Buddy Reads & Rants: Scythe (Jonny Pongratz and Gigi aka The Beachy Reader)
Hello Blogging World!
Gigi: Hey bookworms! I’m Gigi, The Beachy Reader!
Jonny : Heeere’s Jonny! Lover of all things dystopian. I love it so much I even wrote a short story in the genre. Check it out here!
This buddy read and rant is for Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Both of us didn’t have a ton of experience with dystopian novels, but we really wanted to give this a shot so we just took a leap of faith.
Blurb:
Two teens are forced to murder—maybe each other—in the first in a chilling new series from Neal Shusterman, author of the New York Times bestselling Unwind dystology.
In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed (“gleaned”) by professional reapers (“scythes”). Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythe’s apprentices, and—despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation—they must learn the art of killing and come to understand the necessity of what they do.
Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe’s apprentice. And when it becomes clear that the winning apprentice’s first task will be to glean the loser, Citra and Rowan are pitted against one another in a fight for their lives.
GoodReads
Buddy Read Book Rant:
Jonny: OMG Gigi, I love, love, loved this book! I’ve been a fan of dystopian ever since reading Lois Lowry’s Giver series, but I was blown away by this one. How did you like it?
Gigi: Hey Jonny! Dystopian & sci-fi are still new to me. But I’ve been wanting to read Scythe for a long time now! I really enjoyed this one! Especially that ending!!
I did find it slow in some areas though..
Jonny: Oh, I didn’t know that! Well I can definitely recommend that series I just mentioned. There’s four books, and each is unique in their own way.
Sorry, back to Scythe. I do agree that in parts it did slow down a little, but it didn’t bug me too much. What especially did you enjoy about this story?
For me I think the worldbuilding went above and beyond. I was in awe of this strange world and all its quirks like the Thunderhead and the Scythes themselves.
I also like how complex all the characters were. Even the side Scythes had distinctive views on gleaning and there were so many shades of gray.
Gigi: I also enjoyed the world building and character building. I loved the whole idea of the Scythedom.
It’s the only story I’ve ever read, where even wrong doings is somehow justified (i.e H.S Goddard)
Rowan and Goddard were my fave characters! How about you?
Jonny: Yeah, it’s a crazy concept that works really well. I also think that the writing was very fluid and it was easy to get back into it after taking a break. Neal Shusterman sure can write!
Haha, yeah, the justification of the wrongdoing drove me nuts, I’ll be honest. I was pretty much gunning for the antagonist’s (or perceived antagonist depending on how you look at it) death the entire time.
I have to say I enjoyed Curie and Citra the most, basically the opposite of what you picked lol. Curie had this fiery temper underneath that scared the bejesus out of me. That and she took the higher ground in the Scythedom. I also liked Citra because she clung to her beliefs throughout like a liferaft. Yes, she wasn’t as interesting as Rowan, but worthy of the apprenticeship? Heck yeah.
Gigi: Oh absolutely! I already knew who the chosen one would be. That was a no brainer. I happen to like flawed characters..their journey always intrigues me. Plus I seem to always be drawn to dark characters.
I did like Scythe Curie’s gleaning style. It was different.
This was such a fun read! I’m glad we finally picked it up! I’m looking for\ward to Thunderhead!!
Jonny: Oh, for sure! Rowan was more interesting than Citra, but this book kinda got to me emotionally (few really do) so I had to go with the characters I knew were more virtuous. That being said, without our dark characters this book would’ve been boring.
You’re very welcome! I had a ton of fun and I can’t wait to continue our journey into this series!
That’s A Wrap!
Thanks for joining us on our buddy read and rant of Scythe! We had a lot of fun, and hope you did too! We will definitely be doing some more buddy reads in the future, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, why not check out Gigi and Jonny’s other fun buddy reads?
Buddy Reads & Rants: The Bone Garden
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Great read and rant. This book sounds amazing. I must pick it up.
Thanks! Yeah, I went cuckoo bananas after reading the first one and bought all three. That’s how good it was for me.
That’s some endorsement! Looking forward to reading your rants as the series continues.
Yeah, this one went straight to my favorites. I need to get more picture frames and put a copy of the cover on my wall.
Totally! Shortly after we do our spooky vampire read I’ll do the next book.
Great!
I’ve read good things about Scythe. It was fun “listening in” on your chat.:-)
I highly recommend it friend! I borrowed it at my library but ended up buying the series by how good the first one was.