Arc of a Scythe – The Infinite Library

The Netflix Book Tag

Published on March 10, 2020March 9, 2020 by Ashley (The Infinite Library)1 Comment

I love books. I love Netflix. This tag is thus a match made in heaven. Or is it (considering one usually distracts me from the other…)? I stumbled across this tag via Kristin at Kristin Kraves Books but it was originally created by A Darker Shade of Whitney over on booktube.

Recently Watched: The Last Book You Finished

Golden Son (Red Rising 2#) – Pierce Brown

A Golden Son re-read wasn’t even listed on my TBR for March. And yet, here we are. I should have known this would happen. You can’t just read Red Rising and not keep going. Even now I’m so damn tempted to just pick up Morningstar and let the good times roll. I love this series. I really, really do. I gave this book five stars the first time around and I feel completely confident in my rating after the second time through. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll re-read these books again in the future. If that isn’t a glowing endorsement, I don’t know what is.

Top Picks: A Book That Has Been Recommended To You Based On What You’ve Previously Read

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe – Benjamin Alire Sáenz

I’ve had Ari & Dante mentioned to me quite a few times as something I’d probably enjoy and the consensus on it in general seems to be very, very good. I actually think this is something I’ll read eventually because I quite like the looks of the blurb. It feels like a really great character focused, coming of age story. It also happens to be a LGBTI book with two Mexican-American leads so yay for diversity. I’ve heard that the audiobook read by Lin Manuel Miranda is solid so maybe I’ll end up checking that out.

Recently Added: The Last Book You Purchased

Wolf by Wolf – Ryan Graudin

I bought 3 books as my last purchase (blame book depository) and Wolf by Wolf is one of them. I stumbled across it watching one of Hayley in Bookland’s videos and thought it sounded really interesting, so why not give it a go? It’s an alternate history story in which the Nazis won WWII. Each year they hold a multi-continent motorcycle race to commemorate their victory, the winner of which gets to meet Hitler. Impersonating a previous winner, a former concentration camp prisoner, Yael, decides to enter the race to win and kill Hitler. The problem is that both the brother and former lover interest of the racer she’s pretending to be are also competing. The book has great reviews so I’m really excited to read it.

Popular On Netflix: Books That Everyone Knows (2 You’ve Read & 2 You Have No Interest In Reading)

Weird assortment of books, I know but this question was pretty broad.

Daisy Jones & the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid: Read it, liked it but didn’t love it like I did The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Kind of wish I’d listened to the audiobook but ah well.
All the Bright Places – Jennifer Niven: Read. An okay YA contemporary but I wasn’t too keen on the ending and couldn’t help feeling like the story was a little emotionally manipulative.
The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins: The things I’ve heard about this one, particularly from my grandma, definitely make me not want to bother with it.
The Testaments – Margaret Atwood: I pretty much have zero interest in reading this one, mostly because it just seems unnecessary.

Comedies: A Funny Book

Red, White & Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston

I had to pick this one. I haven’t properly laughed reading a book for good while and I did multiple times reading Red, White & Royal Blue. It’s so much fun. The texting and phone calls between Henry and Alex were fantastic. My favourite one, however, has to be in which Alex is stuck in his room with the turkeys set for presidential pardon the next day and calls Henry to complain. If I’m ever having a particularly tough week in the future, I know that re-reading this book would be a sure fire way to make me feel a lot better.

Dramas: A Character That Is A Drama Queen/King

Evie (The Diviners – Libba Bray)

Having only recently finished this book, the characters are still fresh in my mind. Evie loves a bit of a drama and it certainly seems to follow her around, which makes for some fun situations. She does object readings at parties and reveals scandalising gossip, makes deals with the press on the sly to get her name in the papers, and will happily confront people for past slights in fiery fashion (despite saying she’ll leave it well enough alone). Things are never dull with Evie around. But hey, that’s the way she like it after all.

