Thunderhead By Neal Shusterman Book Review
“That’s exactly what the scythedom is: high school with murder.”
About
Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Fantasy
Series: Arc of a Scythe book 2
Click to read the book reviews
Arc of a Scythe Series
Synopsis
Rowan has gone rogue, and has taken it upon himself to put the Scythedom through a trial by fire. Literally. In the year since Winter Conclave, he has gone off-grid, and has been striking out against corrupt scythes—not only in MidMerica, but across the entire continent. He is a dark folk hero now—“Scythe Lucifer”—a vigilante taking down corrupt scythes in flames.
Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants to help change it from the inside out, but is thwarted at every turn, and threatened by the “new order” scythes. Realizing she cannot do this alone—or even with the help of Scythe Curie and Faraday, she does the unthinkable, and risks being “deadish” so she can communicate with the Thunderhead—the only being on earth wise enough to solve the dire problems of a perfect world. But will it help solve those problems, or simply watch as perfection goes into decline?
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
Dear Thunderheads,
If you thought Scythe was good, Thunderhead is GREAT. I can thoroughly say that this book left my jaw hanging open in sobs, in screams and fits, and frustration. I really don’t know where to begin with this book! What was your reaction to the ending? 😅
Before I get ahead of myself and talk about the ending, let’s talk about the beginning of the book.
I loved how all the little diary entries were the Thunderhead’s thoughts rather than the journal entries from the scythes. It’s fitting seeing how this book is called the Thunderhead. I think that with this book, the role of the Thunderhead is explored more and how it acts. I still imagine a big gray cloud sitting in the sky watching everyone, which is kind of creepy. But the Thunderhead acts like a parent watching its kids grow up. I found it kind of weird how it could talk to people in their head to give them words of encouragement or that it found loopholes in its own rules. I also liked how we learned that not every state or land is created equal or under surveillance. The Thunderhead likes to experiment with different states and how much surveillance it has over it. For example, in Texas, there is no surveillance so that the Thunderhead can see how people react to not being watched. There’s also places where people are not allowed to get a job for a living, which is kind of weirdly cool. Imagine if we had to go to work and just got paid a decent amount to live. That would be the life. I mean, why do we work? 🧐
In the other book, it’s kind of known that a person wouldn’t necessarily need to get a job because everything is run by the Thunderhead and all the information or what a person wants to know can be known with the Thunderhead. It never really crossed my mind how people made a living, so I thought it was intriguing that they all got BIG money– the minimum amount of money they needed to survive without work. If only we had BIG money today, am I right?
With this book we were also introduced to the idea or unsavories. I think unsavories are quite a unique group of people who naturally want to be rebellious. The Thunderhead labels these people as unsavories as a way for people to express themselves because they’re not good people, but they’re not completely bad. They just want to seem like they’re “cool” and all that. The Thunderhead stamps their IDs with a big red U to mark them and they have their own towns and cliques and bars. The bars are the most interesting bits. People can go to these bars and act rude and demeaning and the people who work there are actors or actresses who put up with it and get paid. They literally get beat up, spit on, talked back to, or thrown in the face with a drink for some money. And they did it on purpose because they actually enjoyed their job. I can’t fathom a world where people are willing to get treated so badly for money. I also found it kind of clever how the Thunderhead would give the unsavories bars and spaces like this so that the unsavories could act out and be their rebellious self, but not in public.
Something else I found interesting about the unsavories is the process of being one. Part of being a new unsavory, you have to go to this unsavory office of affairs thing—–kind of like the DMV—–and they make you wait and pick a number. There’s really no reason for a person to wait and pick a number when the Thunderhead is functioning and responsible for things, but it’s the Thunderhead’s way of playing into the unsavories in letting them brood and get irritated and be their unsavory selves. It’s kind of a weird sentiment, but it’s also very smart on the Thunderhead’s part to be that careful in how it acts.
