Book ReviewScythe by Neal Shusterman
Hey! What's up, you guys? It's Connor, and today I'm going to be doing a book review on Scythe by Neal Shusterman. If you guys
don't know, Neal Shusterman is one of my favorite YA authors, and so I was really
excited when he was coming out with a new book. And I wanted to read and review
it for you guys. It came out last year at some point, but I am just now getting
around to reading it.
This book was also given to me by Mari from mynameismarines who I will leave linked down below. She's awesome, so thank you
so much for sending me this book. Scythe takes place in a future Earth where the
medical field has progressed so much so that when you become older, you're
allowed to what's called "turn the corner," and you'll get reset to a younger age. So
if you're 60 or something like that, you can "turn the corner" and turn back into a
25 year old.
And with this medical technology, no one ever dies, and so the
population of humans on earth has grown exponentially. And other advancements
have allowed disease, and cancer, and everything like that to all be
eradicated, so there's really no way that humans naturally die on earth anymore.
The only thing is fire. If there's a fire and you die in the fire, then you
actually die. But even if you die (like, you jump off a building and you die), it's
called being deadish, and they can bring you back to life.
And you can continue
living, and because there needs to be some form of population control and making
sure that the population doesn't grow too much (although it continues to grow
no matter what), there's a group called the scythes who are tasked with deciding
which people need to be killed and what's called gleaned. And they're
permanently dead and not just deadish. In this book you follow two characters that
both get chosen to become scythe apprentices, and to become a scythe, you
have to be morally upstanding and have very good morals. So both characters are
both really good people.
The female main character's name is Citra, and she is
very family-oriented. She's very loyal, and she is very straightforward. She
doesn't fluff a lot. She gets straight to the point.
She also has a very dry sense
of humor, and she's actually a personal color. In this world pretty much no one
is any pure race. They all have all the races in them, and the way that they
identify is they have different percentages for what they are. So there's
a percentage for being white, black, Latino, and Pan-Asian, and other.
I don't
really know what other is. Citra is primarily black. The other main character
that you follow is a boy named Rowan. He is very compassionate and loyal
to the ones that he has decided to be close to.
He's not actually very close to
this family, but he is close with this one best friend of his. He's very honest
and selfless. He's very giving, and he's also very independent. He is primarily
white, but again as I said before, no one is any pure race.
So everyone is mixed
race. Neither of these two main characters want to become scythes, but they
end up accepting the apprenticeship for different reasons.
As usual with my book reviews, I'm going to go through my pros, go through my cons, give you my
rating, and be done. My first pro is that you just cannot help but like the two
main characters of this series because they are chosen for their moral
standards and for being good people. And although it's very common for YA and
middle grade characters to really be morally high-grounded, it makes sense in
this book that they would be because that is a requirement, again, for becoming
a scythe.
Another thing that I liked about this
was just the world in general. I liked that the sides are one governing body
they decide who lives and who dies basically, and they have a quota with how
many people they have to kill. I think it's like 240 per year, and they also
have quotas that they have to make sure that they aren't prejudiced in any way.
So they have to make sure that the people that they kill are all diverse
and all the numbers equal out in the end. In opposition to the scythes, there's also
this thing called the Thunder[head], and the Thunder[head] has taken over all of
the governments in the world.
There's no reason for there to be a government when
no one dies and there's no fighting over land, or food, or any resources, or
anything like that because there's plenty and no one has to fight over any
of it. The Thunderhead basically takes care of everyone. There's not some rogue
computer that is taking over the world. People actually like the Thundehead
being in charge, and the Thunderhead is not allowed to get involved with the
scythes.
So it's a big separation there, but I really liked seeing both of those
and seeing how people viewed the two different ruling bodies basically. I
could also really believe that this was the future because the language and the
words that people use have all been very simplified. Because there is no United
States or anything like that, the names of different areas have become
shortened. So instead of it being middle America it gets shortened to Midmerica
because over time English simplifies and words become
condensed.
And this book mainly takes place in Mid America, but there's
different regions. And they're all called something shorter than what they used to
be. I also like that in between every chapter you get this diary entry. All
scythes are required to keep diaries, and I.
Really liked seeing the different
opinions that the different scythes that show up in these diary entries have.
Their different viewpoints of what they're doing and how they morally view
the fact that they're having to kill 240ish people per year, and also scythes take
the name of scientists or important people in history, and so it's really
interesting because at first I was trying to figure out who the different
scythes were and how they would play a role in the story and everything like
that. So I really enjoyed those diary entries because it gave some insight
into the characters without it being blatantly said within the narrative. It
was actually the character telling you they view this this way. Another thing I
liked was just the fact that the two characters are being apprentices, so it
just became, kind of, a game of trying to figure out if they would even become
scythes in the end.
