Book Review: ‘Thunderhead’ by Neal Shusterman

Thunderhead is the second book in Neal Shusterman’s young adult dystopian series: Arc of a Scythe.

The story begins approximately 10 months after the conclusion of Scythe. Citra, now known as Scythe Anastasia, is under the mentorship of Scythe Curie and is determined to navigate her new life at her own pace and in her own way. Elsewhere Rowan has adopted the name ‘Scythe Lucifer’. He has made it his personal mission to rid the world of those corrupt scythes who glean (kill) with prejudice and discrimination.

The book also introduces us to a new protagonist – Greyson Tolliver, an ordinary young man who dreams of serving the world’s benevolent AI – Thunderhead. After being selected for a secret mission, Greyson is branded ‘unsavory’ and exiled from society. Forced to assume a new identity, he learns of a plot to assassinate the Scythes Curie and Anastasia.

While I certainly didn’t dislike the character of Greyson, I was disappointed by the amount of time spent on his journey compared to Citra and Rowan’s; especially in the first two-thirds of the novel. Since the pair were the primary focus of the first book I had expected them to take centre stage throughout book two. I wish we had gotten to spend more time with them in their every day lives as Anastasia and Lucifer before the story shifted into the assassination plotline.

Although I would have liked Greyson to have played even a small part in Scythe to justify his starring role in Thunderhead, I did enjoy the insight his chapters gave us. The world building is arguably the biggest strength of Shusterman’s novels with a clearly thought out futuristic Earth that I found easy to visualise. Through Greyson we learn about the unsavory community and how they fit in (or rather don’t fit in) to the wider society. We also get to learn more about how Thunderhead operates and cares for the population.

Once again I really liked the page-long inserts between chapters. This time they are all from Thunderhead’s perspective, written to represent an inner monologue. These inserts made Thunderhead feel like a well-rounded character with feelings and opinions of its own beyond the basic principle of wanting to help humanity.

In a book series where death can easily be reversed, this may feel like an odd critique but I did have concerns about Arc of a Scythe’s seeming reliance on resurrection. Across the first two books there have been three major players stated as categorically dead only to make dramatic reappearances. While character returns/resurrections can be fun, too many can lessen the impact the more time it happens.

After being on the fence about my feelings for a lot of the novel, Shusterman does make sure that Thunderhead ends on a high with an epic closing act. The final chapters, which are set of the floating city of Endura, were my favourite. They are filled with non-stop action and scheming in a truly shocking conclusion that managed to top the ending of Scythe and leave me wondering what was going to happen next.

The finale notwithstanding I would still say that I preferred Scythe to Thunderhead however book two is a solid sequel while also being a good story in its own right.

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