Animated: A Book With Cartoons On The Cover

Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell

I am not so secretly a big fan of these cute animated styled covers. I’ve noticed that they’ve become super popular in recent years, especially when it comes to contemporary romance books. They’re just so sweet and fun looking. It automatically puts me in a rom-com mood. As far as the actual book goes, I really enjoyed Fangirl. It’s a great celebration of nerd & fan culture and has a super relatable protagonist for so many introverted people dealing with things like anxiety.

Watch It Again: A Book Or Series You Want To Reread

Arc of a Scythe Series – Neal Shusterman

I love the Arc of a Scythe series. It feels so different from other things I’ve read and the world building is fantastic. The last book in the series, The Toll, was released in 2019 and because it seems like ages since I read books 1 & 2, I really want to do a re-read before I tackle book 3. I’ve definitely become one of those people who needs to do re-reads to refresh themselves on the important details of previous books before tackling a series’ new release. I enjoy them so much more that way.

Documentaries: A Nonfiction Book You’d Recommend To Everyone

Eggshell Skull – Bri Lee

I’ve started to read the odd non-fiction book now and again, and there are a few on my list to tackle in 2020. Eggshell Skull was one of my top 10 reads of 2019 and it’s one I’d easily recommend. It looks at how sexual assault is handled by the legal system in Queensland, Australia and I was engaged, horrified and saddened. The writing isn’t always perfect but it was very interesting to see the issue from the perspective of someone who has been on both sides – a judge’s associate in sexual assault trials and a complainant. It’s great at showcasing why women avoid reporting assault and the profound effects being a victim of assault can have on a person even years later.

Action & Adventure: An Action-Packed Book Or Series

Percy Jackson & the Olympians Series – Rick Riordan

As far as action and adventure go, Percy is always a suitable choice. Monsters, quests, sword fighting, the potential end of the world, vengeful Greek Gods – “action-packed” is one way to put it. It’s pretty much never a dull moment for Percy and his friends, but it certainly keeps things exciting…and well, dangerous.

New Releases: A Book That Just Came Out Or Will Be Coming Out Soon That You Can’t Wait To Read

House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City 1#) – Sarah J. Maas

In a choice that will come as a surprise to absolutely no one out there, I recently received my pre-order of Sarah J. Maas’s new book and I’m super keen to read it. My attitudes towards Sarah’s previous books vary a lot but I’m hoping that this one will be on the A Court of Mist and Fury end of my likeability scale. This is an adult book so I’m looking forward to seeing what SJM does with a bit more freedom (then again, her “YA” books have never truly been YA anyway due to their sexual content but eh). Angels, faeries, murder, romance, please let this be worth devoting 800 pages and my time to.

What are some of your favourite Netflix shows?

The Mid-Year Freak Out Tag

Published on June 27, 2018June 25, 2018 by Ashley (The Infinite Library)13 Comments

I’d been thinking about doing this tag for a while but then the other day I was actually tagged to do it by Beth at Reading Every Night. It was a sign, I tell ya! When I first started working on my answers for this tag I was like, eh, it’s fine, I’m not freaking out but then I started thinking about my readathon for next month. My brain suddenly realised it was going to be July. JULY. JUUUUULLLLLLLYYYYY. Oh good gawd. *waves arms in the air panicked*

Where has the year gone guys? Where? It’s just disappeared so quickly and I feel like I’ve done nothing. Seriously, the minute you leave school, life just seems to go by in the blink of an eye.

Stop it already. Just stop.

Reading wise, I’ve actually had a good first half of the year. My original goal was for 50 books in 2018 and I’m so happy to say that I’m already at 40! I can’t believe it! It may not seem like a lot to some people but to put it into perspective, in 2017 I read 45 books over the entire year and 38 in 2016. I blame (thank?) bookstagram and all of you lovely book bloggers out there. You push me to read more and forsake all other life activities in favour of being a hermit. Go, you guys!