Greyson Tolliver is a character that gets introduced in this book. He’s the typical goody two shoes who has a sad family background. His parents and siblings don’t really care for him because he’s so many generations down. Whenever Greyson had any accomplishments or awards, the Thunderhead was always there for him to praise him and lift him up; he has a special bond with the Thunderhead. As a way to give back to the Thunderhead, he goes to the Nimbus Academy and then to work for Thunderhead. One day he gets called to the Authority Interface headquarters by his supervisor and meets with this guy named Traxler. Traxler tells Greyson that the Thunderhead wanted to remind him and was told to read the rules of the agency and the division of the scythedom and the state. The whole meeting was kind of ominous and sketchy because Traxler, was telling Greyson that someone was going to harm Scythe Curie and Anastasia and he shouldn’t do anything to help them or tip them off, but at the same time that’s exactly what Traxler was trying to prompt him to do. So Greyson was walking near where Scythe Curie and Anastasia lived and he tripped the boobytrap that was supposed to blow them up.
At first, when Scythe Anastasia/Citra noticed him, she was like “not another splatter” because people like to splat and risk their life for the fun of it. I was kind of with her on that—–splatters are kind of the worst because they’re just carelessly risking their lives and taking it for granted that they’ll be okay, and they will be, but that’s so weird to grasp in terms of reality. But Greyson was actually going to warn them. So bless his heart that he took a literal bomb for them!
Because Greyson interfered between scythe and state he was marked as unsavory. This tore Greyson apart because he felt truly alone since the Thunderhead couldn’t talk to him. But Greyson meets with his unsavory advisor who was, lo and behold, Traxler, the guy who told him not to interfere in the first place and then Greyson becomes this secret double spy.
Bye bye boring Greyson and hello Slayd Bridger.
What an interesting persona.
Gosh, I use the word interesting too much, but there’s no other way to describe it!
I felt like Greyson really had some good fun creating this whole idea of a rebellious 2.0 version of the clean cut person he was. I think part of him liked being unsavory because he seemed cooler, he had more friends, he created this whole bad boy reputation, , and he had more of a life. He even had a girlfriend of sorts with Purity. Like how ironic that she became the one thing she wasn’t? Funny that she knows that. He met Purity in that prison-like place, which kind of reminded me of a modern day escape room. They escaped by using this acid thing, which I never thought anything of until later on.
One of my favorite parts with Greyson was when he went to one of the unsavory bars with his new fake rings on his forehead and he said please to the waitress when he asked for a drink. Then he went to the bathroom where he saw a guy who got beat up and that guy helped Greyson stage a fight so Greyson could gain respect with the unsavories. You know you’re really not an unsavory, if you’re asking for the actor to beat you up 🤪.
He was really living his best to both worlds Hannah Montana life, wasn’t he? 😂
While all this is going on, we have Scythe Anastasia and Scythe Curie dealing with some problems of their own.
Scythe Anastasia, my Citra is all grown up!
Can we start off with her method of gleaning because, WOW! What an honorable and thoughtful way. Not that I condone gleaning!
I like how Citra chooses people and gives them a month’s warning so that they can tie up loose ends and they can pick the way they want to be gleaned. No one has really done that before, but I think that if being gleaned is inevitable, it’s kind of good that that person would get that time to live the rest of their life to the fullest and to decide on the way they want to leave their mark on the world. But I could also see the hardships and faults with this method seeing as it would be twice as hard to see the person again knowing she had to glean them. It also left room for them to escape, but if they did, they would be gleaned. But I liked how firm and planned Citra was about things in knowing that each scythe had his/her own methods of gleaning and this was hers.
There were gleanings where Citra had to hunt a man because he liked hunting or where Citra had to push people off a building. There was even the gleaning in the casino where the man wanted to spend his last breaths doing the thing he liked. Then there was the actor who wanted to be gleaned during a live performance of Julius Caesar. Talk about dramatic 🤪. But I guess that’s the way to be gleaned if you’re an actor and you want to make a bold statement. I found it funny how Citra was nervous the whole time to go walk out on the stage and glean the man. Like you’re not speaking any parts! 😆 But it was her big debut and gleaning a man publicly on a stage in front of thousands of people is not the way to make a grand debut.
The whole day and night of the play was such a momentous part of the middle of the book—–it was an event within itself.
