Review: Scythe - Neal Shusterman

Genre: Dystopia

Published: 22nd November 2016

Length: 448 pages

My rating: 7/10

Overview: In the future, technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. There is no more death, no more ageing. Yet the growing population needs to be controlled somehow, so scythes are tasked with the job of killing. Rowan and Citra are taken on as apprentice scythes, not knowing the danger that lies in their futures.

I read the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman a few years ago, although my memory of it is quite hazy and I think I actually forgot to finish the series. However, I definitely remember loving the first one and remember enjoying what a weird and cool concept the book was built around. Similarly to Unwind, Scythe really played into questions of human choice and morality and got some pretty deep questions rolling. Again, I also thought the concept was really interesting. Another similarity is the little excerpts between chapters, which in this case gave us a little insight into one or two of the characters and helped with the world-building process.

One of the major complaints I've seen about the boom is that for a story with over 400 pages, not a lot actually happens. I can agree with that, but as this is the first book in the series I think it was more important to use the time to clearly world-build, and to set up the plot lines for the next books. The only thing I thought we needed to know more about was the Thunderhead, but seeing as that is the title of the next book I'm sure more info is coming. There were several tense action scenes sprinkled throughout: my favourites have to be the toner children massacre which got me tearing up and the fight scene at the end with the plot twist with the ring. This was about the only plot twist I didn't see coming to be honest, and I was so shocked when it happened I literally laughed out loud from the sheer cleverness of it.

Character wise, this book didn't blow me away. There is no one I'm strongly attached to going into the second book. I would love like to hear more about scythe Curie's past, but that's about it. I thought the whole Curie/Faraday history was unneeded and Citra and Rowan being a thing was obviously hinted at but to be honest they didn't even share that many scenes throughout the book and the chemistry was a little forced. I can see a strong friendship developing but not so much a romance. Both of them were a little annoying. Rowan with his 'I think I like killing ohh nooo I'm a monsterrrr' internal dialogue and Citra's nosiness just pissed me off slightly. Although I really enjoyed this book, this is the area where it loses marks.

I probably won't read the sequel for a little while as I got the first one in paperback and would like to keep collecting them in the same edition, but in the UK the paperback version isn't out until May I think. If you enjoy a good problematic future story, this book is for you!

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