Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman Also by this author: Scythe, The Toll, Gleanings
Series: Arc of a Scythe #2
Also in this series: Scythe, The Toll, Gleanings
Published by Simon and Schuster on June 4, 2019
Genres: Death & Dying, General, Science Fiction, Social Themes, Thrillers & Suspense, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 512
Format: Paperback
Source: Personal Library
“Intelligent and entertaining.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Even better than the first book.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
Rowan and Citra take opposite stances on the morality of the Scythedom, putting them at odds, in the chilling sequel to the Printz Honor Book Scythe from New York Times bestseller Neal Shusterman, author of the Unwind dystology.
Humans learn from their mistakes. I cannot. I make no mistakes.
The Thunderhead is the perfect ruler of a perfect world, but it has no control over the scythedom. A year has passed since Rowan had gone off grid. Since then, he has become an urban legend, a vigilante snuffing out corrupt scythes in a trial by fire. His story is told in whispers across the continent.
As Scythe Anastasia, Citra gleans with compassion and openly challenges the ideals of the “new order.” But when her life is threatened and her methods questioned, it becomes clear that not everyone is open to the change.
Old foes and new enemies converge, and as corruption within the Scythedom spreads, Rowan and Citra begin to lose hope. Will the Thunderhead intervene?
Or will it simply watch as this perfect world begins to unravel?
SPOILER ALERT: There are a couple of spoilers given in this review. I apologize, but I found it very hard to talk about the book without giving anything away.
If you’re looking for a second novel in a trilogy or series to frustrate the crap out of you, this one will do nicely. I’m not even kidding.
In this second book, we see that Citra is getting along fairly well as a Scythe and the Rowan is playing a bad-guy-who-is-actually-a-good-guy role. I kind of figured that would end up happening, but that’s isn’t the frustrating thing.
We also see the return of Scythe Rand and Scythe Goddard. No, I won’t tell you more than that. You have to read the book to understand. But trust me, when it happens you’ll be frustrated, annoyed, and a bit awestruck as it is a big on the ingenious side.
Thunderhead has a plot that takes no time to get going and honestly, this book was the fastest read of the three so far. I read this book in just over 24 hours – it took me over a month to read Scythe and finish it because I just wasn’t invested in the story (and because I was in a reading slump). Now? I’m invested. Holy cow am I invested.
It’s hard to review Thunderhead without giving everything away, because pretty much everything I could talk about would be a spoiler and I’ve already given a couple of those out. So all I’m going to say is, it will frustrate you. You will get pissed off about the ending. And you’ll definitely want to read The Toll after it’s over to find out what happens next.
This one is fast-paced and edge-of-your-seat good, which is why I gave it 5 stars. Let’s hope The Toll is too.