#peruseproject

So I literally JUST finished Scythe and couldn't wait to write something about it. Wow, that’s the best way to describe my feelings right now. I had found the recommendation from @peruseproject and her book-tube channel. She had raved about the book and its concept sounded interesting enough to me. I cannot stress enough how much you should read this book - if you’re hesitant I get that, but just jump right in - you won’t regret it. 

Scythe opened my eyes in so many ways, offering such interesting commentaries on both our current and future civilizations, while narrating the story in a captivating, and often times funny, way. Neil Shustermann continues to surprise me with his writing, and his books deserve more attention.

Basically the story describes a future civilization where the human race has pretty much beat everything unpleasant, disease, hunger, poverty, and most importantly death. But to ensure our population didn’t exponentially rise and threaten the continuation of our race this faction of people, known as scythes, were created. They’re basically above the law and are tasked with the necessary yet harrowing task of gleaning people. Now “gleaning” is just a nice way to say killing, but it adds so much to the story. More specifically the story follows two main characters, Citra and Rowan, who are on the path to becoming scythe when they begin to realize the Scythedom isn’t a perfect place. 

When I first got my hands on this book I was wary, I thought it would be a depressing story filled with death and I wasn't sure that I would be able to relate to two characters who were mastering the “art of killing”. Boy was I wrong! I can’t remember when I fell completely into the story, Neil Shustermann writes with such a captivating style you easily forget this isn’t the world you’re living in. He artfully integrates history about both the characters and their society in a way where you don’t even realize it’s background information. Their world and culture is so interesting I can’t wait to read more.  

I could go on for pages about how much I loved this book, and if anyone wants to talk about it feel free to send me a message, but I wanted to give some motivation to anyway who may be hesitant to read it. I found myself stealing away moments to read this whenever possible, something I often do when I find a good book, and finding excuses to read chapters past when I thought I’d be done for that moment because I was so absorbed in it. The story isn’t constant action or drama, it’s better than that. Neil Shustermann balances the necessary down times with climatic points and plot twists, each seeming greater than the last. I kept finding myself trying to figure out what was gonna happen next or how a problem would be resolved, and each time I was surprised. He keeps you on your toes in such a refreshing way. 

The style of this book was something I don’t think I’ve seen before. Sure the perspectives switched often, sometimes not for whole chapters and sometimes after a couple of paragraphs, but that’s almost common place in stories today. What I found super interesting was the way journal entries of Scythes were included at the end of each chapter, and once the story unfolded they were done so well it seemed as though they could be describing nothing other than the events currently unfolding in the book. 

Overall I’m so happy I picked up this book, I highly recommend it to anyone whose interested in reading it. I’m keeping this post spoiler free on purpose, I don’t want perspective readers looking for opinions to stumble upon it and be turned away from the book because of a spoiler. If you’ve read the book and wanna talk about the craziness that unfolded, or have different opinions than mine please feel free to send me a message, I’d love to talk :)

Scythe rating: 4.7/5

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