Book Review: ‘Scythe’ by Neal Shusterman

Scythe is the first book in Neal Shusterman’s young adult dystopian series Arc of a Scythe. Somehow I missed this series when it was first released but, in 2026, I was finally able to read the original trilogy; starting with Scythe.

Despite this being a dystopian story, the book actual takes place in a seemingly utopian future of Earth. Health nanites and revival centres mean that death has been conquered, ages can be reset so that people can experience their youth again and again forever, and the world is watched over by a benevolent AI that can solve all of humanities problems. Only with a permanently increasing population and finite resources, death is still a necessary part of life. Enter the Scythedom – the only ones who can ‘glean’ a person and render them permanently dead.

I absolutely love Shusterman’s imagination and world building. He clearly put a lot of thought into the rules of this world before constructing the story around it. The Scythedom has echoes of both the US senate and the conclaves of the Catholic church in terms of its grandness, presentation, and ceremonies, as well as how the scythes interact with each other. I fully enjoyed every time we got to learn a little more about MidMerica and the wider world.

Scythe follows sixteen year olds Citra and Rowan who are strangers until they are both selected as apprentices to Scythe Faraday. The Scythedom rules that, at the end of a year’s training, only one of them will earn the position of ‘scythe’. Their training is set to a backdrop of deep division within the Scythedom between the old guard who revere the scythe commandments and the new order who believe that gleanings should be enjoyed. Both sides want Citra and Rowan to fuel their own agenda.

As protagonists the pair are endearing. Where Citra is book-smart Rowan is street-smart. Both have their own reasons for wanting to become a scythe and, while they are in competition with each other, they each secretly want the other to succeed. By making Citra and Rowan strong as both individuals and as a pair, Shusterman created two characters that I was rooting for from the start.

All scythes are required to keep a journal. One of my favourite parts of the novel were the inserts between chapters where we were given 1-2 page long extracts from the journals of several different characters. Often with topics linking to either the previous or following chapter, these sections were a great way to give the reader insight into the minds of multiple characters without slowing the story down.

For my first trip into this world, I completely enjoyed Scythe. From the slower pace at the start where we follow the characters through their everyday lives, to the tension of the forced competition between Citra and Rowan, to the unpredictable scenes with the villainous Scythe Goddard – every chapter kept me interested and wanting to read more. An excellent start to the trilogy.

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