Scythe (An Arc of Scythe, #1) Review

Title: Scythe (An Arc of a Scythe, #1)

Author: Neal Shusterman

Release Date: November 22, 2016

Publisher: Simon Schuster Books

Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Biopunk, Adventure fiction

Rating: ★★★★★

Disclaimer: None. I bought this book with my own money.

Trigger Warnings: Death, Murder, Suicide

Links: Amazon / B&N

Summary:

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.

Review:

How can I even begin to explain how much I loved this book?

The first thing I must mention is how spectacular the world building is. Scythe takes place in a utopian world where there are no wars, no hunger, no poverty and they were even able to conquer death. However, this is a problem unto itself because that means the world's population is constantly growing. This brings about a lot of though provoking questions about morality and the future of humanity. In my opinion, this was a delight: to be able to read a highly entertaining book while also having to question your beliefs.

Another aspect I enjoyed was learning more about Citra and Rowan, the main characters, and how they responded to being tasked with essentially killing to keep the Earth's population at bay. They were both such complex characters that I enjoyed learning about what made each of them tick and their motivations.

Lastly, the overall storyline of Scythe was so entertaining. I can honestly say I did not want to put the book down and I was on the edge of my seat. I have heard some people say that the book was slow and while I do agree the beginning didn't move as fast as the rest of the story, I didn't mind it one bit. I found it completely necessary for the story to move slower at first because that's where the world building mostly happens. The only thing I didn't understand very well was why Rowan and Citra were so attracted to each other since they barely talked to one another. That being said, I am so excited to get into Thunderhead and see what will happen to our main characters.