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Book Review: Scythe

 

Scythe by Neal Shusterman is a dystopian novel that follows two teenagers named Citra and Rowan as they train to become Scythes. The World that they live in has conquered death, therefore, in order to combat overpopulation, Scythes are the only ones who can take life way. They are chosen to be a Scythe’s apprentice after they each have a remarkable and unpleasant experience with the honorable Scythe Faraday. He choses them both to train to become Scythes, but after their apprenticeship, only one of the them will receive the ring of the Scythe.

Pros:

  • page-turner
  • great character development
  • lots of great twists and turns
  • great villain with Scythe Goddard (corruption of main characters, reader feels hatred and fear towards him, set up wonderfully)
  • the supporting characters are intriguing just by themselves (ex. Scythe Goddard, Scythe Curie, members of Scythe Goddard crew, Scythe Faraday)
  • wonderful world-building
  • ethical dilemmas talked about (should you enjoy being a Scythe and take advantage of the position? or should you hate it and live in solitude?)
  • great contrast between Citra’s and Rowan’s life
  • makes you care about the characters
  • themes: right vs. wrong,

Cons:

  • doesn’t capitalize on talking about themes of overpopulation and how to deal with, which is what the summary makes it seem like it might talk about
  • ending is a bit anti-climatic, the climax kind of happens earlier in the story

My Rating: 9/10

In conclusion, Scythe is book that makes you think, but not too much. It goes into the ethical dilemma of overpopulation and how to deal with, but doesn’t dive into the topic too much. Hopefully it will do so in the sequel (Thunderhead). The characters and plot were also intriguing and the book kept you constantly hooked. I recommend this book to anyone who loves reading, dystopian novels, and are able to read violent books.

Have you read Scythe and did you like it? If not, are you going to add it to your reading list?

 

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Book Review: Tash Hearts Tolstoy

In Tash Hearts Tolstoy, a realistic fiction novel by Kathryn Ormsbee, a high-school girl named Tash works on a web series called Unhappy Families with her best friend, Jack. It’s a humble enough web series that serves as a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina, a novel by Leo Tolstoy, who Tash idolizes. However, when a popular youtuber gives them a shoutout, their project goes viral. Tash feels the effects of internet fame, from dealing with haters to how the fame impacts her friendships. She also develops a major crush on fellow vlogger Thom, who she plans to meet up with at the Golden Tubas. However, she even struggles in that asset of her life, where she is afraid to come out to others about being a romantic asexual.

Pros:

  • Great LGBTQ+ representation in this book, Tash isn’t the only character who is apart of the community
  • modern and up to date with what teens are doing in the world today
  • Youtube serving as a pathway to fame is realistic and fresh
  • themes of the damages of fame and growing up
  • great parallels between Tash’s Unhappy Families project and her own Unhappy Family
  • supporting characters are interesting and many of them could probably have their own book
  • Tash has impressive character development, along with other supporting characters, like her sister
  • the ending makes the long book worth the read

Cons:

  • Can sometimes be boring, especially when Tash is caught up on the hate, and that makes the reader want to tell her to stop worrying about it. Also when she spends all of her time daydreaming about Thom.
  • The character Jack, who serves as Tash’s best friend is hard to like. However, she is realistic of how someone in her situation would act like.

My Rating: 8.5/10

In conclusion, Tash Hearts Tolstoy is a fun and interesting read that made me more aware and knowledgeable about subjects like being asexual, vlogging, and web series. I would recommend this book to anyone who struggles with identity, likes reading, and is young enough to understand what vlogging and web series are.

If you have read Tash Hearts Tolstoy, did you like it? And if you haven’t, are you interested in reading it?

Graphic by Canva.com

Book Picture Credit to Google Images

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Book Review: The Dazzling Heights

The Dazzling Heights is the second book in Katherine McGee’s Thousandth Floor series. Therefore, in this review, there will be spoilers for the Thousandth Floor.

