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A review by jenbsbooks
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
4.5
Really liked this ... I wish I hadn't read it back to back to The Passengers. They really aren't alike at all, but there was a little "if you have to chose a person to live, a person to die, what do you base your choice on?" idea.
It think one interesting thing about this book is it just drops you into the world. No introduction, setting the scene. I know the majority of people have probably read the blurb, so they might have an idea of what is going on.
Before each chapter, there is a little excerpt from a journal - this rotates through a few different Scythes. These give quite a bit of the background (before chapter 2, "People used to die naturally. Old age used to be a terminal affliction, not a temporary state. There were invisible killers called “diseases” that broke the body down. Aging couldn’t be reversed, and there were accidents from which there was no return. Planes fell from the sky. Cars actually crashed. There was pain, misery, despair. It’s hard for most of us to imagine a world so unsafe, with dangers lurking in every unseen, unplanned corner. All of that is behind us now ..." So that (and a little more to follow) tells us that now Sythes are used to control/cull "glean" the population.
It IS such an interesting idea ... of course it sounds wonderful to be able to defeat disease. To be able to repair any damage to the human body, to be able to reverse aging ... but really think about what happens if that is the case! The "turning a corner" and resetting (can go all the way back to age 21) results in multiple families, and of course, overpopulation.
I had this in all three formats. I went primarily with the audio - a single narrator handled the different POVs (3rd person/past tense), and the journal entries (1st person). There were five parts - with headings for the parts and the chapters within. I appreciated that the headers were included on the Table of Contents in the audio and Kindle copy (the physical copy, as seems to be the case these days, didn't bother to include a TOC at all, which does a disservice to readers in my opinion). The text formats both had an extensive section at the end with discussion questions and even "Extension Activities" (if used in a school setting). This is YA, there was no proFanity. No sex.
Lots to think about with this one. I appreciated that the story wrapped up enough to call this a conclusion, while still setting up for sequels. I had purchased the audio during an Audible sale (it exclusive, not available at the libraries) but borrowed the Kindle copy from the library. I don't have the sequels ... might have to watch for more sales to continue on.
It think one interesting thing about this book is it just drops you into the world. No introduction, setting the scene. I know the majority of people have probably read the blurb, so they might have an idea of what is going on.
Before each chapter, there is a little excerpt from a journal - this rotates through a few different Scythes. These give quite a bit of the background (before chapter 2, "People used to die naturally. Old age used to be a terminal affliction, not a temporary state. There were invisible killers called “diseases” that broke the body down. Aging couldn’t be reversed, and there were accidents from which there was no return. Planes fell from the sky. Cars actually crashed. There was pain, misery, despair. It’s hard for most of us to imagine a world so unsafe, with dangers lurking in every unseen, unplanned corner. All of that is behind us now ..." So that (and a little more to follow) tells us that now Sythes are used to control/cull "glean" the population.
It IS such an interesting idea ... of course it sounds wonderful to be able to defeat disease. To be able to repair any damage to the human body, to be able to reverse aging ... but really think about what happens if that is the case! The "turning a corner" and resetting (can go all the way back to age 21) results in multiple families, and of course, overpopulation.
I had this in all three formats. I went primarily with the audio - a single narrator handled the different POVs (3rd person/past tense), and the journal entries (1st person). There were five parts - with headings for the parts and the chapters within. I appreciated that the headers were included on the Table of Contents in the audio and Kindle copy (the physical copy, as seems to be the case these days, didn't bother to include a TOC at all, which does a disservice to readers in my opinion). The text formats both had an extensive section at the end with discussion questions and even "Extension Activities" (if used in a school setting). This is YA, there was no proFanity. No sex.
Lots to think about with this one. I appreciated that the story wrapped up enough to call this a conclusion, while still setting up for sequels. I had purchased the audio during an Audible sale (it exclusive, not available at the libraries) but borrowed the Kindle copy from the library. I don't have the sequels ... might have to watch for more sales to continue on.