Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - Thunderhead

Wow. I did not predict anything that was going to happen in Thunderhead. It was easy to read and intriguing. This was a worthy sequel.

Like the first book, when the plot started to feel mundane, some kind of twist would happen to make the story pick up again.

I liked getting to see more into the Scythedom and the Thunderhead. All the threads of the plot and characters weave to create such an interesting story.

The romance takes a very back burner, but it’s still vaguely there.

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adrienanthony's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-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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ggcd1981's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-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? No

4.25

Thunderhead é o segundo volume da série Arc of a Scythe e, apesar de não ser tão bom quanto o primeiro, fez um bom trabalho de manter a história interessante. Nesse livro se segue os personagens apresentados em Scythe: Citra Terranova, agora Scythe Anastasia; Scythe Marie Curie, mentora de Citra; Scythe Michael Faraday, antigo mentor de Citra e Rowan; Rowan Damisch, que agora assassina Scythes corruptos; Tyger Salazar, melhor amigo de Rowan que nutre o desejo de ser Scythe e tem sentimentos por Scythe Rand; Scythe Robert Goddard, que assume novamente o papel de antagonista; Scythe Ayn Rand, uma das seguidoras de Goddard que se mostrou mais inteligente do que o esperado, ela foi responsável pela ressureição do seu mentor; Greyson Tolliver, personagem introduzido nesse volume ele, filho de pais ausentes, foi criado pelo Thunderhead e se tornou o homem de confiança da Inteligência Artificial; Thunderhead, a I.A. autônoma que controla o mundo e cuida da sobrevivência da humanidade. O Thunderhead passa a utilizar o leal Greyson em missões em que a I.A. não pode se envolver oficialmente como salvar a vida das Scythe Anastasia e Curie. A atmosfera da obra como um todo é uma mistura de futurista e contemporâneo. A tecnologia avançou tanto nesse mundo ao ponto de tornar muitas coisas e instituições obsoletas, mas as mesmas são mantidas nesse universo por razões nostálgicas e para os humanos terem passatempos. São exemplos disso escolas, museus, bibliotecas, entre outros. Acho isso uma muleta para o autor e uma oportunidade perdida para criação de um mundo totalmente novo, mas é funcional para a história do livro. Apesar dessas oportunidades de criação de mundo perdidas por Neal Shusterman a escrita deste é muito boa. Em alguns momentos o autor levanta questões interessantes para reflexão. Uma que ficou em minha mente foi uma reflexão do Thunderhead sobre a natureza. Todos apreciam um jardim mas este não é a natureza real pois esta se trata da sobrevivência do mais forte. Na natureza real as flores e plantas frágeis, o crescimento planejado, seriam consumidos por ervas e plantas mais fortes que cresceriam de maneira desregrada. Logo, ao meu ver, o que é natural não é igual ao que é justo e/ou ideal. Quanto ao enredo em resumo: O Thunderhead não pode interferir nos assuntos do Scythedom. Tudo o que pode fazer é observar – e a I. A. não gosta do que vê. Um ano se passou desde que Rowan saiu do sistema. Desde então, ele se tornou uma lenda urbana, um vigilante extinguindo Scythes corruptos. Sua história é contada em sussurros por todo o continente. Como Scythe Anastasia, Citra realiza os gleanings com compaixão e desafia abertamente os ideais da “nova ordem” que foi encabeçada por Goddard. Mas quando sua vida é ameaçada e seus métodos questionados, fica claro que nem todos estão abertos à visão de Citra. O Thunderhead descontente com simplesmente assistir enquanto este mundo perfeito começa a se desfazer acha meios de burlar as leis na forma de Greyson Tolliver que independente das consequências que sofre faz o que a Inteligência Artificial não pode fazer ela mesma: interferir no que está ocorrendo no Scythedom. Com a ressureição de Goddard em um novo corpo por meio das ações da Scythe Rand o confronto entre os ideais da Nova Ordem e da Velha Guarda se torna inevitável, culminando ao final em um evento que altera como o mundo “perfeito” do Thunderhead funciona. Como segundo volume da trilogia o livro teve sucesso em manter um bom nível de intriga. O final em particular com o genocídio arquitetado por Goddard em Endura, cidade sede dos Scythe onde o conselho de 7 Grandslayers representando os continentes presidia o World Scythe Council, criou um cenário de alta complexidade para o terceiro livro. Quanto a lógica do livro ela possui algumas falhas, em especial quando se trata da utilização de elementos contemporâneos em um cenário futurista. No entanto os poucos buracos na lógica não afetam significativamente a experiência da obra. No que se trata de aproveitamento, apesar de ter achado o primeiro livro melhor, ainda desfrutei de Thunderhead e continuo interessada no desenvolvimento da história. O autor desenvolveu bem personagens secundários como Scythe Rand e o ex-High Blade Xenocrates, me fazendo sentir pela morte deste último em Endura. Contudo houveram elementos que me impediram de desfrutar 100% o livro, por exemplo quão fácil foi para Scythe Brahms, a mando de Rand, capturar Rowan. Isso foi um pouco decepcionante pois esperava mais resistência do rapaz. Outro ponto que achei questionável foi a ressureição de Goddard através de um transplante de cérebro. Achei que trazer Goddard de volta depois que Rowan o assassinou no primeiro livro foi um pouco “dar para trás na decisão” por parte do autor. Penso que foi apelação de Shusterman por não conseguir pensar outro antagonista a altura. Contudo o livro me entreteve, funcionou bem como segundo volume na trilogia, ergueu expectativas para o terceiro e teve uma narrativa intrigante, dou 4.25 estrelas.