Would they pass their tests that they have to take. Obviously
there's some bad things that are happening, so what will that have as an
effect on them and how they will deal with those things. I was just trying to
figure everything out, and it was very, very entertaining for me. I was reading
some reviews after I finished the book, and I saw some people complain about the
bad guys in this just being kind of like your stereotypical, maniacal bad guy
that's just evil for being evil.
And I. Don't think that that is necessarily
true. Yes, it kind of seems like that, but if you think about the background of the
bad guys... Obviously it's going to have something to do with the scythes, so that's
not a spoiler.
But if you think about the idea of scythes is that they're forced to
be killers and kill 240 people every year, and they can live forever. So they
can live for hundreds of years and they're taking hundreds of lives every
year. That amount of pressure and morally wrong actions would really upset people.
It would make sense that someone would have a break at some point, and try
to rationalize the situation that they're in, and figure out why they were
given this ability to become a scythe and everything like that. Sorry if angle
changed.
My camera just died. But I don't think that the bad guys are evil for
being evil. I think that they're evil because they're a product of what
they've been forced to do. Now on to my cons.
One of my
cons was that I just didn't feel for the characters as much as I thought I was
going to when going into this book. I. Just felt like I was watching their
story happen, and I didn't feel invested in their story if that makes
sense. So if something bad was happening to them, I was like, " oh no! That sucks, but
uh...
What's going to happen next?" And that kind of thing, and the only other con
that I had was that the loyalty between the two apprentices didn't really make
sense. I didn't see where the two of them would have become such great friends
that they would be super loyal to each other. I felt like there could have been
some extra time at the beginning of the novel where the two characters really
become really good friends, and then I. Could see why they would be so loyal for
the rest of the book.
But I just didn't see it, so that kind of pushed me out. And I was like, "Well what the heck? Why are you making these decisions? Look out for
yourself. Look out for your family!" That kind of thing first. I don't really
understand it, but it is what it is.
So because of all my pros and just a
couple of those cons, I ended up giving this book 4.5 Stars out of 5 stars. I
loved it so much! I'm so excited for the series to continue. It was exactly the
quality of storytelling that I expect from Neal Shusterman. So I was very happy
with this one, and I definitely recommend it.
That's going to be my review on Scythe
by Neal Shusterman. If you liked it, please give it a big thumbs up and
comment down below if you've read this book. Have you read anything similar? I
actually just read a book that was similar in thought process where the
human race has found immortality, but I. Didn't like that one quite as much as
this one.
So if you have any recommendations that do something
similar, leave them down below, and I will talk to you guys next time. Bye! (Finger gun and tongue click).
don't know, Neal Shusterman is one of my favorite YA authors, and so I was really
excited when he was coming out with a new book. And I wanted to read and review
it for you guys. It came out last year at some point, but I am just now getting
around to reading it.
This book was also given to me by Mari from mynameismarines who I will leave linked down below. She's awesome, so thank you
so much for sending me this book. Scythe takes place in a future Earth where the
medical field has progressed so much so that when you become older, you're
allowed to what's called "turn the corner," and you'll get reset to a younger age. So
if you're 60 or something like that, you can "turn the corner" and turn back into a
25 year old.
And with this medical technology, no one ever dies, and so the
population of humans on earth has grown exponentially. And other advancements
have allowed disease, and cancer, and everything like that to all be
eradicated, so there's really no way that humans naturally die on earth anymore.
The only thing is fire. If there's a fire and you die in the fire, then you
actually die. But even if you die (like, you jump off a building and you die), it's
called being deadish, and they can bring you back to life.
And you can continue
living, and because there needs to be some form of population control and making
sure that the population doesn't grow too much (although it continues to grow
no matter what), there's a group called the scythes who are tasked with deciding
which people need to be killed and what's called gleaned. And they're
permanently dead and not just deadish. In this book you follow two characters that
both get chosen to become scythe apprentices, and to become a scythe, you
have to be morally upstanding and have very good morals. So both characters are
both really good people.
The female main character's name is Citra, and she is
very family-oriented. She's very loyal, and she is very straightforward. She
doesn't fluff a lot. She gets straight to the point.
She also has a very dry sense
of humor, and she's actually a personal color. In this world pretty much no one
is any pure race. They all have all the races in them, and the way that they
identify is they have different percentages for what they are. So there's
a percentage for being white, black, Latino, and Pan-Asian, and other.
I don't
really know what other is. Citra is primarily black. The other main character
that you follow is a boy named Rowan. He is very compassionate and loyal
to the ones that he has decided to be close to.
He's not actually very close to
this family, but he is close with this one best friend of his. He's very honest
and selfless. He's very giving, and he's also very independent. He is primarily
white, but again as I said before, no one is any pure race.
So everyone is mixed
race. Neither of these two main characters want to become scythes, but they
end up accepting the apprenticeship for different reasons.