I’m kidding. I wouldn’t find half the awesome stuff I read if it weren’t for you. So thank you! On that note, let’s get on with this tag.

Best Book You’ve Read Yet in 2018

As if I could pick just one. Here are my favourites of the year so far:

Scythe – Neal Shusterman
The Cruel Prince – Holly Black
Simon v the Homosapiens Agenda – Becky Albertalli
Warcross – Marie Lu
Golden Son & Morning Star by Pierce Brown

Best Sequel You’ve Read so Far in 2018

I’ve read a lot of great sequels this year! About 15 of the books I’ve read have been part of a series and not the first book in that series, so there were bound to be some good ones. My favourites have been:

The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians) – Rick Riordan
Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe) – Neal Shusterman
Leah on the Offbeat (Creekwood Series) – Becky Albertalli
A Torch Against the Night (Ember Quartet) – Sabaa Tahir
Golden Son & Morning Star (Red Rising) – Pierce Brown

New Release you Haven’t Read Yet but Want To

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

I really enjoyed reading An Ember in the Ashes and A Torch Against the Night, so much more than I expected I would. It’s nice to see some non-white characters front and center for a change, even though I’m not always the biggest fan of Laia. However, I really like Elias and for some inexplicable reason, I love Helene. After the end of book two, I’m very much looking forward to seeing where things go now that a lot of thing have gone pear-shaped and perhaps learning more about the magical elements of the world.

(I have to mention though, I’m mildly annoyed about the cover change choice for the UK/AUS edition. The whole reason Sabaa wanted to change the covers was for diversity and representation, to actually show brown MCs on a book cover. But what do we get? A hammer. Like, really? What the hell guys?).

Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half of the Year

Wildcard by Marie Lu & Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Why choose one when I can have TWO. The preceding books to both of these sequels were big surprises for me. I’d never read a Marie Lu book before and while I had read a Laini Taylor book, I wasn’t much of a fan. I ended up really loving both of them and I’m now genuinely excited to get my hands on their sequels. Strange the Dreamer ended in a really bad place for the characters so I just need to know that they’re going to be okay, okay? As for Wildcard, I’m really interested to see where Marie takes the story after the flip at the end of Warcross. Plus I’m a big Emika fan.

Biggest Disappointment

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard & We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Truthwitch: I was really hoping to find a great new fantasy series to get excited about with this one. The book ticked so many boxes and yet for some reason it was missing something crucial, I just don’t know exactly what. I had very little connection with the plot or the characters and knew I wouldn’t be reading the sequel as early as half way.

We Were Liars: I had been warned about this book but decided to give it a go anyway. As I’ve said before, I really loved the premise and there were some lovely moments but my problem was with the execution and writing, especially in regards to how the twist was handled.

Biggest Surprise

Prince’s Gambit by C. S. Pacat

The first book in this series, The Captive Prince, had a few issues for me but I decided to continue on anyway. To my surprise a lot of my concerns were improved upon in book two and I ended up enjoying the sequel a lot more. It’s kind of trashy at times but I have to admire the fact that there’s actually some good world building and character development in these books and even though it took me a while, I was definitely rooting for Damen and Laurent by the end of this one.

Fave New Author

Pierce Brown & Neal Shusterman

I had never read anything from either of these authors at the beginning of this year and now their books are some of only a short list to have received five stars (or close to) from me on Goodreads (the number is rising though!). The Red Rising series was a fantastic sci-fi read and I now regard it as one of my favourite series. The Arc of a Scythe books were a pleasant surprise for me and ended up being absolutely wonderful. I’m so sad that I’ll have to wait ages for the third installment.

Newest Fictional Crush

I had a think about this one, and there isn’t really anyone in the books I’ve read this year that I’ve found myself making massive love heart eyes at. Weird, I know. So for this one I’ve just picked a character that I found particularly interesting which was Prince Cardan from The Cruel Prince. Swooning over him is a bit difficult with how badly he behaves towards Jude and others, but I’ll admit, I did enjoy many of his witty retorts and the exchanges he had with Jude in the later parts of the book. His character also seems to have a good amount of depth that I’m looking forward to exploring more in The Wicked King.

