Scythe
by Neal Shusterman
When Scythe Faraday walks into the lives of Citra and Rowan, they have no idea how their lives will change.
They live in a time of immortality and perfect living. No one has pain. No one has hunger. No one has to suffer any longer. The AI takes care of everything and everyone knows that.
But with immortality comes the possibility of future overpopulation, so the Scythes were created to "glean" the people and keep the numbers from becoming overwhelming.
Some Scythes are thoughtful and methodical, taking only those whose may harm others in the future, even if only accidentally. Others are more merciful, seeking out those who look to be tired of their permanency.
And other Scythes feel the power too much, seeking to cause as much chaos, fear, and even pain as they go about their "duty".
Now Citra and Rowan are being trained to be future Scythes and their views of everything they thought to be true will be challenged like never before.
Final thoughts: Decent read. I'd give the story itself a 4 for the plot, but the missing expository elements like how are people entertained and kept physically/mentally challenged? Why do people not know all of their history if they have so much time to study it? Where is the darn speech-to-text feature so that people know how to pronounce old words correctly?
Rating: 3/5