As usual with my book reviews, I'm going to go through my pros, go through my cons, give you my
rating, and be done. My first pro is that you just cannot help but like the two
main characters of this series because they are chosen for their moral
standards and for being good people. And although it's very common for YA and
middle grade characters to really be morally high-grounded, it makes sense in
this book that they would be because that is a requirement, again, for becoming
a scythe.
Another thing that I liked about this
was just the world in general. I liked that the sides are one governing body
they decide who lives and who dies basically, and they have a quota with how
many people they have to kill. I think it's like 240 per year, and they also
have quotas that they have to make sure that they aren't prejudiced in any way.
So they have to make sure that the people that they kill are all diverse
and all the numbers equal out in the end. In opposition to the scythes, there's also
this thing called the Thunder[head], and the Thunder[head] has taken over all of
the governments in the world.
There's no reason for there to be a government when
no one dies and there's no fighting over land, or food, or any resources, or
anything like that because there's plenty and no one has to fight over any
of it. The Thunderhead basically takes care of everyone. There's not some rogue
computer that is taking over the world. People actually like the Thundehead
being in charge, and the Thunderhead is not allowed to get involved with the
scythes.
So it's a big separation there, but I really liked seeing both of those
and seeing how people viewed the two different ruling bodies basically. I
could also really believe that this was the future because the language and the
words that people use have all been very simplified. Because there is no United
States or anything like that, the names of different areas have become
shortened. So instead of it being middle America it gets shortened to Midmerica
because over time English simplifies and words become
condensed.
And this book mainly takes place in Mid America, but there's
different regions. And they're all called something shorter than what they used to
be. I also like that in between every chapter you get this diary entry. All
scythes are required to keep diaries, and I.
Really liked seeing the different
opinions that the different scythes that show up in these diary entries have.
Their different viewpoints of what they're doing and how they morally view
the fact that they're having to kill 240ish people per year, and also scythes take
the name of scientists or important people in history, and so it's really
interesting because at first I was trying to figure out who the different
scythes were and how they would play a role in the story and everything like
that. So I really enjoyed those diary entries because it gave some insight
into the characters without it being blatantly said within the narrative. It
was actually the character telling you they view this this way. Another thing I
liked was just the fact that the two characters are being apprentices, so it
just became, kind of, a game of trying to figure out if they would even become
scythes in the end.
Would they pass their tests that they have to take. Obviously
there's some bad things that are happening, so what will that have as an
effect on them and how they will deal with those things. I was just trying to
figure everything out, and it was very, very entertaining for me. I was reading
some reviews after I finished the book, and I saw some people complain about the
bad guys in this just being kind of like your stereotypical, maniacal bad guy
that's just evil for being evil.
And I. Don't think that that is necessarily
true. Yes, it kind of seems like that, but if you think about the background of the
bad guys... Obviously it's going to have something to do with the scythes, so that's
not a spoiler.
But if you think about the idea of scythes is that they're forced to
be killers and kill 240 people every year, and they can live forever. So they
can live for hundreds of years and they're taking hundreds of lives every
year. That amount of pressure and morally wrong actions would really upset people.
It would make sense that someone would have a break at some point, and try
to rationalize the situation that they're in, and figure out why they were
given this ability to become a scythe and everything like that. Sorry if angle
changed.
My camera just died. But I don't think that the bad guys are evil for
being evil. I think that they're evil because they're a product of what
they've been forced to do. Now on to my cons.
One of my
cons was that I just didn't feel for the characters as much as I thought I was
going to when going into this book. I. Just felt like I was watching their
story happen, and I didn't feel invested in their story if that makes
sense. So if something bad was happening to them, I was like, " oh no! That sucks, but
uh...
What's going to happen next?" And that kind of thing, and the only other con
that I had was that the loyalty between the two apprentices didn't really make
sense. I didn't see where the two of them would have become such great friends
that they would be super loyal to each other. I felt like there could have been
some extra time at the beginning of the novel where the two characters really
become really good friends, and then I. Could see why they would be so loyal for
the rest of the book.
But I just didn't see it, so that kind of pushed me out. And I was like, "Well what the heck? Why are you making these decisions? Look out for
yourself. Look out for your family!" That kind of thing first. I don't really
understand it, but it is what it is.
So because of all my pros and just a
couple of those cons, I ended up giving this book 4.5 Stars out of 5 stars. I
loved it so much! I'm so excited for the series to continue. It was exactly the
quality of storytelling that I expect from Neal Shusterman. So I was very happy
with this one, and I definitely recommend it.
That's going to be my review on Scythe
by Neal Shusterman. If you liked it, please give it a big thumbs up and
comment down below if you've read this book. Have you read anything similar? I
actually just read a book that was similar in thought process where the
human race has found immortality, but I. Didn't like that one quite as much as
this one.
So if you have any recommendations that do something
similar, leave them down below, and I will talk to you guys next time. Bye! (Finger gun and tongue click).
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