Newest Fave Character

Another tough question. I’m not sure I can narrow it down to just one so here’s a couple of my new favourites:

Emika Chen (Warcross – Marie Lu) – Total badass hacker with rainbow hair. She’s strong, smart but also has vulnerabilities.
Cricket (Lifel1k3 – Jay Kristoff) – Always trying so hard to keep people out of trouble and has the courage of a robot a million times his itsy baby size.
Cress (Cress – Marissa Meyer) – She’s just so adorable, I want to wrap her up in bubble wrap but, of course, also want her to experience the world and see many, many trees.
Sevro au Barca, Victra au Julii, Ragnar Volarus, Mustang (Red Rising Series – Pierce Brown) – Okay, basically everyone. The characters are so well written. They make me laugh, break my heart, get me cheering and keep me guessing, sometimes all within one chapter.
Nico di Angelo – I can’t even explain it. He’s kind of annoying for a while and then by the end of book five I was like, protect at all costs my little skeleton-controlling cinnamon roll.

Book that Made you Cry

Call Me by Your Name by Andre Aciman

I haven’t really read anything this year that has made me cry, there aren’t many books in general that have, but Call me by your Name certainly had me in that pit of despair feeling for a bit. We’ve all been there. The fact that they just go through their lives having always loved each other but destined to be apart kills me a little. Then again, the story wouldn’t be as poignant or beautiful if it had just had a happily ever after, would it?

Book that Made you Happy

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

TGLAPPPS was such a nice read. While it definitely has its sadder moments, as you’d expect with recollections relating to WWII and Nazi occupation, the characters are so adorable and the ending leaves you with the biggest smile on your face. It’s a great reminder of the strength of the human spirit and the fact that light can come out of even the darkest of situations.

Fave Book to Film Adaptation

Love, Simon

As if this was even a question. I loved this movie, so, so much. I can’t wait to buy the DVD next month and do a re-watch. It’s just the sweetest, loveliest, cutest thing, and perfectly captured the feel of the book.

Fave Post you’ve Done this Year

Gosh, now there’s a question. I don’t think I’ve really done anything particularly noteworthy. However, if we’re talking about the enjoyment factor, I think I had the most fun writing my discussion post on book lending and my review of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda. I always love a good gif.

Most Beautiful Book you’ve Bought this Year

Circe by Madeline Miller

My inner magpie came out with this choice, I just couldn’t resist the shiny object. I was tempted to wait and purchase the hardback because of how completely stunning it was (check it out if you haven’t already seen it), but I couldn’t stop myself from racing to the counter once I locked eyes on the paperback one day at the bookstore. The copper colour, shiny surface, lovely floral designs, font – I love everything about it, it’s beautiful. The fact that I got a matching tote bag free with it made the purchase even better!

Books you Need to Read by the End of the Year

Oh dear. How do I even answer this one. Everything. All of them. Every book unread on my bookshelves, books I haven’t even bought yet. Books I don’t even know about yet. JUST SO MANY BOOKS!

And we’re finished! Here’s to another six months of wonderful reads. How’s the first half of your 2018 been? What’s been your favourite book, your least favourite? What are you most excited to read in the second half of the year? Tell me all about it!

Unsavouries, Killer Fish, and Death by Martini: Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Published on June 21, 2018January 18, 2020 by Ashley (The Infinite Library)13 Comments

I waited for what feels like forever to read Scythe earlier this year and to my relief, I loved it. Consequently, I had some pretty high expectations for Thunderhead. To make matters worse, there was also the typical worries about the dreaded middle book syndrome, or as I like to call it sequel suckage syndrome. However, I am very happy to report that Thunderhead (a) did not suffer from SSS and (b) largely lived up to expectations. Well done Shusterman! And…end review.
Kidding.

