Summary
In a world that has conquered mortality and possess all knowledge, the Scythes hold the power of life and death. While accidents still occur, people can be healed and resurrected. They can choose to have their bodies modified to make them younger. Hardly anyone dies outside of “gleaning.” Only the Scythes can glean. Gleaning keeps the population in check. The Scythes work within their own guidelines against bias or profiling. They offer one year immunity from gleaning to the families of those they glean. Death is sometimes as unemotional as a business transaction. Sometimes.
Scythe Faraday meets Citra and her family when he comes to their building to glean. Her mother feeds him dinner. But Citra is bold and brash, questioning his actions and motives.
Scythe Faraday meets Rowan when he gleans at the high school. Rowan insists on staying through the gleaning, supporting a kid he barely knows, just so he won’t be alone.
Intrigued by their character, Scythe Faraday invites both Citra and Rowan to train as apprentices. This invitation will set into motion a chain of events that will challenge and change both teens – and the scythedom – in ways they can’t imagine.
Review
Wow! This was stunning. The premise is smart and creative and unique. The world-building to set up this dystopian system is stellar – simple on the surface, with far-reaching implications. The pacing is perfect. I was hooked by the first couple of chapters, and I didn’t want to put the book down until I was finished.
The characters are nuanced and complex, from Citra and Rowan to the Scythes that train them to those who want to use them. There are twists and turns that happen in the story because of the character of each of the major players. The whole thing is woven together perfectly.
This is a dark story because it deals almost exclusively with death. There’s violence along the lines of The Hunger Games or similar stories. It’s not spelled out in excessive detail, but it’s jarring. And it should be jarring. This is definitely for mature readers who can roll with the subject matter and the violence. But the storytelling is exceptional – a treat for those who brave the darkness to explore this fascinating story. [I’ve read the second book, Thunderhead, and it is just as well-written. The pacing is a little slower, but the twists and turns are even bigger.]