Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Scythe

I feel like I put off reading this book for so long because Sci-Fi wasn’t my genre but this book was good. I feel like I probably would have liked it more as a teenager. While the plot was entertaining it also left a few things unexplained. It just felt a little dull at some moments and dragged out for others.

I also kinda had a pet peeve about Citra’s and Rowan’s relationship, it felt very forced and out of place. It was honestly uncomfortable to read, it was like because they were around the same age they had to wind up together…

Spice Level: n/a

Release Date: 16, November 2016

POV: Duel, Third Person

Rep: n/a

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earthie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I liked this book a lot, but found the way that it ended to be a bit empty. The premise is so good, but it felt like the ending was doomed to be akin to The Hunger Games at best.

However, starting the book knowing there are sequels brought the book down a notch for me as it seems to be a common trend of Schusterman - great and unique dystopian universes ending up being dragged on past their expiration dates (pun intended).

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a_cera_t0ps's review

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adventurous dark hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Very obviously part of a series. It's like watching season 1 of a very well tied together show; you need to keep reading. And Neal Shusterman does a very good job of making you want to.

The book looked at the inherent fault in the concept of a utopia: to be flawed is to be human. To live is to one day die. To love is to risk losing.
In a perfect world, humanity ends up desensitized and stagnant. There are no big emotions, no real wants, and no true progress. Life is boring. The only thing that's still human, ironically, is found in the most horrific, inhumane act someone could commit. Humanity barely lives, and the rest just live to die. To kill. To "glean," as a shiny, perfect, desensitized world would prefer to call it.

The book has a refreshing take on the future. It believes that, if we were to cure death before fighting our way into space, we would never leave. We would grow comfortable in safety, and seek vanquish any attempts to jeopardize it. It was interesting, and I felt it was realistic.

Neal Shusterman shows just how bad humanity is. True humanity leads to the worst of the worst worming their way into power every time. True humanity values themselves over morality. True humanity is ignorant and judgemental. True humanity, simply put, is dangerous. Yet, I we strip mankind of its sin, we are left with nothing worthwhile.

The plot is well connected. It wraps enough of the story up to have a clear, clean plot while still establishing conflict to be dealt with in the following books.

The characters well fleshed out nicely. The ones that were meant to be likeable were wonderful. The antagonists were scary. If not in a thriller/horror way, in a philosophical way. You didn't want them to win, but the threat of their success was just too real. Each response to the conflicts were clever. Nothing was too predictable to be enjoyable or too convoluted to be good storytelling.

The Shustermans are amazing, as always <3

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