Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1)

by Neal Shusterman

Two teens must learn the "art of killing" in this Printz Honor-winning book, the first in a chilling new series from Neal Shusterman, author of the New York Times bestselling Unwind dystology.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life-and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe-a role that neither wants. These teens must master the "art" of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Scythe is the first novel of a thrilling new series by National Book Award-winning author Neal Shusterman in which Citra and Rowan learn that a perfect world comes only with a heavy price.

Reviewed by tylerrosereads on

2 of 5 stars

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I wanted to like this book so much... All the hype and booktubers talking about how amazing it was.... We obviously didn't read the same book...

I kept pushing (but only to page 150) because I really liked the premises. But I was hoping for more of a conversation about human nature, morality, mortality, and the value of existence in a seeming Utopia... But did we talk about any of that? Hardly. One page vignettes of a diary is all we got.

The characters were bland and I had no drive to read about them, there were cheesy poor plot decisions, and just a lot of cringe teen romance I guess?

Good premise, poor execution

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  • 17 November, 2019: Reviewed