Arch of a Scythe Trilogy Book 1: Scythe
Novel By: Niel Schusterman
Written By: Tim Sanders
This was the first book in the Reading Rainstorm podcast!
Due to the cover, my friend and co-host Thomas picked this book up at Barnes and Noble. He went full send with judging a book by the cover. The book is the first book in the Arc of a scythe trilogy by Neil Schusterman. For an entry book into a trilogy, it does decently. I should mention this book is labeled a Young Adult novel, and parts genuinely feel like it. Scythe follows the way of most YA novels in that it is set in the future and follows 2 main protagonists, one male one female, and you guessed it!
There is a “will they won’t they” throughout the book. While I can say that I am more than likely not the target audience, I did enjoy parts of it. The book builds the world fantastically through the entire book and leaves you with questions at just about every turn. My only issue with the book is the writing style. The author is very blunt, and things happen very quickly. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it definitely leaves you wanting more. More details, more interactions, more world-building. The only thing I didn’t want more of was more minimal romance but still found a way to be full of cringe. I am a person who enjoys learning about new worlds, and a world set in the future where no one can die intrigued me through the entire book. I enjoyed putting together the pieces of “this is the American Midwest” and “this is South America.” For me, the world being built was more interesting than the story's characters. Below is the spoiler-filled recap, so only keep reading if you’ve read the book or are good with reading spoilers.
Scythe is set in a future world where death, disease, and all ailments are mostly eliminated. The world is ruled by an artificial intelligence dubbed “the thunderhead,” an all-knowing computer that helps everything go smoothly. From orchestrating the revival chambers to controlling the automated first responders, the thunderhead has a detailed knowledge of everything going on in the world. The cool thing is that everyone in the world has access to all the understanding that the thunderhead has! Crime is basically non-existent due to the thunderhead. To control the population, a group of individuals are deputized. They are one of the 3 ways that people can actually die! This group is called scythes. They are essentially grim reapers minus the scythe. They decide who dies, and of course, there are politics behind it in the way of the order of scythes. We meet our protagonists, Rowan and Citra; they both encounter Honorable Scythe Faraday. He decides to take them both up as apprentice Scythes. The book follows the two of them training to take people’s lives. There is a catch when the politics behind the scythes determine that because Faraday has two apprentices instead of the normal of one. One of them must kill the other at the end of the training. The book takes a few twists and turns after Faraday kills himself to save one of them from having to kill the other. The problem this brings about is one good scythe offers to take up Citra, and one “bad” scythe who likes to make mass killings takes up Rowan. The two have wildly different ideologies on how to properly kill people. Rowan learns to be cold and calculating, whereas Citra learns to be compassionate. This continues until Citra finds herself being blamed for Faraday's death. She goes out on the run to clear her name. While trying to clear her name, she finds out that Faraday is alive. While Citra is on the Run, Rowan continues training and becomes a cold-blooded killer. He eventually snaps and kills Scythe Goddard. At the final conclave, Citra is awarded Scythedom and commanded to kill Rowan. Citra finds a way out of killing Rowan, and Rowan escapes the Scythedom entirely. The end of the book suggests that Rowan becomes a Scythe hunter taking down all the bad Scythes.
The book wasn’t bad by any means. I definitely feel like I wasn’t the target audience. Will I read the next in the series? If I get the books on sale, most definitely. Overall, If you are a fan of dystopian young adult novels, you will more than likely enjoy this book