Who, What, Where?

Thunderhead picks up several months after the end of Scythe. Citra, now Scythe Anastasia, continues to live with her mentor, the honourable Scythe Curie, and has now developed her own unique approach to gleaning. This involves allowing her glean-ees to select their own demise no matter how weird or whacky – a realistic performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and a deadly James Bond style martini are a few choice examples. In doing so, she’s begun to make big waves throughout the increasingly conflicted mid-Merican scythdom.

“More and more scythes are coming to enjoy the act of killing. Conscience is becoming a casualty.”

After the death of Scythe Goddard, the order has slowly separated into two camps – 1) It’s totally fine to enjoy your job, even if it happens to involve killing people, and therefore you may murder in vastly creative and messy ways, and 2) Gleaning is a burden and an honour, and should be handled with compassion.

Tricky dilemma, right?

This isn’t the only thing on Citra’s mind as there’s also the small, nagging problem that someone is seemingly out to kill both her and Curie (How dare they! I love Scythe Curie).

Meanwhile, Rowan, the yin to Citra’s yang, is now an outlaw of sorts. Utilising the Thunderhead’s inability to interfere in scythe affairs, he’s fashioned himself a new persona, Scythe Lucifer, to hunt down scythes he believes to be unworthy of their position (aka Goddard ideology supporters).

“Rowan grinned. “Come now, Your Excellency, there hasn’t been a terrorist in hundreds of years. I’m just a janitor cleaning filth from dark corners.”

As you can probably imagine this path lands him in some particularly hot water which happens to involve his friend, professional partygoer, Tyger.

Aside from the familiar faces, book two also introduces us to Greyson Tolliver. Greyson wants nothing more than to give back to the Thunderhead by becoming a Nimbus agent. However, things soon fall apart when he’s given some information that acting upon would put him in direct violation of the Thunderhead-Scythdom separation. Thrown out of the academy, Greyson is cut off from the Thunderhead and labelled a dreaded “Unsavoury”. But it turns out that the Thunderhead may have a plan for Greyson after all, and it may or may not involve Scythe Anastasia.

Why You Should Read This Book

Do I Laugh or Cry?

The tone of this series is really unique, mostly because the world it’s set in is so completely different and yet also the same as the real one. Real issues like religious persecution, racism, the dangers of technology, abuses of power, and the meaning of our existence all come up but they never develop in the way you’d expect. Well, duh Ashley, that’s because it’s a world with no death run by a supercomputer in which there are nutters who worship a giant tuning fork. Then there’s the not so real-world circumstances which arise that you could never have predicted. This is because they’re just so extremely outlandish that they’re almost comical, even though they might involve things that are disturbing or gut-wrenching. The climax of the book is a perfect example of this. Speaking of which…

Now that’s a Climax!

The climax/end of Thunderhead is outlandish, funny, heart-breaking and just generally fantastic. It’s worth wading through some of the quieter plot sections just to read the end of the book which involves *spoilers* a major character death, a cliff-hanger with our heroes in an awful position, a sinking island, murderous marine life, and the villain doing a fake rescue just to gloat. It’s all very bizarre and yet somehow it just works together. Now that’s some writing witchcraft, I’m telling you.

Inside the Mind of a Super Computer

In Scythe, the story was broken up by journal entries from several of the key scythes in the story, detailing their intimate thoughts about their profession and themselves. This time around we’re given insights into the thoughts of the Thunderhead. These segments are really interesting and provide a lot of extra information about the world, showcasing just how well Shusterman’s crafted it. Although, they’re also a little sad in that you can’t help but feel bad for the Thunderhead as it’s forced to watch the Scythdom become increasingly more corrupt whilst being unable to do anything about it.

“Rain is the closest thing I have to tears.”

However, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen so many stories involving computers gone nuts that I was constantly on edge waiting for the switch to happen where the Thunderhead just snaps and goes postal.

