"Set in a world where there is no hunger, no disease, no war, it is paradise but one truth remains, people must die. And that is why the Scythedom exists. Shusterman proves himself a master storyteller, keeping the reader riveted from beginning to end." 5 Stars.
Pros: Unique, unsettling and unique idea/The Gleaning Journals of the different Scythes was an interesting look into the thoughts and feelings of those chosen for a life of death.
Cons: My one gripe was though there was some character growth, Citra and Rowan, at times, felt like your average, run of the mill, YA Fiction teenagers, stuck in a world where they feel out of place and then are thrust into horrifying circumstances, they just felt a little flat at times and their relationship doubly so.
Full Review:
From the man who brought you the idea behind Unwind (people choosing to retroactively abort someone once they turn 18) Scythe is another dark and twisted novel but one that is just as engrossing as the Unwind Dystology.
The world is perfect. There is no hunger, no sickness, no poverty, no suffering. Everything is controlled by a self aware but sympathetic Artificial Intelligence called the Thunderhead. With its help, mankind has managed to overcome almost every obstacle that ever stood in its way. But there is one thing that must always happen and that is that people must die. It is the natural order of things. And though no one dies from accidents/sickness/violent crimes anymore, people do still die. They are "gleaned" by Scythes, a new order that is well learned in the art of death.
The story follows two people, Citra and Rowan, who are chosen, for different reasons, to apprentice a Scythe who goes by the name of Faraday. He had separate interactions with them that showed something within their characters that made him think they have what it takes to be a Scythe. He trains them to take life in the order of the simple 10 rules set down by the Scythedom. And all appears to be going well until they attend the first of three Conclaves, a mass gathering of Scythes; and are tested.
Citra does not pass the test and Rowan makes the decision to deliberately fail the test. He has begun to develop feelings for Citra and doesn't want to have the upper hand when it comes to the ultimate decision of who will be ordained as a Scythe by Faraday.
But as always, things take a turn for the worst. Scythe Goddard, who is known for his mass gleanings and has an entourage of young Scythes as a fan club, claiming he's a visionary, proclaims that since Faraday has seen fit to take on two apprentices, something unheard of in the Scythedom, then why not have the outcome be just as "progressive." He proposes that whoever fails to pass the tests and become a Scythe should be gleaned by the victor. The prospect is never actually voted on as the Conclave ends before it can be made official and soon Citra and Rowan find their lives thrown into an even more horrifying and dangerous place than they were before.
Faraday gleans himself, which is the only way a Scythe can die and Rowan and Citra are seperated. They at first believe that Faraday did this so that they wouldn't have to carry out the end of their training, where one of them had to glean the other. But as Citra is sent to complete her training under Honorable Scythe Curie, the Grande Dame of Death and Rowan is sent to apprentice under Honorable Scythe Goddard, Citra is convinced that there is more to it than that. As she digs in as deeply as she can into figuring out how Faraday died, Rowan trains with the junior Scythes under Goddard and begins to understand that Goddard truly believes that since he has been chosen for this role in life, that it makes him a God and he revels in the power.
And life and death of the ordinary masses isn't the only thing he has power over. It turns out that he's holding all the cards, playing all the right people in all the right ways so he'll get whatever he wants and the world will be as he wills it. He is a truly sinister, sadistic frightening character and Rowan, who is desperately trying to hold onto his humanity, fears not just for his own life but for everyone he cares for the longer he stays within Goddards group.
Shusterman is a master storyteller, twisting and turning at all the right places to keep the reader hooked until the very end. I'd been wanting to read this book for a long time and I'm glad I finally let myself do so. Needless to say, I'll be picking up the second novel Thunderhead as soon as I can.
I would recommend this book to anyone really. It's dystopian enough that it's undeniably in the future but the ways of the world are so close to our own that it's a future that could easily come to pass. It's an enlightening, frightening, riveting read. You won't be disappointed.
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