It’s been known in the scythedom that someone is out to kill either Scythe Cuire or Scythe Anastasia so they are under extreme protection of the bladegaurd and excused from their gleaning quota so that they don’t get any hate or murder attempts. But Citra told the bladegaurd that she still had to carry out her gleanings from the month before, to which they told her they did all of them except three. So Citra carried out all those three gleanings (the third being the play) to see if she would be targeted. She wasn’t.
But she was going to be targeted on stage.
Slayd Bridger and Purity were the ones who were going to attempt to hurt her. Funny considering Greyson was the one who saved her in the first place. You see, I very much like Greyson. Slayd? He’s not my favorite of the bunch, but I think he’s just a lost puppy who just wants to fit in.
But the whole thing escalated pretty quickly with Purity being gleaned and Greyson running in to warn everyone. Then he cuts the water pipe so that the acid wouldn’t spray from the ceiling, saving Citra, yet again. But he also has scythes after him because they think that he imitated the attack and warned them of it because he chickened out of it. Scythe Constantine had his eye burned off in the process and a vengeance to get to Slayd.
The whole thing was rather theatrical and dramatic in the best way possible.
I felt bad for Greyson because he was just trying to help Citra, but now he’s being hunted. And he also lost his almost girlfriend in the process.
In the background of things, we have Rowan, or should I say Scythe Lucifer running amuck like the fallen angel he is.
Honestly, Rowan went from lettuce to cabbage, my friends because boy was TOUGHER 🤪!
Everyone kept describing how toned and ripped Rowan had become from his training with Goddard and from his vigilante ways. Like wow! I could only imagine. Literally.
The book started off with Rowan and him looking in a mirror asking himself who he was. And I found that just sad because he’s been through a lot in the past year with being chosen to be a scythe and having two different methods on opposite sides of the spectrum. He’s been through heck and back and didn’t become a scythe, but a rogue and it had to be hard on him.
And I get what Rowan was trying to do and the noble side of killing the scythes who were of malicious intent. But I also thought that being a bad person because of bad people is not the way to go and justifying to yourself that it’s going to help the greater good, is only trying to convince yourself what you know deep down is wrong. In fact, when Rowan was going through that whole deadish and being revived state under training and spoke with the Thunderhead, it said his efforts of killing the malicious scythes didn’t help whatsoever. This kind of made him feel bad because he was a killer.
I also think Rowan just did it out of anger in knowing that he didn’t like the new order or Goddard’s ways and his resentment of the man made him resent others too. I felt like he thought by killing those malicious scythes, he could save the scythes from bad people and therefore be the hero. But he wasn’t helping. He only was buying himself time and time caught up to him.
I liked the moment when Rowan and Citra meet in Pennsylvania where it’s Halloween all the time and people worship the original scythes. I liked that with this book we got to see more of the world and the scythedom—-how things worked together to function. Their meeting was anything but romantic, but there was a bit of interest between them. I can say this time around, I felt their love connection more because now it didn’t seem like they chose each other just because of the situation, but the fact that they found a way back to each other despite everything, kind of showed me how they really did like each other and wanted to make something work. We don’t get many scenes with Rowan and Citra in the middle of the book. We did get a lot in the end, but we’re not there yet. Don’t worry, I want to get there too 😉.
Although there weren’t many scenes with them together, they do worry and care about each other’s well being. Citra is worried that once Rowan’s immunity is up, he’ll be caught and gleaned because everyone is after him. They even have scythe Constantine on a special case just to track him and glean him. Rowan hears about how someone’s after Citra and worries about her well-being as well. He even talks to Xenocrates in saying how he would stop gleaning in America if they put efforts to help find who’s after the love of his young life, Citra.
Then one day, lovely Scythe Lucifer who’s angered and seeing red, irrationally breaks into Scythe Brahmas house to glean him as he promised to do, and what do you know, it was a darn trap! Rowan, you should have had your head in the game my friend 🙈!!!
And you know what he wakes up to?
Something out of his worst reincarnation dreams! Scythe Rand who was supposed to be burned to the ground with the chapel was there and Tyger, his best friend who moved to Texas for a party boy job was there with her. He was shook. I was shook for him! To be really honest, I forgot all about who Scythe Rand was, but gosh was she a menace.