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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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semogecarg's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

THE LAST CHAPTER OH MY GOD I HAVE CHILLS

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Thunderhead cuts a bloody swathe through your favorite characters while artfully pondering biases and death in a post-mortality dystopian society which still needs people to die. Sure to render your heart deadish.

Just like the first one, this book has a very high body count and no character is safe. I'm not saying your favorite character will die, but be prepared. The antagonist is great in a truly terrible way, I'm impressed by his depravity but also at how the author shields the reader so that we get the MC's reaction to the villain's awfulness, but we're insulated from some of how terrible it is. It's always very clear what happened, and that's it's awful, but because the MCs don't have the same language we do surrounding trauma and death there are in-universe euphemisms and language gaps which make it possible to read and enjoy what could (in the hands of a less caring author) feel like wading through blood to get to the plot. I was genuinely shocked by one of the plot twists, variously stressed out, and I hope the villain gets a comeuppance in the last book of the trilogy because goddamn I hate him, but I loved this book. It's grim and fantastic, pondering moral quandaries and the nature of existence via the quotes beginning each chapter, while also pairing that rumination with action in really great ways.

Now I'll get to my usual book two check. It does wrap up a character arc left hanging from the first book. Oh boy does it wrap it up, ummmm, yeah, not saying any more about that. I didn't cry, it's fine, I repeat that the villain is hateable and terrible. There is a really cool storyline which starts in this book and wasn't present in the first one. I love the MC at the heart of it, and I'm very excited to see what happens with him in the third book. I think it's accurate to say something major was introduced and resolved within this volume, several things, actually. There might be more to discuss with them in the third book, but if we don't come back to them I'm content with their resolutions. There are so many things to be addressed in the third book, it's a trilogy so I feel pretty good about the balance of resolution and open-endedness in this middle book. It kept some of the POV characters from the first book as well as adding a couple of new ones, their voices are pretty distinct from the recurring narrators (each of whom are very different from each other). It was never confusing when the narrator changed for me, their settings, tone, and motivations are separate enough that it was easy to keep track. And finally, I don't think this would make much sense if you tried to start with this one. It's a futuristic setting with a lot of specific language which was naturally explained in the first book, and trying to start here without that grounding would probably be very frustrating. However, if you vaguely remembered those terms but just didn't remember what happened in the first book (maybe if it had been a while between reading them) you'd probably be fine, the connections with the first book are subtly referenced enough to keep that continuity without feeling like they're rehashing anything.

I mentioned fatphobia in the first book, so I'm circling back in the second one to examine how it's addressed here. I think the portrayal of fatphobia is intended as one of the subtle (and occasionally not so subtle) ways to show that the society isn't, in fact, perfect. It's coupled here with some petty politics and a little bit of verbal bullying. I think it works, it's pretty mild but it gets the point across.

I love the narrator for the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, getting their perspective was great and it added to the story and the world-building in a different way that the quotes from the first book did.

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