“There is a fine line between freedom and permission. The former is necessary. The latter is dangerous–perhaps the most dangerous the species that created me has ever faced.”
-Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead
A year has passed since the events at the end of Scythe. Rowan has taken on the task of eliminating the corruption from the Scythedom into his own hands; Citra has spent the year coming into her own as Scythe Anastasia, trying to fight the corruption in the Scythedom from within. Meanwhile, something more sinister is being orchestrated behind everyone’s backs. Will Rowan and Citra be able to stop it together?
So this book has been out for a while, but I finally got around to reading it when I was at a children’s literature conference in late June. Here’s the story: my friend Alyssa and I were sharing a room (with some other people in her program) and we were talking about books we were reading/books we brought. She mentioned Thunderhead because someone else was going to read it; since he was reading another book, Alyssa said I should try to finish it before the conference was over. And I did! And it was amazing.
I loved the world building in Scythe (you can read more about that here!), and I think the overall format of the story works so well in immersing the reader into this futuristic world. The Unwind dystology was similar; there’s something about this style, where you’re kind of an omniscient viewer of all the different sides in this new society, that works so well for world building.
I’ve determined that Neal Shusterman might also be the king of plot twists. I feel that this book could have gone in a very different, probably predictable, direction, and it most definitely did not. There’s a cliffhanger so large at the end that I’m desperate to get my hands on the next book (and I don’t even know when it’s set to come out). The moral question introduced in Scythe is furthered here; and I think it will continue to be furthered in the final book. To me, the premise of the story is so unique, and I’m itching to see if the narrative will fit into my Theory for All YA Dystopia (more on that in a future post!).
From the characters to the world to the plot twists, I absolutely devoured this book. And I can’t wait to read more.
5/5 stars