Scythe Reviewed by Mary Anne McAuley

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word scythe? It kinda sounds like a snake hissing. And then after snake, you probably think something along the lines of poison and death. Two out of three of those things are correct. Scythe is about poison and death. Only in this world Neal Shusterman (the author) has created, there are no natural deaths other than fire, and even that’s rare. The way that most people die is by gleaning, a cushioned term for killing. Scythes are the only people allowed to glean, or as one of the main characters Rowan puts it, “a learner’s permit to kill”, and they are commanded to glean to keep the population size low. If you are not gleaned by a scythe, you are considered deadish and brought to the nearest revival center. The main characters are Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch. Neither Citra nor Rowan want to become a scythe, and that is precisely why Honourable Scythe Faraday chooses them both to be his apprentices. Never before had two apprentices been chosen to be taught by the same scythe at the same time, and because of this, the Scythedom votes on the appropriate thing to do. Every scythe is put through a test to see if they are scythe material, and it is unimaginable, and frankly, quite cruel. Throughout the whole book, Citra and Rowan develop courage. It doesn’t take just anyone to glean people, innocent or not. They also accompany Scythe Faraday to some of his gleanings, and in some cases, are told to participate in them. That is not only terrifying, but also full of pressure. A book similar to Scythe is Neal Shusterman’s other series, Unwind. When someone is gleaned by a scythe, their memories and life are downloaded onto the Thunderhead, which is the tamed robot that we all fear will take over the world. The Thunderhead sees and controls everything- except the Scythedom. In Unwind, misbehaving and troublesome teens are sent off to be unwound, meaning that all of their body parts are to be taken apart and used for transplants and various other things. But the body parts still have memory of what they’ve been through, so similar to how a dead person’s memories are in the Thunderhead, they are still partially there. Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter series are all excellent reads, as well as the Children of Blood and Bone. I’d rate Scythe four out of five stars, because even though it was a fantastic read, I found that I couldn’t relate to the characters as much as I would have liked to. Overall, it was a very good book, and Shusterman wraps it up in a beautiful red bow at the end, with the Scythedom’s ruling of whoever wins the scythe ring gleaning the loser, and the unexpected, clever plot twist. It’s a killer read- literally. Place your bets, hold your breath, pull your socks on tightly and open the first page to Scythe, because it’s about to knock your socks off.