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A review by neverlandpages4
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
• I’ve had my eye on this book for over a year, and I finally picked it up recently after having multiple people recommend it to me and I’m so glad that I did!
• This was the first Sci-fi book I’ve read and I loved the entire world and the system that it operates in. There are a lot of little things that make this world so unique.
𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠
• I absolutely loved Neal Shusterman’s writing. It was really thought provoking, interesting, and witty. There’s quite a bit of dark humor too.
𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠
• The pacing I did struggle with at first. There were so many huge time jumps and I usually don’t like that in books or movies. It feels like I’m missing out on so many things and it definitely made the character development a little weird because in the span of a chapter, they’re a completely different person. I saw some people say that this was slow-paced, but in my opinion, it was too fast-paced for my liking.
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬
• Honestly, I didn’t like either of the main characters at first. It was interesting seeing the dichotomy between them but I didn’t feel attached to them. Citra definitely grew on me and I loved her character development. By the end of the book, I was absolutely rooting for her and I loved how determined and strong she was. But with Rowan, I liked him less and less as the book went on.
𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭
• Even though I agree with most people that Citra and Rowan are adorable, the romance between them seemed unrealistic. They don’t spend much time together on the page, we follow their journeys separately, so it was weird seeing them all of the sudden in love at the end.
𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠
• I was really curious to see how this would end because the characters are put in an impossible situation, and I really liked how it ended. It was kind of funny how a serious situation was solved by something like that, but I liked it because it was unexpected, and I can’t wait to continue this series!!
Side note:
Although this is categorized as Young Adult, there’s a lot of violence (which is obvious from the synopsis) and there’s specifically the topic of a school sh—ting that made me extremely upset, so even though I loved this book, I definitely didn’t love reading about those things and it kind of put me in this gloomy mood so I’d suggest checking the content warnings and making sure you’re not reading this if you’re in a bad place mentally or if you’re just someone that doesn’t like reading about these topics
• This was the first Sci-fi book I’ve read and I loved the entire world and the system that it operates in. There are a lot of little things that make this world so unique.
𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠
• I absolutely loved Neal Shusterman’s writing. It was really thought provoking, interesting, and witty. There’s quite a bit of dark humor too.
𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠
• The pacing I did struggle with at first. There were so many huge time jumps and I usually don’t like that in books or movies. It feels like I’m missing out on so many things and it definitely made the character development a little weird because in the span of a chapter, they’re a completely different person. I saw some people say that this was slow-paced, but in my opinion, it was too fast-paced for my liking.
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬
• Honestly, I didn’t like either of the main characters at first. It was interesting seeing the dichotomy between them but I didn’t feel attached to them. Citra definitely grew on me and I loved her character development. By the end of the book, I was absolutely rooting for her and I loved how determined and strong she was. But with Rowan, I liked him less and less as the book went on.
𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭
• Even though I agree with most people that Citra and Rowan are adorable, the romance between them seemed unrealistic. They don’t spend much time together on the page, we follow their journeys separately, so it was weird seeing them all of the sudden in love at the end.
𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠
• I was really curious to see how this would end because the characters are put in an impossible situation, and I really liked how it ended. It was kind of funny how a serious situation was solved by something like that, but I liked it because it was unexpected, and I can’t wait to continue this series!!
Side note:
Although this is categorized as Young Adult, there’s a lot of violence (which is obvious from the synopsis) and there’s specifically the topic of a school sh—ting that made me extremely upset, so even though I loved this book, I definitely didn’t love reading about those things and it kind of put me in this gloomy mood so I’d suggest checking the content warnings and making sure you’re not reading this if you’re in a bad place mentally or if you’re just someone that doesn’t like reading about these topics
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Abandonment