But not really. I think she actually has a heart deep, deep, deeeeeeep down. Journey to the center of the Earth down 🤪. Because part of her loved Tyger whom she trained all these months or weeks to tone his body in preparation to be a “scythe.”
Oooooooooooooooh!
OOOOOOOOOOH!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!
I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW LIVID AND SHOCKED AND WOWWWED I was!!!!
I had to put the book down.
If Rowan’s worse reincarnation dreams were of Scythe Rand, nothing compared to who rolled up out of the ashes himself:
GODDARD!
My Gosh, I thought we burned that sucker to pieces!!!!!
But nooooo! His head was cut off so apparently we can plop his head on Tyger’s body and call it Goddard!? LIKE why would you have saved his head Rand? Wasn’t his head bleeding out or something?!
Gosh we should have chopped that head like a ham or Rowan should have put it on a spike like some savage to make sure that sucker was D-E-A-D dead! 😨
I can’t express how much I DETEST Goddard! There are no words in the dictionary.
It horoughly cannot stand that man! He’s not even a full man, he’s 7% the man he used to be.
Let’s take a moment to honor Tyger because he was a clueless person as to what his purpose was in the grand scheme of things with Rand. He was so excited to finally have a greater purpose and a job. He even got through to Scythe Rand because deep down she actually loved his optimistic, carefree ways, but she killed him to use his body.
What a user!
But at least she looked back on things and could see how she was in the wrong for what she did; she regrets it because Tyger was her love. And she actually was pretty kind to Tyger in not dumping his body in a dumpster like trash but scattered his ashes in the wind. So that’s how we know Scythe Rand at least has some ounce of a heart in there unlike Goddard who’s functioning on someone else’s heart and body. But my heart went out to Scythe Rand in that moment when they were on Endura (the Enduring Heart for Scythes) and she went to Goddard’s room because part of her was attracted to Tyger’s body and she thought that Goddard showed interest in her, but he wasn’t. She was soooo embarrassed when she snuck into his room and then I think it was Scythe Brahmas who came in afterwards and was like “If you can’t sleep tonight, I’m looking for company.” *Shivers* What a creep. But Scythe Rand deserved better because no way in heck does Scythe Goddard deserve love for his artificial, cold blooded heart.
But let’s back up to why we’re in Endura in the first place.
Like every new year, there is the Conclave where all the Scythes meet like the founding fathers themselves; it’s like their own red carpet event. And while there Xenocrates steps down from being High Blade to fill a position as one of the almighty Grandslayers in Endura. So now everyone is brimming with excitement wanting to know who will fill his spot. People have to elect someone to be High Blade and then vote on it. And Scythe Constantine elects Scythe Curie, much to the support of others.
Then like Maleficent himself, Goddard makes his grand debut in his new and improved body and I’m livid!
He’s the martyr for “new order” scythes in wanting no restrictions when it comes to gleaning. So it becomes this whole ordeal of Scythe Curie vs. Scythe Goddard and old order vs. new order. When there’s an intermission in the meeting, I couldn’t stand how the Scythes were all just vying to one side or the other or gossiping like school girls trying to get the popular vote. It was literally a popularity contest that was in favor of Goddard because all the questions were about how the Scythedom would be like without rules. Then we have some honorable Scythes wearing jewels to symbolize their allegiance to Goddard *Insert disapproving head shake*
Then Citra, the queen of loopholes, claimed to Scythe Xenocrates how Goddard wasn’t a full scythe because his body wasn’t his and he was only 7% scythe. I LOVE A LOOPHOLE!! 😆
Of course, Goddard was enraged that Citra found a way to stall time and stop him from becoming high blade. But it was the first time that Citra actually felt like Scythe Anastasia. As much as this book is about the Scythedom and the whole world, I feel like it’s important to remember that Citra has only been a scythe for about a year and all these changes in her life has had such a profound impact on identity and her relationships. It was kind of sad when Citra went home during Thanksgiving and it was all awkward because the family didn’t know what to say or talk to her about and how the family didn’t invite extended family because Citra didn’t want the other family to grow to resent her or her mom, dad, and brother. The extended family would resent them if she never granted them immunity, while her family was safe from being gleaned. It was either resentment or glorification if she did give them immunity. But she couldn’t do that. So when she went home, she felt out of place because it didn’t feel like she belonged and it felt like she had the name of Citra, but she wasn’t her anymore.