Me the entire book: I know there’s going to be an AIDAN situation, I JUST KNOW IT. Is it now? It is NOW?

A Worthy Adversary

One of the things I was a little disappointed about with Scythe was the loss of the antagonist, Scythe Goddard. I worried about where the story’s conflict would come from following his decapitation and incineration. As it turns out, I shouldn’t have. Rowan and Citra were given a suitable (and familiar) villain to face off against which tested both their specific skills and different approaches to situations, with Citra perhaps more successful than Rowan (don’t you just love how vague I am? Avoiding spoilers is like making your way through a mine field). How this individual enters the story is pretty creepy and horrifying though. The more you think about it, the more you’re repulsed. Well, I was at least. Here’s a hint: Frankenstein. *shivers*

Why You Might want to Skip it

Where are we going with this?

One of the things that turned people off Scythe was its pace and direction. I didn’t really have this problem but with Thunderhead I’ll admit that I did have some difficulty in seeing where the story was leading for the first half of the book. Several major, and fairly compelling, plot threads are introduced and slowly developed, but it takes a good long while to understand not only how they relate to each other but also their overall importance. This was especially relevant to things like Greyson’s story as well as Tyger’s role.

It’s a bit like a giant puzzle with cool looking pieces that don’t seem to fit together until you discover some extra ones lying on the floor. And then you realise that pieces you thought were part of this puzzle actually belong to a similar one. I really hope you know what I mean. Hint: the similar puzzle is book three.

Unfinished Business

Yes, I know there’s a third book on its way, but there were a couple of things that I felt were left in a bit of an incomplete or unsatisfying place by the end of the book. The first is Scythe Faraday’s search for the hidden land of “Nod” in the hopes of finding a fail-safe against a corrupt Scythdom. The second is Greyson’s storyline which fizzles out and hits a sort of nothing point about a third of the way from the end. Here, he seemingly sits around doing nothing until the last couple of lines. These stories will definitely reach their stride in the next book but for this one, they were a little on the lacking/disinteresting side at times.

A Cliffhanger

Everything is awful now. Why. Why. Why. Where is book 3? I need to make sure my babies are okay. So basically, if you can’t handle books without a proper resolution and everything tied up neatly in a bow, avoid this one. Because everything is awful now.

Overall, despite a few bumps in the road, I really enjoyed Thunderhead and am very much looking forward to reading book three, The Toll, whenever it happens to materialise. If you had a good time with Scythe, you’ll likely have a similar experience with Thunderhead. My recommendation is definitely read it. And if you haven’t read Scythe yet, firstly, what the hell are you doing here, and second, GO GO GO, DOOOO IT.

4.5 Stars

Death Sucks, but it’s Necessary: Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Published on May 2, 2018July 10, 2018 by Ashley (The Infinite Library)4 Comments

You know those books where the hype is huge? I mean, so big the book couldn’t possibly live up to it? Where, regardless, you read said book and hope for the magic to happen before inevitably, you’re faced with the biggest disappointment of your reading life. You’re then tasked with the terrible job of writing one of those minority reviews in which you have to somehow articulate why this particular book was the most mediocre thing you’ve ever read and brace yourself against incoming pitchforks.

Phew, good thing this isn’t one of those!

Because, Scythe, this is a book that deserves some hype.

I’ve wanted to read Scythe for what feels like forever – probably because it did take for bloody ever for the stupid thing to come out in Australia – which meant a lot of time for expectations to form. So, I’m extremely glad it actually lived up to them (for a change).

Scythe is set in a world in which the human race has evolved beyond disease and death. Using blood-based nanites, people can live forever. They can get married over and over again, have armies of children, see the world, and do just about anything they want. Looking too crinkled around the edges? Visually reset yourself to any age above 21. Hit by a car or fall off a balcony? We’ll just scrape you off the sidewalk and bring you back at the nearest revival centre. Of course, as I’m sure you can tell, this isn’t great for population control.

