Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Scythe by Neal Shusterman is set in a utopian/distopian world where humans are essentially immortal. Disease, hunger, fatal accidents, war, etc. have all been eradicated. Do you feel as though you are too old? You can turn back your clock to an age  you feel comfortable. Did you fall and suffer a fatal brain injury? You can be revived.

Scythes are necessary to control the ever increasing world population. They are a sanctioned group of trained killers with a conscience, at least most of them are. Once killed by a scythe, you will not be revived.

We are following two main characters, Citra and Rowan who are apprentices to become a junior scythe.

I absolutely loved this book and devoured it in under a week (yes, as a mom of young kids this is fantastic for me lol). I cannot wait to continue the series ASAP. I borrowed this from my library but will be buying a copy for my shelves, and that doesn’t happen often!

The world was interesting to me and seems… plausible? Which, for me, gave this book an added point of intrigue. The way this world was developed to be both a utopia, as well as distopian and having evolved from our current world was interesting.

The political intrigue was also believable in my eyes. Even things created with the best of intentions are not incorruptible. There will always be those who wish to ruin what was intended to be a good thing.

I liked both our main characters and the romance that bloomed between them. It was subtle and not eye-roll worthy. Character romances in YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi is usually entirely unrealistic and I generally do not enjoy reading it. This book was different!

If you are a lover of YA Fantasy and/or Sci-Fi books, I definitely recommend! This quickly became one of my favourite books.