At the Conclave, when standing up and making her voice finally heard, it made her feel like she finally did have a place and that she finally accepted herself as Scythe Anastasia; she wasn’t warring between her two identities in trying to maintain someone she was and someone she is 💚.
I really liked getting to go to Endura because it sounded like one of those tropical islands that you see in movies or on travel blogs. Did you imagine kind of like the clock shape islands from Hunger Games: Catching Fire? I kind of imagined the circular shape and idea of that place because of how it was described with the island in the meeting where the Grandslayers meet. I found it also quite interesting how scythes and family of scythes could live in peace in Endura if they chose too. But it was also quite interesting because the Thunderhead couldn’t oversee or fix anything that was going on in Endura because of that separation of scythe and state. Whenever the Thunderhead would talk about Endura, I imagined it as like a sad kicked out puppy standing in the rain because it had to observe from the outside everything that went on.
So we go to Endura so the Grandslayers can determine the ruling if Scythe Goddard could be High Blade or if Scythe Curie would be it instead. The omniscient power and presence of the Grandslayers kind of reminds me of the scene Percy Jackson when all the Greek Gods are meeting at the top of the Empire State Building and Percy is standing before them. It just felt very mighty. I really enjoyed the diversity of the Grandslayers too. But I’m biased if I’m saying I liked Grandslayer Frida. How iconic. But you know what was even funnier?! The fact that there was a Grandslayer called Beyonce. We love a modern day queen 🤪! Honestly, there should be a Grandslayer called Elvis, Michael Jackson, Simon Cowell, and Ellen Degeneres. Who do you think should have an honorable Grandslayer name? 😊 Grandslayer Taylor Swift, anyone?
The whole title of Grandslayer within itself is kind of epic if you think about it. Grand-slayer. WOW.
UGHH.
So I guess it’s time to talk about what went down in this trial, shall we.
I can’t even begin to voice my despair and my anger and my hatred and my heartache.
But let’s start with how the Grandslayers declared Scythe Curie as the High Blade of MidAmerica because they unanimously voted that Citra was right and that Goddard wasn’t a fully ordained scythe, only his head was. I was LIVING for it because if there’s anyone who is honorable it’s Scythe Curie through and through and she deserved that position more than a lethal killer!
Goddard went through such lengths to try to get the Grandslayer on his side and even went as far as to threaten Xenocrates again. Goddard claimed that he wouldn’t tell the Grandslayers that Rowan—-Scythe Lucifer—–visited him and that he didn’t catch him during all this time, but Goddard did. Goddard brought Rowan to Endura to bring towards the Grandslayers as leverage for them to vote in his favor. But bless Scythe Rand who let him escape in the middle of the night because she was like if she can’t have what she wants (Tyger), Goddard shouldn’t have what he wants (Rowan).
Win-win situation to me.
When Scythe Rand lets Rowan escape, she’s like, “find a way off the island,” because she knows, she knows, what’s going to happen win or lose and she KNOWS Rowan shouldn’t be there and should save himself.
So Scythe Curie won and everything escalated or should I say fell to pieces!
First, there’s the elevator and the malfunctions with everything. Then there was the water and how Endura was slowly sinking down because of a busted pipe of something and the structures started to fill with water and nothing can pump it out. The whole tech team was trying to fix everything but slowly but surely the island started to submerge in water, causing more panic. Then there’s the thing with all the fish and the shark nannites in the water that made a big ring or circle around the middle of the island where the Grandslayers were, and where they were carrying on business as usual with different trials. Tech teams think they’ve alerted the Grandslayers, but because there’s always alerts, the alerts have been turned off, so when the one time there’s actually something serious going on, they don’t know.
And then the people of Endura are drowning and the people in the buoyancy control rooms were giving up hope and there like the islands going to sink in 14 minutes and the head of the tech people was like go home to your family and save yourself while you can. So most people left while one guy stayed, and it reminded me of that scene in Jurassic World (the newer one with Chris Pratt) with the end and how that one tech guy stayed and I was like NOOOO!
