Scythe: The global smash-hit YA speculative-thriller series that’s ‘A true successor to The Hunger Games’ (Arc of a Scythe)

I AM IN AWE. I AM IN LOVE.I finished the book and I was literally ‘oh-my-goddin’ my way through. I’m exasperated. Blown away. I was touching my five-head in disbelief, because my mind has been blown to pieces due to this story and how ingenious it was.I’m pretty sure I became high. And now, I’ve been left exhausted by all the excitement!Hello to my favourite new author. *bows down endlessly*Now that my sorta headache has disappeared and my mind is still on the verge of recovering, I'm going to try and review this. Possible verbal diarrhoea ahead.First of all, this book defines what epic actually means.Secondly, the story overall was ridiculously clever. I honestly was not expecting to enjoy it, since I haven't been the biggest fan of the dystopian genre since The Hunger Games and the Divergent series. I stupidly assumed that it would be something along those lines. And because I haven't read anything in that genre in a while, I gave it a go.What I was not expecting was this masterpiece. This intricate story that beautifully analyses our society, where in this plot-line our current world has passed and the population is just reminiscing on, whilst living in a state of utopia. The future.This book took a fresh and unique spin on the genre and I've fallen in love with it again. More so the author and his craft.It follows two main characters: Citra and Rowan who have been selected to join the Scythedom as apprentices, led by Scythe Faraday. Their role is to become skilful at 'killing' or 'gleaning' as it is referred to in this world, as the Scythedom do not believe in killing, but ending your life when it is 'supposed' to end according to their order.I don't want to give too much away of the plot as it is best to go in blind, because the surprises that awaits the reader are darn good! But we follow these characters on a journey that questions their values, morality and their society and I LOVE when an author can subtly inject that into a story.The world-building is pretty much perfect. We are introduced to it slowly and it is built upon as the story progresses in a way that does not get too overwhelming for the reader, but rather where the reader grasps it perfectly and falls into it.A lot of that had to do with the writing. It was pretty much mesmerising and told in the form of a narrative (coupled with some insightful journal entries), which created this illusion almost where I believed that the world actually existed. Or that it is not too far off from our world becoming as such. It was ingenious and completely boggled my mind. I was in awe and in love.As for the characters, Rowan was the most complex. I enjoyed the fact that we had two different characters on two sets of journeys, following individual experiences and it brilliantly overlapping. Their roles were challenging and questioned their moral.It was an incredibly enjoyable and immersive reading experience. What becomes of humans and its society when others have been given too much power and aren't scrutinised for it? What is the point of existence if one is immortal and/or has the ability to modify their age/youth?There were so many questionable variables that were explored that are relevant to our current climate. It was absolutely thrilling to read and I cannot recommend this book enough.

For once I am writing a review just minutes after finishing a book rather than waiting weeks and relying on my notes to write the review. SO THIS BOOK IS FRESH IN MY BRAIN! And just wow! This book was terrific. I can't believe that I put off reading it for so long because of the hype. Let me just say this: Scythe definitely lives up to the hype that surrounded it.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.This is the second book by Schusterman that I had read, the first one being Unwind (and boy, that was just weird!) Schusterman carries on writing about weird and wonderful worlds in Scythe where humanity has conquered death and disease. This was a fantastic book that was written at the perfect pace throughout. It wasn't slow and then went really fast or vice versa, it was a nice pace throughout the whole novel. Let me just get the moan out of the way first and tell you why this wasn't a five star, but a 4.5: the 'romance'. Ok, well it isn't even romance per se... You know the characters like each other but they aren't actually together? So they're both crushing on each other through the entirety of the book and it's not until the very end where they actually acknowledge these feelings. For me, there was no need for a romance element between the two characters to even be suggested because they weren't really by each other for most of the book anyway. So yeah, there was no point. Schusterman could have just left out the insinuation of romance and kept it as a low-level friendship; that would have been much better.“I think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity.”― Neal Shusterman, ScytheOk, little moan out of the way. Now onto the complete fangirling. JUST. WOW. I absolutely love this world so much. I wouldn't want to live in it myself because waiting to get 'gleaned' by a scythe would give me so much anxiety. But in a fictional sense, yes this is an absolutely brilliant, well-thought-out world that gives me the heebie-jeebies. I can't wait to read more about this world in the next book, Thunderhead, which is ALREADY OUT BUT I DO NOT OWN IT AND THAT MAKES ME VERY SAD.I loved all of the characters in this book and even the 'evil' ones, I loved to hate them because they were just sooooo bad. They didn't even have a reason, to be honest for being like that, they just loved killing so much. For Scythe Goddard and his team not to have a good reason for going on killing sprees just makes them that much scarier because they are so irrational. I really did love the character of Citra, Rowan not so much because he annoyed me half the time, but Citra was a hard-working, flawed female character and I loved her for it. She wasn't some 'chosen one' who mastered the art of Scythedom straight away. She worked hard at it - made some stupid decisions along the way - but she worked hard. AND CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE CHARACTERS OF SCYTHE FARRADY AND SCYTHE CURIE?! I absolutely loved their characters. They were tough teachers yet they were fair, strong and kind and I have nothing but love for them. Especially when we find out their backstory; it made me cry so much.Overall, this was a fantastic novel that I had the pleasure of reading in a few days (would have been less but I was bedridden with the flu!) Apart from the romance-ish parts, Shusterman has written a near-perfect book that captured my attention and my heart and I cannot wait to read the next book and find out what happens to my beloved characters.

The book draws you in immediately when a scythe, whose job it is to glean-aka cull- humans, shows up at teenage protagonist Citra’s door for dinner. The twist comes further into the story than usual, and puts dual protagonists Citra and Rowen in a direction neither were expecting. There’s lots of set up, but the worldbuilding makes it interesting. Great plot. Even genre bending. Pretty much unputdownable.

Desde que leí la reseña supe que tenía que leer este libro. Ahora que lo he empezado me he dado cuenta que fue una excelente elección, la historia te atrapa, y te deja reflexionando.

The book makes a good start with a detailed introduction to the supposed "utopia" it is meant to portray. I found the portion of the book a little boring where one is reading through the development of the characters in the story; although it's not very uncommon as one tends to tilt towards the "big picture" elements in a dystopian fiction. The book picks up well as soon as it familiarizes the reader with the nature of its characters, and taking them through some jaw-dropping plot twists, the book finishes itself quite well. It doesn't compel one to pick up part 2 right away, but it surely does make one inquisitive enough to do that someday.P.S.: I did pick up Thunderhead the very next day I finshed reading The Scythe, and I must say, it's such a high jump from The Scythe! Truely amazing!

Livraison rapide et conforme. Premier livre d'une saga qui ravit notamment les adolescents...et les plus grands.

this book honestly was super interesting to read, and i actually ended up getting the whole trilogy at once! a friend of mine told me that it was good, so i listened to her and she was absolutely right! now im on the second book, and even though it has it's length to it (around 515 pages, which is fairly long for what im used to), im definitely super excited to read it!