Thou Shalt Kill - Scythe

Scythe - Neal Shusterman. This book was, admittedly, not my first 5-star read of the year, but it's been preemptively labeled as my favorite book of 2024.

Here's a quick breakdown:

One-sentence premise: The reader follows a world that's solved death but has people called Scythes appointed to kill and combat overpopulation.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopian

Number of pages in my review journal: 2.5

What I can tell you, no spoilers

I discovered Scythe through lexi aka newlynova on YouTube. The premise enticed me, I put it on hold on Libby, and when the time came for me to borrow it, I almost didn't. I usually struggle with Sci-Fi, because it's hard for me to wrap my head around certain concepts, and I wasn't sure if I was in a proper mood to take in dystopian ideas. But the world building in this book makes so much sense; I ate up every detail handed to me.

I was on the edge of my seat, trying to tell anyone about the book amidst reading it, but when I finally found someone willing to listen, I came to a halt. "I won't do this book justice trying to explain every detail to you. I'd rather you just read it." I've been recommending this book to any reader I know.

"I don't know how you read this without being able to talk to someone about it." - Fellow cousin I convinced to read Scythe

The character names was a detail that I don't often get to appreciate in books. Some of the names don't necessarily have deeper, symbolic meanings, but just the sound of them was pleasant to read. The plot slowly builds in the first 40% or so, then thickens and quick.

And if you're struggling to find the book in your local bookstore or library, check the middle grade section. When I was looking for physical copies of this book, I couldn't find it to save my life. Sci-Fi, Fiction, Fantasy no where. I thought, Dang, this must be a niche book. I'm so cool for discovering it. Nope, it wasn't that. Turns out, it's in the middle grade section. And absolutely no shame to middle grade books, but I was surely humbled.

Finding an audiobook of this series may be a challenge unless if you have an Audible account. If you don't have an Audible account, don't fret, because you may be able to check it out from your local library...in the form of 10 CDs. Yeah, maybe get that free trial goin'. I, personally, did not indulge in the audiobook experience, but I've heard good things about the narrator, Greg Tremblay, and how his accents help differentiate between characters, especially as the story progresses.

It is a series

Scythe falls under the trilogy, Arc of a Scythe, but please do not let this intimidate you. As a reader who's read the series (except #3.5 Gleanings), I believe this book is solid enough to be a standalone. You may be curious about what may happen after, but it's not a strong cliffhanger. I'd say it's an equivalent cliffhanger to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, if you've read it. You could read more buuut you don't have to.

I will say, the second book (Thunderhead) is also worth the read, but it's a slippery slope. Mild and vague spoiler Thunderhead leaves the reader on a bigger cliffhanger but there's high risk with satiety reading the third book (The Toll). In other words, there was no way I could have left the series at the end of Thunderhead, but I wasn't the happiest with the execution of The Toll.

The covers of these books are also really fun to pick apart. There's not an immense amount of detail but it's fun to make plot connections to the covers.

Spoiler territory

Now if you're choosing to read beyond this point, I can only assume that you've read the book. As stated earlier, I would NOT want to rob anyone of this reading experience. So, if you haven't read Scythe yet, thank you for reading this far into the article but please, kindly, step away.

Now let's dig in.

First, I have to re-address something mentioned earlier: character names. Rowan Daniel Damisch? Citra Querida Terranova?? I mean, are you kidding me?! Then we have Scythe names: High Blade Xenocrates, Scythes Faraday and Goddard. (Curie was not my favorite name but I'll move past it for the sake of how cool and influential her character is.) I have no idea how Shusterman came up with the names of Rowan and Citra but he knew what he was doing; there's no way these names were not intentional. They click, and I don't know how else to describe the feeling of satisfaction from reading their names.

I thoroughly enjoyed the pacing. For Faraday to die before half of the book was done--insane. (Of course, he isn't actually dead, but regardless, I wasn't expecting this plot point.) Then for Citra and Rowan to NOT be relieved from being apprentices and then splitting the plot lines to follow Citra with Curie and Rowan with Goddard--doubly insane.

Citra was fostered perfectly by Scythe Curie, teaching her the ways of the Old Guard. Curie creates space for Citra to explore how she'd go about being a scythe. These scenes plant the seeds for what develops in the rest of the series--an indispensable foundation.

Meanwhile, Rowan defiantly pushes his way through Scythe Goddard's agenda of the New Order while becoming an absolute weapon. Rowan's character arc contained the most movie-like scenes in the book. We've got the Tonist monastery mass gleaning, the final conclave where he arrives alone dressed in all black, and his final test when he doesn't hesitate to make his mom deadish. I could vividly see these scenes play out. He was for sure my favorite character in this book; I love a character who struggles.

RIP Scythe Volt. This man was so troubled with inner turmoil but he left with dignity. There was some sense of relief for his ending being on his own terms. It is a little unfortunate that he felt like he tipped over the iceberg after killing the room of Tonist children, but he was going through a lot being under Goddard's wing and all.

On paper, from the one-sentence premise, this would be a difficult world to turn down. Who wouldn't want to turn corners when they're feeling too old? To never be sick again. To not feel physical pain because your nanites will kick in. To have access to a sentient AI system that helps manage the world but doesn't take over. Shusterman is truly able to capture the essence of this world and the downsides to losing the scarcity of life.

"My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human." - Scythe Faraday