Book Review of Scyth by Neal Shusterman

 1. Bibliography

Shusterman, N. 2016. Scythe. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN:

9781442472433

2. Plot Summary

We are set in the year 2042 and powerful AI has taken over the government and they are

not in charge of humanity. The AI, called Thunderhead, has cured all humans so that no

one dies, but this causes population problems and so they create a group called

Scythedom who are responsible for maintaining the population. This group goes out and

“gleans” or kills humans, so resources don’t get used up. We follow Citra Terranova and

Rowan Damisch, two teenagers who are chosen to be trained in becoming a scythe. Their

mentor is Scythe Faraday who follows the moral code of the Scythedom. When trouble

comes for them, Citra and Rowan are faced with making hard decisions to stay alive.

They must decide to become rivals or to help each other while figuring out their morals

and taking justice.

3. Critical Analysis

Shusterman creates a futuristic story about AI becoming a more present part of humans’

lives but still having to deal with societal problems. We see a world where the

Thunderhead (AI) has perfected the world, so no one is hungry, sick, or even dies. This

creates a problem because now the world is overcrowded. In this book we can see the

struggle between society who now must decide who dies because of this perfect world.

We can see how some people struggle to take the lives of others while some find joy in it.

We can also see the advantages and disadvantages of AI and how it can possibly help our

world but also the limitations of having emotions and the ability to decide the fate of

humans. Young adults can read this story and connect to the main characters’ struggles

with their morals and values and find themselves and how they want to behave. We also

see different perspectives when you are reading journal entries from different Scythes.

Their perspectives give the reader more insight into how it feels and thought process of

being a killer instead of the one being killed. Shusterman creates a world where we want

to question and ponder life, death, and all that comes with enjoying a perfect world.

4. Review Excerpts

"Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman's dark tale

thrusts realistic, likeable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic

questions. A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning." -- Kirkus

Reviews

"Shusterman is no stranger to pushing boundaries. Scythe owes an obvious debt to

Unwind (2007) and its sequels, and this succeeds as a sort of shadow companion to

Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy: instead of exploring the ways in which men are

monsters, this deals in what happens to men when there are no monsters. When our reach

does not exceed our grasp, when comfort is more easily obtained than struggle, when our

essential humanity doesn’t burn out but becomes slowly irrelevant, what becomes of us?

Readers will find many things in these pages. Answers to such unsettling questions will

not be among them." -- Maggie Reagan — Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

5. Connections

*Next books in the series

-Thunder Head by Neal Shusterman

-The Toll by Neal Shusterman