Scythe Book
Scythe is a dystopian young adult novel by Neal Shusterman, and it tells the tale of a futuristic society in which all forms of death have been eradicated, and the only way a human can die is by being ‘gleaned’, a word which is synonymous with murder.
The novel also incorporates a significant number of plot twists and interesting dialogue, and coupled with the likeable characters and interesting political systems, it is hard to set this book in parallel to any other story I have ever had the privilege of reading–and that’s what makes the novel so memorable! I will certainly be making my way back to Squishy Minnie Bookstore as soon as I can to purchase the book’s sequel, titled Thunderhead.
Scythe Goddard and his followers, Scythes Rand, Volta, and Chomsky, conduct a mass gleaning on an airplane and then in the food court of a mall. They’re both bloody and fiery affairs, as Chomsky loves using a flamethrower. At the mall gleaning, the bloodthirsty Goddard uncharacteristically spares a ten-year-old girl, Esme, and takes her home with him. He lives in a mansion that he took over from a terrified business executive, Maxim Easley, who is now forced to work as Goddard’s pool boy.