Reviews with content warning for Murder - Thunderhead

I did still enjoy this portion of the series, but not as much as the first book. I am still very excited to see where the series goes, but it does suffer a bit from "second book syndrome". The ending was unexpected, and I was definitely shaken because I was not expecting such a twist! It made me more excited to see what happens in book three.

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crunchycrystals's review against another edition

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3.5

i like the worldbuilding. like the detail about the thunderhead experimenting with various regions like texas is so much more interesting than a monotonous world. i was angry with goddard coming back but it could be utilized really well. i liked rand's character surprisingly. i thought she was kind of interesting when she let rowan go.
i still think the most interesting part of the whole book was citra/ anastasia. she was my favorite in the first book and she still is now. i liked seeing the changes she was making to the scythedom and all the politics within it.

not sure what i think of the ending. i liked the thunderhead being a character and i liked its reaction to the ending. i feel like my thoughts about this book will change based on what happens in the next book but i don't know until i read it.

the only thing i TRULY hate about this book is the stupid chapter where rowan kills the canadian racist who wants to commit a genocide against an indigenous tribe. that is way too close to the actual history of canada and their relationship with indigenous people to be given the explanation of "it's because he fell in love with a woman but he couldn't marry her so she married another man from her tribe". this makes me so angry because the racism itself is almost too realistic to canada but the explanation is so far removed from reality. that's not why people are racist. that chapter was so stupid i swear to god if you deleted the whole thing nothing would've changed.
and like clearly what the author was going for was that the scythe used to be good but became evil. just say he had some prejudiced beliefs and fell in with a crowd that radicalized him to the point that he was murdering indigenous tribes he hated for the reason HE HIMSELF SAID IN THE CHAPTER. it was already in the narration you could've just. oh my god this chapter makes me too angry. the only thing i liked about that chapter was showing another way the scythedom is broken by allowing people to have racially motivated gleanings and get away with it because they fall under "other".

edit this is going down from 3.75 to 3.5 since i DNFd the third book. i just didn't like it lol and when i think about this book i just think about how excited i was to see where the world would be going with anastasia's plans for the future and then just. all of that potential went away with the cliffhanger at the end

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kat1105's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

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medini_l's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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abby_180's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

A really great middle book for this trilogy, it really goes into the grey areas between right and wrong (and sentiments of "for the greater good") of characters in different situations and most characters aren't able to be labeled as strictly "good" or "bad". There are a lot of unexpected plot twists, exploration of issues of immortality and the role and consequence of higher powers and governance. I also love the insights from the Thunderhead at the end of each chapter, similar to the excerpts from the gleaning journals of scythes in the first book, it adds a lot of depth and personality to this entity that is otherwise just seen as an AI created to save humanity

I almost cried when Marie sacrificed herself :'(

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