Scythe by Neal Schusterman

Series: Arc of a Scythe, #1

Publication: November 22nd 2016 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

Goodreads Description:

Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own. 

My thoughts:

Scythe was such a let down for me. I went in with very high expectations because of all the hype surrounding it and I was very disappointed. 

Firstly it took me forever to get through. I would be reading for what felt like hours only to trackside I'd only read a few chapters. I found it so hard to focus while reading because I just wasn't interested in the story. 

The characters felt very flat to me and I was not emotionally invested in any of them at all. I couldn't relate to them so I felt no empathy or sympathy for them. I was annoyed at both, Citra and Rowan, for the majority of the book. I felt like they had no chemistry whatsoever so I wasn't rooting for them or their relationships. 

The plot was so slow. The story just dragged on and on and I felt like I was making no progress. I couldn't get into it. I didn't care who lived or died so the plot twists didn't shock me or anything (a lot of them were predictable anyway).

The idea was brilliant with the whole no one dying and how society works. It really made me thing about morality and mortality but the execution of the story was very weak.

I think Neal Shusterman's writing just isn't for me. It feels so straight forward and it doesn't have any emotion behind it or something. 

A bit bummed I didn't enjoy scythe because it's such a hyped series. I think this is the end of Neal Shusterman for me, I've tried Unwind too and wasn't a fan so I think I'll just stop wasting my time on his books.

Thanks for reading,

A :)