Following The Thousandth Floor’s steps, the book starts with a death scene and promises you that a character, probably one that you will grow to care for, will be dead by the end of this book. It follows a similar casts of characters (besides the one that died in the last book) and adds Calliope, a mysterious character with the background of a criminal.

In a far away future, a couple of kids are just trying to keep their secrets hidden, even though those secrets includes murder, an illegal supercomputer, romance with your sibling, and past criminal activities.

After the horrible events of the last book that the characters must recover from, it still provides fresh twists and turns, the forming of new relationships, and further world-building.

Never before has a book made me root for—and maybe even like—a character that I totally despised in the last book. Leda from the last book was horrible and I hated her, but I ended up rooting for her—even though she has done terrible things, which is pretty impressive writing on McGee’s part.

One of the areas where this book excels in is character development. Leda becomes a LOT more likable character. Rylin becomes a stronger character by no longer only being relevant as a love interest and actually doing fun and interesting things on her own. Watt and Leda’s relationships has some major changes—changes that are amusing to read about.

However, Avery’s character becomes slightly annoying and her relationship with Atlas is obnoxious and a little gross to read about. Calliope’s character seems like she is going to amount to something, but in the end she only slightly affects Avery’s relationship with Atlas. Her former cons are absorbing to read about, so I hope that she does more in the third book in the series, The Towering Sky.

Additionally, the book is an enthralling roller coaster ride that is a great guilty pleasure book. It’s a great book to read on the beach!

Rating: 7.5/10

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The Hate U Give Review

The Hate U Give is a young adult realistic fiction by Angie Thomas. This book is insanely successful as Thomas’ first novel, as it opened at number one on the New York Times young adult bestselling list.

It tackles the relevant issues of police brutality and racism through the eyes of Starr Carter, a 16-year old high school student, who goes to a high-end, mostly white school outside of the dangerous area that she lives in. Starr witnesses her childhood best friend get shot and killed right in font of her eyes by a policeman. She knows that he was innocent and that the police killed him for no reason other than that they were prejudiced against him. As the story gains national attention, Starr is the differing opinions of the two worlds that she lives in: her mostly-black home and her mostly-white peers at school. She is also faced with the question: Should she stay under the radar and be safe or stand up for her friend and face danger?

Pros:

This book tackled the issues, in my opinion, beautifully. As someone who does not live in the same situation that Starr lives in, it was eye-opening and important.

The characters that were supposed to likable were likable and the characters that you were supposed to disliked you disliked, so I thought that the characterization was great.

SPOILER: For example, Starr’s racist white friend gets what she got when she refused to have an open mind and change her obviously flawed logic. While Starr’s white boyfriend, Christopher, realized the two world that Starr lived in and supported her when she stood up to the police.

I also liked how the book branched out into other things beyond the core themes, like drugs and gangs, and how they impact the people who live near them.

The presence of family was another important facet of the book, showing that families aren’t just parents and their children, but whole communities and half-siblings and friends.

SPOILER: My favorite part of the book was when Starr took a stand and delivered a quick speech at the protest for her friend that was killed, Khalil. It gave me shivers and showed the impressive character development that Starr went through.

SPOILER: I also liked how the ending (with the police officer who killed Khalil not getting any jail time) was written. If the police officer had been prosecuted, it would have been out of line with the current events going on around in the United States. It also made the reader feel some very strong emotions of outrage towards the justice system, which helped the reader step into the shoes of the protagonist and the real-life people who are faced with the same experiences as her.

Cons: 

The only real problems that I found with this book was that it sometimes used topical terms used in current pop culture either made me cringe a little bit when mentioned in the story, or will with be outdated and not relevant in a couple years time.

Also, I had super high expectations for this book, as I had heard it mentioned on social media as a amazing book and had read a book with a similar content and LOVED it. However, my expectations were not totally met as the book wasn’t the page turner that I had wanted it to be, but it was still great.

Score: 8.5/10