Here I am with another book review! This one is for the third book I finished in May: Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman, the third book in his Arc of a Scythe trilogy. I read the first one back in March and really enjoyed it so I had put a hold on the digital copy of the second one with Libby and it finally came in. And I LOVED IT. This is maybe my favorite book I've read so far this year, and definitely in my top 5 favorite series of all time. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be buying this trilogy either for my Kindle or in hard copy to own and reread. As always beware of SPOILERS
I didn't do a real review for the first book back in March so these books take place in a future where death has been completely conquered. Things that would have killed people in the past now just render them "deadish" until they are taken to a revival center to be healed and revived and go along their business in general. The world is run in a sense by this overarching computer system known as the Thunderhead that provides any information you could ever want and watches over humanity making sure their lives are as simple and easy and carefree as possible. Of course immortality has its drawbacks, chief among them being the always present worry of over population. In response to this the Scythedom came into effect. A totally deliberately separate entity from the Thunderhead, the Scythes are trained and tasked with gleaning a set number of the population each year to keep humanity's numbers curbed. The first book follows two teenagers, Rowan and Citra, who are apprenticed to a scythe to become one themselves. As having two apprentices is completely unheard of the leadership of the Scythedom decides that the successful apprentice's first act as a Scythe will be to glean the loser. Through the book you learn about the different factions in the scythedom: the old guard who do things honorably and without judgement but don't do what they do for the enjoyment, and the new guard who do enjoy what they're doing and want there to be no limits to it. After their original mentor apparently self-gleans (suicide being the only way for a Scythe to stop being a Scythe) Citra is taken in by one of the Old Guard, Scythe Curie who is known as the Grand Dame of Death and is famous for being the one to glean the last US President and his cabinet. Rowan is taken on by Scythe Goddard who leads the New Guard and specializes in mass gleanings: you see him over the course of the book glean an entire airplane of people, a shopping mall food court, and a religious sect. Through the first book you feel Citra take on her heavy responsibility of what she's training to do while Rowan is becoming disillusioned with the Scythedom and the corruption within it. After being blamed for their first mentor's death, Citra goes on the run with the help of Scythe Curie while Rowan turns on Scythe Goddard while he and his under Scythes are gleaning an entire monastery of anti-scythe religious cultists. Rowan decapitates Goddard, takes his Scythe ring, and sets the place on fire saving the cultists he can and escaping. After her name is cleared, Citra is determined to be the one who becomes the full Scythe but instead of killing Rowan she punches him instead so that his lips touch her ring (a kiss of the ring being the way a Scythe grants someone immunity for a year). He escapes and Citra takes the name Scythe Anastasia after the famous lost Russian Grand Duchess.
Thunderhead takes up where Scythe left off. Citra, now Scythe Anastasia has found her rhythm as a full Scythe working underneath her mentor, Scythe Curie. They work in a way that is admirable and serious. At the same time, the escaped Rowan is using the Scythe ring he took off of Goddard and wearing a black Scythe's robes has dubbed himself Scythe Lucifer and is gleaning corrupt Scythes. Then someone makes multiple attempts on Anastasia and Curie's lives, everything revolving around a young man named Greyson who the Thunderhead is using to subvert the attempts and prevent the upcoming strife even when it can't affect the Scythedom itself. In the Independent Republic of Texas, Rowan is caught and abducted by Scythe Rand who escaped the fire that Rowan had used to try and destroy Goddard and his other Scythes and has possession of Goddard's head which she transplants onto Rowan's old friend Tyger's body to revive the corrupt Scythe. At the conclave where the Scythes gather four times a year the old leader is stepping down with Curie nominated to take his place, just before the vote Goddard appears and her competitor steps down so Goddard can run against her. But Citra foils the plans when after the vote is taken but before it is read she challenges the proceedings and demands a hearing before the Scythes who run the Scythedom globally. While this is happening, their previous mentor Scythe Faraday who had only faked his self-gleaning is looking for information on the early days of the Scythedom to fight against the New Order. But when they're on the island that houses the world council of the Scythes, Goddard attacks, sinks the island leaving the Scythes left on the island to glean the humans who can't get off and then themselves, the council dead, and Rowan and Citra in stasis at the bottom of the Ocean....to be continued in book three.
I never saw the plot twists coming, especially the one at the end. But I am very much looking forward to the third one. Citra and Rowan are such interesting characters. I love the idea of Rowan using Goddard's ring to right the wrongs in the Scythedom as an Angel of Death, trying to restore balance. I also love Citra and her unique brand of gleaning and her rising star among the Scythedom. Working form the inside and the outside it looks like the two of them will be the ones to restore balance and honor to the Scythedom. I like the symbolism with the names they chose to work under: Citra as Anastasia whose name means resurrection, and Rowan the fallen angel.
I gave this book a 5/5 stars with absolutely no reservation and am very impatiently waiting for the third book to become available on Libby, although I might buy the eBooks and read it sooner than that.
Happy Reading!
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