Scythe

Science fiction

Print length: 433 pagesSimon & Schuster, 2017

Description

In a future where technology has conquered disease, aging, and natural death, the benevolent Thunderhead governs nearly every aspect of human life. Population control remains the responsibility of Scythes, an independent order authorized to kill selected citizens through gleaning. Teenagers Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch unwillingly become apprentices to the principled Scythe Faraday, learning the order’s laws and the moral burden of choosing who dies. A ruling later turns their shared apprenticeship into a brutal competition: only one can become a Scythe, and the winner must glean the other. Separated under radically different mentors, Citra and Rowan encounter rival visions of power in a dystopian novel about mortality, conscience, and corruption within an institution beyond ordinary oversight.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Direct

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Dark · Philosophical · Suspenseful · Tense

Structure

Linear

Focus

Character · Ideas · Plot

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

Crime and punishmentIdentityMoralityMortalityPowerTechnology and society

About Neal Shusterman

Neal Shusterman is an American writer of young adult fiction whose novels place adolescents inside speculative systems that have converted moral choices into public policy. His prose is direct and usually fast-moving, with dialogue and shifting character perspectives carrying explanations that might otherwise stall the plot. He builds pressure by stating an impossible premise in practical terms, then tracing how its rules enter bodies, families, and institutions. In Unwind, teenagers flee a society that calls dismemberment a medical procedure, and the bureaucratic language matters as much as the pursuit. Scythe extends this method to an immortal world where sanctioned killers manage population, dividing attention between apprenticeship, conscience, and corruption inside a self-policing order. Shusterman can apply the same structural discipline without futuristic technology. Dry narrows a regional water crisis to a suburban household, then lets vanishing supplies reorganize trust hour by hour. His recurring interests include bodily autonomy, delegated authority, institutional self-justification, and young people forced to act within rules adults have normalized.

Series

Arc of a Scythe · Book 1

Thunderhead

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Language: English
ISBN: 9781442472433

Keep your books and notes in Collected for iPhone.

Apple Books is a service mark of Apple Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.