[Review] Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Rating: 4.5 stars 

Version: ARC Paperback

Release Date: November 22nd 2016

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

"Immortality has turned us all into cartoons." - Scythe Curie

So I've had friends telling me how great Neal Shusterman was, how different his books were compared to other YA they've read... and when I got an ARC of his upcoming book, Scythe, I went into it with pretty high expectations.

Those expectations have been met. Scythe takes the controversial topic of death and brings it to life (hey, irony!). It even takes the dystopian genre and takes it to a different spectrum. I've tried to stay away from dystopians for fear of redundant and overused tropes and plots akin to The Hunger Games, but Scythe was compelling without any love triangles and drama to mar its story.