Book Review: Scythe- Neal Shusterman

Title: Scythe
Authors: Neal Shusterman
Publication Date: November 22nd 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Pages: 439
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 1 of the Arc of Scythe

Plot: Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Reading period: February 16, 2017 - February 21, 2017

Review

This book had been on my list since it came out so when I saw a thread about buddy reading the Scythe I immediately joined in hoping it would give me the motivation ( and timetable) to finally pick it up.

I don’t know why I thought it was going to be a fantasy story. You should always read the synopsis carefully. So I was surprised when I saw that it was set in the a dystopian (or utopian?) future.

Humanity managed to conquer death. There are no diseases, no accidents, no wars. People live hundreds of years because they can’t die and when they get old they can go through a process of regeneration. To managed population growth there is an institution of Scythehood. Scythe are trained to ”glean” (kill) people and respect a certain quota every year.

Faraday is a scythe and takes two young people, Citra and Rowan, as apprentice.   They are both interesting characters and go through a different journey and development.

The book has different pace. It’s very interesting at the beginning when you found out about this world. It’s a bit slow in the middle but it picks up back again after the third part.

The concept is a really great idea, I also loved the part of all the political game in the Scythehood. There’s a battle between the old school scythe and a new rising ideology.  There are a couple of surprises and twist ad some revelations that were a bit obvious.

I’m glad that the author didn’t really concentrate on the romance between Citra and Rowan. I would have been more happy if there hadn’t been hint at all. . I was looking forward to a sibling/ rivalry relationship between them. I don't know why authors put romantic relationships everywhere. It's like they think that teenagers can't be just friends.

I don’t want to give too much away, but considering how it ended I think it would have been okay as a stand-alone novel too. That doesn’t mean that I won’t read the sequel. I’m very curious to find out how the story will develop. 

RATING