Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

12 reviews

asphodelrose7's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Blood, and Gun violence

shanbles's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Blood, Gun violence, Child death, Murder, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

Moderate: Classism, Gore, and Car accident

Minor: Hate crime, Terminal illness, Torture, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

a_cera_t0ps's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Bullying, Gun violence, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

hales_1243's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, Racism, Child death, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Body horror, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Fatphobia

Minor: Vomit and Alcohol

cdoubet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Religious bigotry

maisieflorence's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Torture, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, and Hate crime

marareading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.75

Definitely a fantastic dystopian. I loved this world and the reimagining of this world without natural death. Citra and Rowan are scythe apprentices, and in this world, scythes are the only way to experience true death. Hundreds of years in the future, the thunderhead has taken over all intelligence, and solved all of humanities problems. Now the only issues is that we are too perfect. How the Scythes inact death in a managed and balanced way throughout the world. They are the only way someone can die, and only they decide. They are balanced, precise, and unbiased... Or are they? So many twists! Highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Death, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Suicide, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Bullying, and Violence

recycled_personalities's review against another edition

dark funny reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

cool world, and like 2 decent characters. i think the societal structure is enough for me to recommend this book as i believe it is quite the ponder one can have.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Genocide, Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Child death, Grief, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

cepbreed's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

I LOVED THIS!! I’m really considering reentering my YA dystopia phase just for this book to be honest. I literally made my mom order the sequels ASAP. The premise is original and captivating but it is what is done with it that makes the book a great one. Citra and Rowan may be the main characters but I found myself falling fast for Scythe Curie and Faraday. I love the edition of the Scythe journal entries, giving us information that contextualizes information from all sections of the book. The plot had me on the edge of my seat and the twists had me gasping for air!

Song: 

• Wires - The Neighbourhood 
• Mean It - Gracie Abrams 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Religious bigotry, Classism, Gun violence, and Medical content

Minor: Hate crime, Stalking, and Torture

patslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, and Racism

Minor: Car accident and Vomit