Then the bridges started to collapse and then there was that one guy who was knocking on the door to the Grandslayer hall and Grandslayer Frida heard a knocking noise but thought it was construction and I was like, HONEY GIRL IT”S NOT CONSTRUCTION! ANSWER THE DARN DOOR!!!! Eventually, the guy gets through and they get notified that they’re sinking. The Grandslayers tried to escape, but it’s too late because the bridges have collapsed and there’s nowhere for them to go so they’re all stuck in the Grandslayer Hall, trying not to panic and find a way out. The hall has a clear dome for a roof, so obviously since things are breaking, the dome wasn’t intact.
Then the middle island kept sinking and sinking and sinking and the water was coming up and the Grandslayers were going down if they didn’t find a way out.
And do you know who swooped in like the savior?!!!
D-U-M-B GODDDARD!!!!!!!!!! 😡
MY GOSH!!!!!
I liked how in one scene, Citra and Rowan are concerned if the Grandslayers were still on the middle island because they know it’s sinking and then they see a helicopter and they were like, “they’re fine, rescues coming for them”.
Little did they know 😰.
Little did they FREAKING know . . .
That it was a psycho maniac with too much power and no heart. Heck, Goddard has no heart because his burned in the fire along with the other 93% of his body!
At first, I was like, oh, this was his plan. This was why there was the tech guys who came out of their house in Texas. Granted, I knew the tech guys were there to restore his body and then I picked up on how maybe they were also hired to cause havoc in Endura and mess with their technology. Gosh. What a clever, manipulative man. Darn.
I was like, he’s going to save all of them so he looks like the savior almighty in their eyes and that way they will reinstate him as High Blade because, gosh, he saved their lives, why wouldn’t they? I think that would have been a kinder plan to go with because at least he didn’t viscously murder them in cold blood. But NO!
HE SAID BYE BYE BYE GRANDSLAYER!!!! He said ARRIVEDERCI suckers 😠!
He was teasing them! And mocking them and he held out his hand to Scythe Frida because they created this human chain on each other’s shoulders and then you know what he does!?
He retracted his hand in the RUDEST psych of all time—–I mean like when you try to psych like you try to high five someone and they leave you hanging psych. But in this case he left them to DIE!!!!
I couldn’t handle the RAGE that came over me. The utter AUDACITY of this man. I have never been more sick of an antagonist in my book life.
UGGGHH! And don’t get me started on the sick twisted way he just watched them die and sink in their own helplessness. Like you are a petty 7% human being. If I was Scythe Rand I would have pushed him off that plane. Then again he would have been revived but GOSH, he needed to drown 😾
But let me take a heartfelt minute to pause for Scythe Xenocrates who drowned himself like he did all those months ago when Scythe Goddard made him jump into his pool at that party he had. He jumped then because Goddard had his illegitimate daughter over him, but Xenocrates chose to take the plunge this time because he didn’t want to die at Goddard’s hand again, but by his own choice and free will. So he took his life for himself to be free.
And let me tell you the tears came down for him!!! They really did.
If there’s one character I feel like is underrated in this series but was such a good person deep down, it was Xenocrates. I’m happy he passed by his own terms and that it brought him peace.
Let me take a breath before we get into what Citra and Rowan are doing.
*Breath*
Breathe with me. You’re going to need it.
So everything’s morbid and sad. The Grandslayers were being devoured by the sharks, Goddard was making his grand escape, and Endura was going to become another Atlantis.
And Scythe Curie, Citra, and Rowan tried to find a way off the island. Other people were trying to fly off the island, so the planes crowded and there were no other clear ways off the island. Then one scythe recognized Rowan as Scythe Lucifer and blamed him for sinking the island. Gosh! I feel like Rowan’s going to get the brunt of the blame in the next book for being the one who sunk Endura and killed the Grandslayer’s when he did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I also feel like he’s going to have a massive target on his back. But we’ll worry about that later.