To combat the problem, the order of Scythes was created to select individuals and force them to move on to wherever it is we go at the end of it all. They’re like grim reapers but with much flashier robes and they actually do the killing themselves (or “gleaning” as it’s called here). Each Scythe has a yearly quota and must not display any kind of selection bias – basically, you can’t just kill old people, white people, ugly people, people who like cats rather than dogs, you get the point. As long as this rule is met, individual Scythes are allowed to determine their own methods for selection and gleaning.

Our story follows two teenagers, Citra and Rowan, who are selected to become apprentices to Scythe Faraday. Both will be taught how to do the job but only one will take the position at the year’s end. Cue dramatic music.

Why you should read it

An Original World

The first thing that grabbed me about Scythe was the world itself. I mean, a world without natural death, overseen by a self-aware super computer called the Thunderhead (formerly the Cloud), and select figures designed to cull the population? It was a crazy, compelling concept and Shusterman executed it extremely well.

I lapped up every detail like Spongebob had just got his hands on a krabby patty, and by the end of the novel we hadn’t even scratched the surface. Some of the things that fascinated me most were:

The dynamic the existence of Scythes created within society due to their power to kill and grant one year immunity – people’s reactions varied from outright panic to sucking up to them in every possible way.
The impact of immortality on people’s attitudes to life – does no fear of death somehow lessen our humanity?
How can unnatural death be regulated in a fair way? Can the code actually function in practice? (spoiler, it can’t)

In other words, MIND BLOWN.

Complex Characters

A great world can only take you so far, you also need well written characters to inhabit it and Citra and Rowan definitely met this requirement. Layered, likeable and imperfect, they’re a bit like a Venn diagram. They have this compassionate and moral middle ground which gives them a deep bond with one another but at the same time they each have their own traits and drives to distinguish them. Citra possesses a need for control, desire for knowledge and an ability to think well on her feet. Comparatively, Rowan has a kind heart but also a dark side, one that causes him a lot of internal conflict, and largely wants nothing more than to blend into the background. Both characters undergo interesting arcs of development, shaping them into individuals that have a lot of potential for the rest of the series. Yet, they still remain two vastly different sides of the same coin.

Aside from Citra and Rowan, the other key Scythes in the book, including its villain, Scythe Goddard, were equally compelling. Each had a wealth of backstory, mystery, and depth, and I loved learning more about them as the book went on, especially through their diary entries.

Romantic Subtlety

I’ll admit it, I like a good romantic subplot. It just has to be properly developed, not annoying as hell, and not dwarf the story. Is that too much to ask? Apparently not because that’s exactly what Scythe delivered. There are sort of two romantic relationships in this book and both complement the story whilst also not making me want to eye roll and/or vom. Winner.

Why you Might want to Skip it

Slower Plot

This wasn’t a problem for me but I know it’s is going to turn some people off so don’t say I don’t warn you about stuff.

Scythe is a slower unfolding story, there’s no denying it. The first part of the book takes its sweet time establishing Shusterman’s world and characters (which I loved) and it’s a little while before plot points other than Rowan and Citra’s training kick in. However, the second half of the book is a lot more eventful. There’s a mystery element, a crap ton of brutal murders, more morally questionable characters, a man-on-the-run section, and a satisfying climax. But despite all this, keep in mind that the true conflict here is in terms of ideology.

As long as you go into this one not expecting guns blazing right at the start, you should be fine. Be like a boy scout and:

It’ll Give you Nightmares

Yeah, so I know I said the world was super-duper, amazing compelling. The only problem is that it raises so many big questions that after a while of thinking about them I ended up like this:

And then this:

To make matters worse, there are nutjobs in this book that just go to show that while ideas may be great in theory, they don’t often work so well in practice because PEOPLE SUCK. Basically, after reading this book I maintain my existing view point: Death isn’t pleasant but it’s a necessary part of life. Deep, I know.