“Everyone is guilty of something, and everyone still harbors a memory of childhood innocence, no matter how many layers of life wrap around it. Humanity is innocent; humanity is guilty, and both states are undeniably true.”
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Synopsis
Thou shalt kill.
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.
tw: suicide, murder/death
The Verdict
Hello, Internet Police? Yes, I would like to block and report myself for sleeping on this book for so long.
I am so mad at myself for not reading this book earlier. I mean, it’s only been all over my Goodreads timeline since it was released in 2016! I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, well yeah, DON’T! Learn from my mistake because I was hit with instant regret the second I picked this up.
The world of Scythe is one of the most incredible, thought-provoking, and fascinating worlds I’ve ever read in a YA novel before. Basically, humans never die. There is no such thing as illness, diseases, or murder in the world anymore. You physically cannot die unless you are gleaned by a scythe (think priests, but with a license to kill). And it is the job of the scythe to glean a certain number of people per year in order to keep the population under control. This new society lives with no fear, except for a scythe to come knocking on their door, which luckily for them is a very rare occurrence.
The story follows Rowan and Citra, who are chosen to apprentice under the same scythe. Scythe Faraday, takes in interest in both of them due to small acts of defiance they showed towards him when they initially meet. Even though both Rowan and Citra meet Scythe Faraday on two separate occurrences, their fate becomes intwined when they begin their apprenticeship and only one will be ordained as a scythe. And let’s just say the stakes are rather high for whoever does not get ordained. Now, I don’t want to say too much in regards to the plot because you really need to experience this for yourself. However, this book had some of the best plot twists I’ve read in a long time. It’s hard to catch me by surprise and this book really got me. It was so good that I actually had no idea how it was going to end, and usually I’ll have some type of feeling. But all I could do was sit back and be swept away by this world and these characters.
Two teeny tiny reasons why I couldn’t five star this is because at times it was a little slow for me. The beginning of the book has a much slower pace compared to the middle and end. At the same time though, it’s not something I would deduct a whole star for because this is such a complex world, so obviously it would take time to explain it all. The other reason is because the romance between Citra and Rowan was on the weaker side. Don’t get me wrong I am HYPED and all about forbidden love, however, Rowan and Citra’s relationship blossomed so quickly and with almost zero explanation. Like, they weren’t even friends before they became all breathing heavy around one another and sneaking looks while they think the other isn’t looking. I hope we can get some more development on that in Thunderhead.
Favorite Quotes
“He was afraid, but fear meant he was still alive.”
“”Does it ever get easier?” Rowan asked. “I certainly hope not,” the scythe said.”
“Without the threat of suffering, we can’t experience true joy.”
…and the most important one of all”
“Well, she could learn self-control tomorrow. Today she wanted pizza.”
All in all, I am SO GLAD I decided to give this book a chance and pick it up and absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on the sequel! If you enjoy YA, fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian books then do yourself a favor and do not sleep on this book. Seriously, don’t do it. Otherwise you will be like me, swimming in regret for the rest of my life that I didn’t pick this up earlier.
Until next time,
I love this book!
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So glad you loved it! It was such a fantastic read!!
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Awesome review!! I agree, it’s such a great book even though it definitely has a couple of weak points. Room for improvement though!
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Thank you!! Have you read Thunderhead yet? I’m dying to run to the bookstore and get it but also debating holding off since the release of book 3 is kind of far away.
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Not yet! I own it but I’m also nervous about book 3 being far away? But also I can only avoid spoilers for so long XD it’s so hard!
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I totally feel you! That’s the only reason I’m hesitant to pick up the sequel 😰
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Definitely!
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Great review. I’ve been hearing about Scythe non stop and really want to read it!
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Thank you!! You totally should, I still can’t get over how fantastic it was!
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I keep hearing about this book and it sounds amazing! Also your opening address to the “internet police” was hilarious!
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Thank you hahaha!!! You should definitely give it a shot, it was a great read!
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I feel the same – I can’t believe I took so long to pick it up. I absolutely loved this book! I’m so excited to read the sequel.
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Ahhhh me too! I need to know what’s going to happen!
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Great review! I agree-this book is amazing! And the sequel is even better! I am dying to read the third one
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Thank you! Oh my gosh now I’m HYPED!! I need to get my hands on the sequel ASAP 😍
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I’ve been on the fence about this book and now I want to buy it again ahhhhh book ban what?!
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I’ve been on the fence about reading this novel for a while (at least a year if I’m going to be real with you) but I may just have to read it because of that pizza quote 😉
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Hahahaha that pizza quote really spoke to me 😂 if you decide to pick it up I’d love to hear what you think of it. I’m still surprised by how much I loved it.
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Relatable characters are the best characters 😂
My next book shopping trip I’ll definitely pick it up and review it 🙂
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Abosutely! Yay can’t wait to see what you think of it, enjoy!
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Thank you!!
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laughed my ass off when i came to the self-control quote
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HAHAHAH RIGHT?! I’ve never related to something so much in my life 😂
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