Just a heads up guys, I’m going to be writing a positive review! Can you believe it? I swear I do actually like books…
As always there will be spoilers throughout this review so don’t read on if you haven’t read Scythe yet!
HUMOUR
This book is riddled with quietly hilarious moments that aren’t necessarily ‘HAHA’ moments but they totally make you stop and think ‘well this is just ridiculous’. A great example of this is when Citra goes to apologize to someone she killed, to offer them a free revenge ticket (I know how that sounds) and the girl responds:
“It’s not that I don’t want to, I’m just busy today. Can I throw you under a truck some other time?”
There are also some super sassy comments from the main characters that are great. I think this book needed this kind of humour otherwise it could have been quite heavy.
UNIQUE WORLD
I have never ever read a book with a world system like this – a world where you literally can’t die and have to have Scythe’s wandering around killing people? The ‘advanced’ system was extremely interesting to read and strangely believable.
Uncomfortably so.
UNAPOLOGETICALLY HONEST
Neal Shusterman was not afraid to say exactly what this world would be like. He didn’t shy away from incredibly serious themes, such as death, mortality, computational power becoming infinite, the concept of education and religion. Oh, how that list could go on. He just isn’t afraid of taking it there, pushing against the boundaries and asking some pretty serious questions about humans and the future of the human race. I really respect that!
BRILLIANT CHARACTERS
The characters are actually quite fantastic. My favourite has got to be Scythe Faraday, what a guy. All of the characters have a great mixture of dark and light personality traits that are competing at all times. I appreciate that representation. My only issue is that the two main characters Citra and Rowan were too quick to leave their entire lives behind to become Scythe apprentices. Felt a bit off to me?
INTERESTING FORMAT
This book included journal entries…BUT WAIT, DON’T RUN! We all know that this doesn’t always work, and sometimes we can end up skipping over those pages. But, the author managed to include entries that were short enough to not take away or bore the reader! They actually added another layer to the storytelling that was nicely done.
I also loved the way the author switched between perspectives – it was tidy and easy to follow. *Yay*
ROWAN AND CITRA?
OK, so this bit was kind of irritating. I think as an author, you either commit to a romantic plotline and take the time to develop the tension/chemistry and get your readers invested in the pair, or you leave it out all together. Unforutanely, Shusterman only went half way and I didn’t really buy the romance.
LACK OF PLOT?
Sometimes I would be reading a chapter and stop and think… what is the point of this chapter again? How does this fit in with the general plot? The writing could sometimes feel slightly fragmented, but, saying that, it all came together in the end. The plot did actually make total sense!
bookswithbain 
Glad you enjoyed it! I loved Scythe and Thunderhead was really good too. I do agree with you on the romance though.
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I will definitely read Thunderhead – I’m interested to see where this story goes…
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I loved this book! I thought it was so well-written and unique! Can’t wait to get my hands on Thunderhead! 🙂
Same here tho for the romance.
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