Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Also by this author: Thunderhead, The Toll, Gleanings
Series: Arc of a Scythe #1
Also in this series: Thunderhead, The Toll, Gleanings
Published by Simon and Schuster on November 22, 2016
Genres: Action & Adventure, Death & Dying, General, Science Fiction, Social Themes, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 433
Format: Paperback
Source: Personal Library

Two teens must learn the “art of killing” in this Printz Honor–winning book, the first in a chilling new series from Neal Shusterman, author of the New York Times bestselling Unwind dystology.
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.
Scythe is the first novel of a thrilling new series by National Book Award–winning author Neal Shusterman in which Citra and Rowan learn that a perfect world comes only with a heavy price.

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When this was chosen as the book for the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club for December, I was a bit disappointed. Up until December, all of the books had been new releases, so it didn’t make sense to me for them to choose Scythe. Then I figured maybe they’d do all three from December through February, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. I’m glad they did choose it though, because I wouldn’t have ever picked it up otherwise.

For me, the book was hard to get into. It just seemed like it was very boring and slow to get going. Once it did get going, it was a great book. But wow, the book was just slow to get going. I get why it was slow to get going – after all, we had to have some sort of reason why Scythe Faraday would choose Citra and Rowan as his apprentices, but I wish it would have moved a touch faster.

Once it picks up though, it picks up. It’s hard to put it down after a certain point in the book because now you’re invested and honestly – you need to know what the heck is going on around that place. I don’t want to give anything away but – yeah, you’re not going to expect plot twist number one – and plot twist number one sets the stage for the rest of the book.

As for characters, I liked Citra a lot, didn’t care much for Rowan. I found him to be rather a pain in the butt and wasn’t all that fond of him. I liked Scythe Faraday a lot, loved Sycthe Curie, and would cheerfully have yeeted Sycthe Goddard right out of the story if I could have. I also actually kind of liked Sycthe Volta. The rest of Goddard’s flunkies needed to be yeeted with Goddard. And finally, High Blade Xenocrates needs a spine… I’m just saying.

The plot twists in this book are what make it so great. You get several and each time, it’s hard to telegraph what’s going to happen next. One of them shocked the heck out of me because I thought I’d figured it out and then BOOM – completely different! Holy cow. And let us not forget the ending – that is one heck of an ending to a book.

I just started Thunderhead, so you can expect a review for that one soon.