Scythe Reviewed by Jessica Liao

 

This book takes place in this utopian world where humans have eliminated all negative parts of life, such as disease, pain, poverty, and even death. But there's one thing that they haven't conquered, that is keeping the population growth under control. So, they have created this group of people called Scythes who are responsible for the job of Gleaning, in other words, killing people. Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch were completely normal teenagers until they met a scythe. That scythe saw potential in them, that they would be fit to be a good scythe because of their compassion and unwillingness to kill. Afterall if you enjoyed gleaning that would just make you a murderer. After consideration, Citra and Rowan accepted the role of a scythe's apprentice knowing that death would be the consequence of failure.

At first, I didn't like the way the world works in this book, and my mind hasn't changed. The reasons are because the only way to die is to be gleaned by a scythe and scythes are everywhere. Every time you see a scythe on the streets you would scurry away scared you'll offend them. Whereas in the present world, people are constantly risking their lives knowing it could result in their deaths. Another reason that I dislike this utopian world is because emotion and compassion only exists vaguely. The world we live in is far from perfect, but what I dread is us humans overcompensating and creating a world like this book. Where would the genuine emotions be if the society is governed by AI? lastly, humans only experience the shadows of joy because everything is guaranteed, survival, food, and income. Without the threat of suffering, you may only experience bliss but not true joy. 

Although it may seem that I've only said negative comments on how the world in this book works, I've found the overall story to be very fascinating to read. In my opinion where the character is and how their world's systems work isn't as important as how the characters overcame obstacles thrown at them. And the author definitely didn't hesitate to throw in many plot twists where characters had to be fast minded and make difficult decisions.