / Fantasy tropes that so many novels fall into and was a complete and total slam dunk. The development into Citra and Rowans story lines were just as compelling as the world building. This isn鈥檛 an all out race to the finish with cheap thrills along the way 鈥� this was an incredibly in-depth look into a unique world that had its twists and turns expertly placed and that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
Innocence is doomed to die a senseless death at our own hands, a casualty of the mistakes we can never undo. So we lay to rest the wide-eyed wonder we once thrived upon, replacing it with the scars of which we never speak, too knotted for any amount of technology to repair.
If you can鈥檛 tell by now, I am completely enamored with this book. There is a subtlety here that surprised and impressed me. The lessons that can be taken away from this story are numerous, and their depth was incredible. I found myself pondering the questions and situations presented and asking myself if I would make the same choices given the same circumstances. I read this one with my husband and it鈥檚 a real treat to be able to discuss the ins and outs of the moral dilemmas presented and I highly suggest reading it with others because the discussion was almost as much fun as reading it!
Along with the development into the Scythedom, the world, and our main characters we also learn that there is upheaval going within the Scythe鈥檚 ranks. There is the old-guard and the new-guard and soon Citra and Rowan are pitted against one another as the fight to hold on to morality in the face of immortality collapses upon one another. The story lines, the characters, the world and the development into this entire book was so solid I鈥檓 not sure I have even one complaint to make. Scythe asks difficult questions and doesn鈥檛 spoon feed the reader the answers, but rather allows the reader to meditate on the moral dilemmas presented on their own.
Death makes the whole world kin.
In the end, I have been completely taken by this book. I immediately requested the next installment from the library and moved it ahead of some other scheduled reads because I just can鈥檛 step away from it. If you love good books, regardless of your typical genres 鈥� I can鈥檛 suggest picking this one up enough!
January 5, 2023
Third time reading and still damn perfect. Minus the 鈥榬omance鈥欚煠封€嶁檧锔� which was unnecessary to begin with.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.75猸愶笍
This month has been nothing short of 鈥榮urprise the shit outa鈥� Nani, month鈥� and I鈥檓 here here for it! Please, keep 鈥榚m coming. The good ones that is; I don鈥檛 want to leave anything to chance.
People, this was cray!!!
And to think I looked down my nose at it for over a year. I could be such a pea-brain sometimes.
What I absolutely loved above all was the world. The utterly believable, meticulously woven, intricately fleshed out world that left nothing to chance.
What a sobering and terrifying thought that it could, one day, all come to be true. All of it; I could picture it as I was reading and nothing felt too far fetched nor fantasy-esque; except, of course, for the death conquering thing. Death, I鈥檓 afraid, is just an inevitable consequence of life and conquering it. Just. Ain鈥檛. in our future. And thank heavens for that!
Anyhow, I also loved the characters, more so the side cast than the leads, if I鈥檓 being honest.
But out of Rowan and Citra, the two MCs, I thought Rowan鈥檚 (shaky) journey was one of the best parts of the novel. His storyline was so much more compelling and memorable because of his internal conflicts. I just had such profound empathy for the poor dude because he was in the throes of intense inner conflict.
He had doubts, misgivings, second thoughts, apprehension, fear, guilt pangs, remorse, the whole nine yards; which is exactly why I loved him so. I鈥檓 quite tired of the all-knowing, fearless, brave hero who could do no wrong.
Citra on the other hand was almost the exact opposite of Rowan and my emotional connection with her was nowhere near Rowan鈥檚.
I liked her just fine; she had a sense of justice but she was your everyday YA heroine - a sharp-witted, strong-minded impulsive heroine, which - kudos and all but in comparison to Rowan and his character growth, her storyline pales almost in all aspects. Emphasis on almost.
She didn鈥檛 go through half the hardships he did, thus, there was little growth there.
All in all, a damn fantastic read that threw me for a loop. I鈥檓 still SO SURPRISED at how much I enjoyed this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.75猸愶笍
This month has been nothing short of 鈥榮urprise the shit outa鈥� Nani, month鈥� and I鈥檓 here here for it! Please, keep 鈥榚m coming. The good ones that is; I don鈥檛 want to leave anything to chance.
People, this was cray!!!
And to think I looked down my nose at it for over a year. I could be such a pea-brain sometimes.
What I absolutely loved above all was the world. The utterly believable, meticulously woven, intricately fleshed out world that left nothing to chance.
What a sobering and terrifying thought that it could, one day, all come to be true. All of it; I could picture it as I was reading and nothing felt too far fetched nor fantasy-esque; except, of course, for the death conquering thing. Death, I鈥檓 afraid, is just an inevitable consequence of life and conquering it. Just. Ain鈥檛. in our future. And thank heavens for that!
Anyhow, I also loved the characters, more so the side cast than the leads, if I鈥檓 being honest.
But out of Rowan and Citra, the two MCs, I thought Rowan鈥檚 (shaky) journey was one of the best parts of the novel. His storyline was so much more compelling and memorable because of his internal conflicts. I just had such profound empathy for the poor dude because he was in the throes of intense inner conflict.