People were mad at Rowan, so Citra and Scythe Curie ran with him to the Museum of Scythedom where they toured earlier. That’s when Scythe Curie took to the vault of relics and futures and she told Rowan and Citra to go look for something because she claimed that there’s a secret passageway to get off the island there. And you know what Scythe Curie does!?
She turned around and locked them in the room!
I was like, now why in the world would she do such a thing?! And Citra’s thinking the same things as me and was like she’s betrayed us and I was like NO WAY IN LIVING HECK WOULD Scythe Curie betray them. I would not believe it!
Then Rowan’s like they were locked in a vault that would sink to the bottom of the ocean where it would be cold and if someone happened to find them later on, they could be revived because of their nanites. Wow, those nanietes must be powerful! And I was like, oooooh! That makes lots more sense. But at the same time, I was like Scythe Curie didn’t join them. She didn’t betray them. She SAVED them. She knew that Citra and Rowan were the future and if there was anyone who was going to change the world for the better, it would be them.
And I had so much more respect for Scythe Curie. After locking them in the fault she went out to the panicked people and started gleaning them. At first I was confused. Like was she on a rampage? Was the Grand Dame of Death making a reappearance? But no!
Always honorable that Scythe Curie!
She was gleaning people who couldn’t get a flight off the island because they were all going to sink anyway so she wanted to bring them peace and a quick, easy, and honorable death rather than suffering through sinking at the hands of a man’s pettiness and rage for not ruling the world. And people started to see what she was doing and were lining up for her to glean them because she was “saving them.” And my heart broke that these people felt so helpless and hopeless that they would get gleaned——that they would want to be gleaned. But in a way, I could see how that was the more desirable way to go than sinking and succumbing to everything.
Other Scythes joined in with Scythe Curie in what she was doing. Then at the end of everything, the Scythes started to self glean themselves. And I was already shaking my head knowing in my heart what Scythe Curie was going to do.
Before she did it, she kind of reflected on her life and all the things she regretted and was proud of and that she wished she could be there when Citra was revived and see what the world would become.
Then she took that dagger and she plunged it into her own heart and fell to the ground. And she was like the blade hurt less than she thought it was and she smiled. She SMILED. My honorable woman was at peace and was “very, very, good” (pg. 499).
I was NOT Very very good 😰.
NOPE. Not fine whatsoever.
So Rowan and Citra sink as everything sinks and goes to the bottom of the ocean. And let me tell you, I had to do a double take and reread what they were doing as they sunk to the ocean.
“In these terminal minutes of their current lives, it was just the two of them, finally, finally giving into the ultimate act of completion. The binary at last becoming the one.”
(pg. 500)
That’s a little innuendo for you 😏.
But I liked how it was so subtle in how they were feeling their feelings and the love they had for each other and tried to hide. It was perfect. Because if they were going to freeze to death for years, then might as well go out with a bang—–no pun intended.
The chapter after the sinking and the tragedy was sooooooooo heartbreakingly powerful and raw. I was screaming in agony and pain right there with the Thunderhead because GOSH!
Everything was rising on full blast as a voice for the Thunderheads anguish at what happened and here the Tonsits were like it’s the Great Resonance. I rolled my eyes because who would have thought the Tonists would be right about something. But everyone knew something had changed that day because it was so earth shattering loud, that something had to have happened. And no one knew that Scythe Curie was supposed to High Blade, so we know Goddard’s going to stake some claim to that. I don’t even want to think about what’s going to happen now that there are no Grandslayers and there is no High Blade. I shudder at the utter chaos that I can imagine the world to be next in the book. Imagine if everyone were scythes in the next book and the world was a world where people just gleaned each other for fun.
In wake of the Thunderhead’s mourning of anguish and pain it marked all people as unsavory as a big, this is a YOU problem, and not a Me problem and I’m fed up with your issues so deal with it yourself 🤪. Well, that’s how I saw it. I could understand if the Thunderhead was sassy and that was its thought process. But it marked everyone as unsavory because it wanted to distance itself from the people to deal with its own power and the consequences of its actions; it doesn’t want to tell them what to do because what’s done is done and they have to learn to grow by themselves while it continues to mourn.
Everyone was marked unsavory except Greyson Tolliver.
