"Rowan has gone rogue, and has taken it upon himself to put the Scythedom through a trial by fire. Literally. In the year since Winter Conclave, he has gone off-grid, and has been striking out against corrupt scythes—not only in MidMerica, but across the entire continent. He is a dark folk hero now—“Scythe Lucifer”—a vigilante taking down corrupt scythes in flames.
Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants to help change it from the inside out, but is thwarted at every turn, and threatened by the “new order” scythes. Realizing she cannot do this alone—or even with the help of Scythe Curie and Faraday, she does the unthinkable, and risks being “deadish” so she can communicate with the Thunderhead—the only being on earth wise enough to solve the dire problems of a perfect world. But will it help solve those problems, or simply watch as perfection goes into decline?"
Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants to help change it from the inside out, but is thwarted at every turn, and threatened by the “new order” scythes. Realizing she cannot do this alone—or even with the help of Scythe Curie and Faraday, she does the unthinkable, and risks being “deadish” so she can communicate with the Thunderhead—the only being on earth wise enough to solve the dire problems of a perfect world. But will it help solve those problems, or simply watch as perfection goes into decline?"
Awards and Nominations:
- Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2018)
- Grand Prix de I'Imaginaire Nominee for Roman jeunesse etranger (2019)
Recently I have avoided books that are part of a series. I haven't felt committed to sitting down and staying in the same fictional world for multiple books. It feels like I have to dedicate an immense amount of time to reading the books close together as to not forget important parts of the overall story. After reading Scythe I knew I was going to quickly jump in and start Thunderhead. I just had to hope that the second book could beat the curse of the forgotten middle child and that I would power through quickly.
Citra is now a scythe and known as Scythe Anastasia. She is busy finding her pattern as a new junior scythe. Her fellow apprentice Rowan did not make it as a scythe. Instead, he escaped and is now gleaning scythes who aren't following the rules of the Scythedom. Both find they are in danger. Rowan is being hunted by the Scythedom and Citra is being targeted by an unknown person. Both must figure out how to survive to help both the all-knowing Thunderhead and the Scythedom.
I have this really strange thing with middle child books. These are the second book in a trilogy (sometimes a quartet). The first book usually knocks it out of the park and hooks you. The final book is always the big finale and pulls out all the stops to make it magical and memorable. The middle book though always gets stuck. It has to be the bridge between fantastic and amazing. I find that middle child books are always boring and lackluster due to their role in the overall series. That being said, I struggled with this book. It felt like Shusterman rushed to get it finished and just slammed everything together. The first two-thirds of the book was an absolute snooze fest. There was nothing happening and no progression in the plot. It felt like Rowan, Citra, and newcomer Greyson Tolliver were all just roaming about MidMerica and nothing was happening. Rowan was busy gleaning rogue scythes and then in hiding. Citra was gleaning in her unique way, but also trying to hide because there were threats to her life and Scythe Curie. Greyson Tolliver was undercover, but got lost in the undercover system and ended up at a Tonist colony. It was only when everything happened at Endura that I really got excited about the book, which sucked because it all happened at the end.
I think the idea of having a "Thunderhead" or our cloud is unsettling the way it is written in the book. It is ALWAYS watching and always listening. I didn't feel that the idea of the Thunderhead was really relatable in the first book, but after reading insight from it and being present as it eavesdropped on conversations I realized that we are living in the same world. I can just mention needing to buy a new pair of shoes and on all my social media I will start getting ads for shoes. Just recently I searched for a virtual race website and purchased a race. Shortly thereafter I started receiving ads for multiple virtual race sites. It is unsettling that we are being monitored the way we are. Because no matter what you say we are most definitely heading toward a world where an AI controls everything for us.
Scythe was way better than Thunderhead. I still have the final book The Toll to read. I expect it to follow the pattern I mentioned above and it will be a big fireworks finale to conclude the series. If you read Scythe I absolutely advise you to finish out the series like any true reader would. I give this book 3 stars.
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