He had doubts, misgivings, second thoughts, apprehension, fear, guilt pangs, remorse, the whole nine yards; which is exactly why I loved him so. I鈥檓 quite tired of the all-knowing, fearless, brave hero who could do no wrong.
Citra on the other hand was almost the exact opposite of Rowan and my emotional connection with her was nowhere near Rowan鈥檚.
I liked her just fine; she had a sense of justice but she was your everyday YA heroine - a sharp-witted, strong-minded impulsive heroine, which - kudos and all but in comparison to Rowan and his character growth, her storyline pales almost in all aspects. Emphasis on almost.
She didn鈥檛 go through half the hardships he did, thus, there was little growth there.
All in all, a damn fantastic read that threw me for a loop. I鈥檓 still SO SURPRISED at how much I enjoyed this.
September 7, 2020
A world where natural death is obsolete thereby requiring a dedicated use of "Sycthes" (who are the only ones authorised to kill) and while most Scythes honour the process, there are a few bad apples who use their powers for evil.
And so the killing ensues. Mass killings, done in the name of upholding the law and on I read until, subconsciously, gradually, I found myself falling into a state of despair. It took a good 2 hours before realizing I didn't really need to read this book (why would anyone want to read about the art of death and gleanings?).
I can't describe the overwhelming melancholy this evoked, and for my sanity, I have to set this aside. DNF @ 45%
April 20, 2021
4.5 stars
TW: suicide; death of children
While there were a few things that felt a little two dimensional, I overall really enjoyed this discussion of a utopian future that uses ordained 鈥渞eapers鈥� as the only means to death in society and what that means for both society and the people in this organization. There were a number of twists I didn鈥檛 see coming, and it even ended in a way that it could be read as a stand-alone, which I appreciate.
TW: suicide; death of children
While there were a few things that felt a little two dimensional, I overall really enjoyed this discussion of a utopian future that uses ordained 鈥渞eapers鈥� as the only means to death in society and what that means for both society and the people in this organization. There were a number of twists I didn鈥檛 see coming, and it even ended in a way that it could be read as a stand-alone, which I appreciate.
September 20, 2017
3.5
It seems to be a thing for me. I love the ideas of Neal Shusterman but I'm never sure I end up loving the books.
I'm not sure I will continue the series but if the premise intrigues you, give it a shot!
It seems to be a thing for me. I love the ideas of Neal Shusterman but I'm never sure I end up loving the books.
I'm not sure I will continue the series but if the premise intrigues you, give it a shot!
December 29, 2024
猡稴cythe is one of those books I've been wanting to read so bad since middle school, and I finally got the chance to recently!! It's definitely so worth it to read it at a slightly older age :) I loved the the unique concept of a world where people are immortal but chosen to be gleaned at random, definitely very eerie lol 馃 I was so on edge the whole book about who will be chosen to be the scythe between Rowan and Citra - which Neal Schusterman did such a good job of keeping me wondering hehe. I love love love his writing and storytelling so much, it gives me awe at how some people can use words so beautifully and SO SMART (But definitely had me questioning my whole life lol)!! The plot twists kept coming and I was SHOOK - definitely an anxiety inducing adventure 馃槶 Citra (who is such a baddie btw) and Rowan's friendship and trust (and a lil angst later that eats) is absolutely everything, and while the romance is very minuscule, I really enjoyed the subplot <3 My babies are such complex characters and I can't wait to read the rest of the series!! I guess I'm a dystopian girlie now 馃き
[He thought he could not be impressed by her. She had just proved him wrong.
"I love you," he said.
"Same here," she responded. "Now get lost."]
[He thought he could not be impressed by her. She had just proved him wrong.
"I love you," he said.
"Same here," she responded. "Now get lost."]
June 16, 2018
See this review on my BookTube channel . It's in Greek but, I plan a lot of interesting things in English as well :)
Review was originally published on my Blog
I鈥檓 in minority given the high ratings and the positives reviews on this book, but I want to be honest regarding my reading experience and the truth is that I struggled reading Shythe. The premise was interesting, but it was the only interesting part of the story. You might as well read the synopsis and mark the book as 鈥渞ead鈥�.
So, it is a story about a utopian community where people have conquered hunger, disease, war, misery and even death. The only way to control the increase of population is by having people, also known as Shythes, to kill other people. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe. Basically, the whole book 鈥� 435 pages 鈥� is about their apprenticeship and a controversial love story.
The Shythes are divided into two categories. The empathetic ones, who glean (a term they used instead of murder) because they have to; quickly, painless, demonstrating their soft-hearts for sobbing after the execution of their victims. After the 鈥渕andatory鈥� duty, they attend the funerals to show off their superiority and to remind humanity, that this is the way the things work. And thus, implying their 鈥渦nwillingness鈥� to act in these patterns and stressing their roles as means, since they care about the greater good of the society 鈥� the freaking hypocrites.