Greyson was the unsavory Slayd Bridger and who would cry to the Thunderhead to talk to him and to ask what he did wrong and during Greyson’s phase of being an unsavory, Greyson Tolliver died to the Thunderhead’s memories. So it was a big thing he was back and that he was the only one in the graces of the Thunderhead.
The book ended with Greyson being reunited with his long lost love: the Thunderhead and it said we needed to talk.
Talk about what?!
I want to know, sis!
Spill that TEA!
But I guess, we’re not knowing until the next book, which can’t come out soon enough!
Like you can’t just have all these deaths and the sinking of Rowan and Citra, Goddard running (or should I say flying) away like an evil villain, and everyone unsavory and leave me hanging!
What a literal cliffhanger 🙈.
I bet that the Thunderhead is going to tell Greyson how to find Rowan and Citra so that he can revive them and save the horrible world that we know will ensure in the hands of Goddard. But I read the synopsis of Toll and it takes place three years after they sink. THREE YEARS! You know how much destruction Goddard could do in THREEE YEARS! I’m surprised there’s even a world three years later. Did it really take Greyson three years to find them?! I bet he is the one to find them. Like we HAVE to find them and take this gosh forsaken horrible, detestable, atrocious, and all the vile adjectives in the world Goddard.
And in the meantime, I’ve never touched on Scythe Faraday and what he was up to. But he’s been trying to find the Land of Nod, which was the original island or place that the early original scythes went to. It’s kind of like the Scythe relic land where the founding fathers met in secret. No one knew where this island was, but Scythe Faraday wanted to find it. So he went to Washington DC to the Library of Congress to read all the old books and look at the maps where he meets the librarian Murian who used to be a scythe apprentice . But they form a working, respectful kind of relationship where they find the island in the Marshall Islands. The Thunderhead never knew where these islands were or where the founding father scythes met because these islands were a blindspot to it until now when Murina and Faraday discover the Land of Nod location.
Before they leave for the Land of Nod, they meet with Citra and Scythe Curie to tell them where they will be going. Can we talk about how Faraday and Curie deserve to be together? They deserved better. And can you imagine him going to the Land of Nod and then coming back and realizing the world is poop and that the love of his life gleaned herself and that his two apprentices are “dead.” Gosh, the pain. I feel bad. I think that Scythe Faraday is going to be Grandslayer or High Blade or something magnificent one day when we take down Goddard because he’s deserving of an honorable title.
Wait, if Rowan and Citra had a baby one day, wouldn’t it be cute if they named her Curie for Scythe Curie! Gosh, sorry that’s soooo off topic but just popped into my mind.
But I want to know more about what’s on this Land of Nod and what Scythe Faraday finds and what he finds when he comes back. I want to know if Citra and Rowan come back to life and how they change the world and take down Goddard. I want to see Scythe Rand go to the good side because she has a heart in there. I want to see maybe Xenocrates daughter become a scythe in her father’s place/name or Murina get reinstated as a scythe. I want to see more inside the Thunderheads feelings and thoughts. I want to just KNOW what’s going on!!!
What do you think is happening in the Sycthedom or world? What are you looking forward to in the next book? Any theories? What was your least or most favorite part of the book? Let me know below in the comments 💕
Un-Toll next time,
As always, with love,
Rating
5 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: Love, love, love the characters in getting to see a stronger and darker side of them. From the first book, you can really see how each of the main characters have grown and how they are still trying to figure out who they are. I don’t have a love for Goddard, because Duh! But he is an interesting character, I’ll give him that.
Plot: These books just keep getting better and better. I love the way that the whole book just flows together and progressively keeps you intrigued.
Writing: Neal Shusterman knows how to write a book that brings you so much anguish, heartbreak, and anger all in one. It’s always good writing if you can keep your readers on their toes, in flames, and crying all in one go.
Action: Gosh, don’t even get me started on all the things that happened action wise.
Romance: I loved that Rowan and Citra finally give into their feelings at the end. Even though there’s not the most romance in this book, I like how we get to see their relationship progress and how they still care for each other. To me, the fact that they still chose each other after the apprenticeship made me appreciate their love story more.