Scythe by Neal Shusterman

So Scythe was our September book club pick of the month but because of it’s overwhelming popularity and our busy schedules it was next to impossible to get from the library. So know it is our October book club pick, we bumped our previous October’s out and into 2020. Scythe is the first book young adult dystopian trilogy about a world that has conquered all medical problems even death, to maintain the ongoing population there are Scythes, selected and trained, to “glean” those in their region based on statistics of time passed. I picked this book because I had heard just never-ending hype for this book and series. I really wanted to read it with my mom and sister who hadn’t heard any of the hype and see what they thought.

Personally this year I had a lot of books that ended up being 4 stars simply because of the hype surrounding it and it ended up falling short. Scythe was not one of these books and when I started I truly thought it might be. I was prepared to because truthfully in the first 20% I wasn’t ready and it was everything I had heard. We had two pretty typical teens that were perfectly diametric to each other. An unpleasant situation that neither wanted to be but both wanted to win. It felt familiar.

However, the plot was outstanding. I was surprised at all the twists and there were plot points that I thought would be in book three that came in the first 200 pages. It took very conventional devices and characters and pushed them and switch things up in ways that at least I had seen before.

What I loved was the world building: the way humanity acts when they will never really be at risk, the way different scythes approach their work and cope with their job. It was so well done and so engaging for every character.

What I didn’t like was there were a couple romantic relationships that felt a little unnecessary and out of the blue.

Trigger warnings: death, mass murder, self harm, suicide.

Recommended: For me it was five stars. I think if you miss dystopian or like science-fiction at all you will really enjoy this book.