The second category consists of the evils, the serial killers, the psychopaths, who usually are involved in massacres (Jesus freaking Christ). Oh, did I mention that they have a 鈥渟ystem鈥� to choose the next victim? A lame 鈥渟ystem鈥�, which can somehow excuse the fact they are cold-blooded killers and not the angels of death, who were chosen to maintain the stability. However, the reality is much simpler. They were chosen to kill, just to spice up the peaceful existence in the utopian world they existed. I see them as assassins, who had been selected by a perverted 鈥済overnment鈥�, to keep the people under control and fear. To feel their unlimited power and to enjoy the act of killing other people, because they just could, without any impact.
What about the romance? Sorry, was there any romance? The main characters were indifferent to me. I won鈥檛 even refer to that kiss. The confession of their feelings seemed rushed and forced to me. How did they fall in love since there wasn鈥檛 even a platonic chemistry between them? Sorry, but it is not enough for me when it comes to romance.
One of the reasons I picked this book up was the expectation of some really awesome plot twists. Yes, I agree that my mind was blown due to the amount of clich茅 twists I witnessed. I saw them coming from a mile away, given the fact I鈥檓 myopic.
Finally, I want to point out the frustrating behaviour of the ordinary people, who consider 鈥淪hythes鈥� as celebrities. They admire them, they meet them with applauds on the 鈥渞ed carpet鈥�. The 鈥渙rdinary鈥�, immortal humans entertain themselves by watching indifferently the blood bath the murderers create. The utopia they are living in made them heartless, apathetic towards their fellow beings, as soon as they have their immunity, and therefore safety for a year or so. They have transformed into a crooked community, which is trying to gain the patronage of the shythes by bribing and serving them. The aforementioned are painfully familiar and the most intimidating part of the story, since it describes perfectly the real world. They (we) know, they (we) understand, and still they (we) do it.
Thanks for reading and I hope that you won鈥檛 glean me due to my extremely negative review.
Review was originally published on my Blog
I鈥檓 in minority given the high ratings and the positives reviews on this book, but I want to be honest regarding my reading experience and the truth is that I struggled reading Shythe. The premise was interesting, but it was the only interesting part of the story. You might as well read the synopsis and mark the book as 鈥渞ead鈥�.
So, it is a story about a utopian community where people have conquered hunger, disease, war, misery and even death. The only way to control the increase of population is by having people, also known as Shythes, to kill other people. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe. Basically, the whole book 鈥� 435 pages 鈥� is about their apprenticeship and a controversial love story.
The Shythes are divided into two categories. The empathetic ones, who glean (a term they used instead of murder) because they have to; quickly, painless, demonstrating their soft-hearts for sobbing after the execution of their victims. After the 鈥渕andatory鈥� duty, they attend the funerals to show off their superiority and to remind humanity, that this is the way the things work. And thus, implying their 鈥渦nwillingness鈥� to act in these patterns and stressing their roles as means, since they care about the greater good of the society 鈥� the freaking hypocrites.
鈬� Hypocrites鈥淚t is the most difficult thing a person can be asked to do. And knowing that it is for the greater good doesn鈥檛 make it any easier.鈥�
鈬� Is it possible to be compassionate and fair when it comes to the deprivation of human life?鈥淲ill the scythe who replaces me be as compassionate and fair?鈥�
The second category consists of the evils, the serial killers, the psychopaths, who usually are involved in massacres (Jesus freaking Christ). Oh, did I mention that they have a 鈥渟ystem鈥� to choose the next victim? A lame 鈥渟ystem鈥�, which can somehow excuse the fact they are cold-blooded killers and not the angels of death, who were chosen to maintain the stability. However, the reality is much simpler. They were chosen to kill, just to spice up the peaceful existence in the utopian world they existed. I see them as assassins, who had been selected by a perverted 鈥済overnment鈥�, to keep the people under control and fear. To feel their unlimited power and to enjoy the act of killing other people, because they just could, without any impact.
What about the romance? Sorry, was there any romance? The main characters were indifferent to me. I won鈥檛 even refer to that kiss. The confession of their feelings seemed rushed and forced to me. How did they fall in love since there wasn鈥檛 even a platonic chemistry between them? Sorry, but it is not enough for me when it comes to romance.
One of the reasons I picked this book up was the expectation of some really awesome plot twists. Yes, I agree that my mind was blown due to the amount of clich茅 twists I witnessed. I saw them coming from a mile away, given the fact I鈥檓 myopic.
Finally, I want to point out the frustrating behaviour of the ordinary people, who consider 鈥淪hythes鈥� as celebrities. They admire them, they meet them with applauds on the 鈥渞ed carpet鈥�. The 鈥渙rdinary鈥�, immortal humans entertain themselves by watching indifferently the blood bath the murderers create. The utopia they are living in made them heartless, apathetic towards their fellow beings, as soon as they have their immunity, and therefore safety for a year or so. They have transformed into a crooked community, which is trying to gain the patronage of the shythes by bribing and serving them. The aforementioned are painfully familiar and the most intimidating part of the story, since it describes perfectly the real world. They (we) know, they (we) understand, and still they (we) do it.
Thanks for reading and I hope that you won鈥檛 glean me due to my extremely negative review.
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