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mercurialbooks 's review for:
Scythe
by Neal Shusterman
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I came into this completely blind, I'd seen people had liked it on Tiktok and it became available on my library app as an audiobook. But plot-wise, I knew nothing.
In Scythe, the Thunderhead (amusing name progression from the Cloud) controls the world we get to see. The Cloud has achieved AI and now runs everything. Death by crime has been altogether stopped and the ability to bring people back from the dead, (resulting in them only being dead-ish) has meant overpopulation has become a scary reality.
As a result of this, Scythe's have been employed. These are people trained to kill others in order to keep the population level stable. They call it gleaning for the optics, but it is straight forward murder. Gleaning, by law, is a permanent death.
It is also against the law to not allow yourself to be gleaned once selected, if you resist or run, your whole family will also be gleaned. There are good Scythes, who make it quick and look after your family afterwards and 'bad' Scythes who are psychopathic and enjoy the fear and so choose instead to create massacres.
For me, dystopian fiction can be really successful if it feels possible. It is why Black Mirror does so well as a series, they all feel like future possibilities.
Scythe doesn't currently feel possible. For one significant reason. Why do even the good Scythes choose lots of different methods to murder? Why doesn't everyone chosen for gleaning just get euthanised kindly? Instead of stabbed on the street or bashed to death etc etc. Society just wouldn't have allowed it when gentler options exist.
I realise it might make for a boring story to not have all these weaponry options, but it seemed superfluous to me. Though I do accept that there should be both some weapon and physical training in order to tackle those that run or resist.
Now to the characters, I adored the older Scythes doing the training, they were interesting and I'd absolutely read a spin-off about their previous lives.
The two main characters, the apprentices Citra and Ronan were nice enough, not loveable, but tolerable as many teenage characters full of angst and drive are. I didn't feel Ronan's voice was as strong as Citra's voice. Her character traits are solidified in my head, Ronan is a work in progress, but again, that could be an age thing. Girls are often more emotionally mature at that age, Ronan still feel's like he doesn't quite know who he is yet through most of the book.
I didn't mind the trope that I see a lot of other reviewers dismissing.
The Insta-Love. Normally a massive no-go for me. But I have a tendency to accept it in close-proximity teen scenarios, love is easy to fall into when in a stressful environment, especially when it is a first-love. So I didn't question it.
The idea of quota's for the Scythes threw me a little and I think genuinely negates the whole premise of the world.
If someone young is a frequent drinker and also a new driver. This put's him in the probably crashing whilst DUI category. So the Scythe looks at his list and gleans the lad knowing those facts. But surely he'd still get dead-ish from DUI at some point, so why not just wait and let him go naturally? Why can't there just be a note on his record saying - if dies in car crash whilst DUI, do not regenerate? If people are being picked off for their activities and traits - why not just let those things kill them? If it were a painless death the Scythe was dishing out, that would be a kindness, but it often isn't.
Despite all these questions I have, I genuinely enjoyed listening to this book and already have the rest of the series reserved. There are some twists, some mild to moderate threat for the main characters and an interesting political system within the Scythe community. The end promises for an exciting Book 2. But it isn't a true cliffhanger and this can be read as a standalone.
In Scythe, the Thunderhead (amusing name progression from the Cloud) controls the world we get to see. The Cloud has achieved AI and now runs everything. Death by crime has been altogether stopped and the ability to bring people back from the dead, (resulting in them only being dead-ish) has meant overpopulation has become a scary reality.
As a result of this, Scythe's have been employed. These are people trained to kill others in order to keep the population level stable. They call it gleaning for the optics, but it is straight forward murder. Gleaning, by law, is a permanent death.
It is also against the law to not allow yourself to be gleaned once selected, if you resist or run, your whole family will also be gleaned. There are good Scythes, who make it quick and look after your family afterwards and 'bad' Scythes who are psychopathic and enjoy the fear and so choose instead to create massacres.
For me, dystopian fiction can be really successful if it feels possible. It is why Black Mirror does so well as a series, they all feel like future possibilities.
Scythe doesn't currently feel possible. For one significant reason.
I realise it might make for a boring story to not have all these weaponry options, but it seemed superfluous to me. Though I do accept that there should be both some weapon and physical training in order to tackle those that run or resist.
Now to the characters, I adored the older Scythes doing the training, they were interesting and I'd absolutely read a spin-off about their previous lives.
The two main characters, the apprentices Citra and Ronan were nice enough, not loveable, but tolerable as many teenage characters full of angst and drive are. I didn't feel Ronan's voice was as strong as Citra's voice. Her character traits are solidified in my head, Ronan is a work in progress, but again, that could be an age thing. Girls are often more emotionally mature at that age, Ronan still feel's like he doesn't quite know who he is yet through most of the book.
I didn't mind the trope that I see a lot of other reviewers dismissing.
The idea of quota's for the Scythes threw me a little and I think genuinely negates the whole premise of the world.
Despite all these questions I have, I genuinely enjoyed listening to this book and already have the rest of the series reserved. There are some twists, some mild to moderate threat for the main characters and an interesting political system within the Scythe community. The end promises for an exciting Book 2. But it isn't a true cliffhanger and this can be read as a standalone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury