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Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe, #2)

Neal Shusterman

Start date: May 1, 2024

Finish date: May 31, 2024

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Mar 06, 2020 Colleen Scidmore rated it it was amazing

4.5 Stars

***Spoiler Warning for those who have not read Scythe***

Thunderhead is the second book in Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe Trilogy. I really enjoyed the first book, Scythe, but I have to say I enjoyed Thunderhead even more. Which surprises me, because most of the time the first book in a series is almost always the best and the following books tend to fall a little flat. At least in my experience.

Arc of a Scythe’s world takes place in the future at least 100 years out maybe more, wher 4.5 Stars

***Spoiler Warning for those who have not read Scythe***

Thunderhead is the second book in Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe Trilogy. I really enjoyed the first book, Scythe, but I have to say I enjoyed Thunderhead even more. Which surprises me, because most of the time the first book in a series is almost always the best and the following books tend to fall a little flat. At least in my experience.

Arc of a Scythe’s world takes place in the future at least 100 years out maybe more, where there is no more death as we know it. The days of mortal death are gone. There is no more disease, no more poverty, no more murder or suicide. If someone dies they are able to be revived. They may be unconscious for several days though, depending on the extent of their injuries. Everyone has what is called pain nanites in which opioids are distributed automatically into your blood stream when you are injured to make sure your pain is controlled and if the injury isn’t to great you can even heal on your own without the assistance of a revival center. But you only get one free revival after that you are billed. Scythes were introduced in the first book as a necessity because the world would become overpopulated and would not be able to sustain life. So Scythes are given a quota and are asked to end people’s life “glean” in whichever manner they choose as long as their victims were not chosen with prejudice or malice. The Scythes have their own council that governs them and the rest of the public has The Thunderhead that governs them, takes care of them, totally and completely with no other help except for trained and appointed Nimbus Agents that do The Thunders bidding. Because The Thunderhead is not a physical form, it is basically an all knowing type of Computer Cloud System that holds all of mankind’s history and humans have turned over leadership to The Thunderhead for balance. And it can communicate with anyone in the world at the same time. Think of the computer system in the movie Her, but the system is your government as well as a secondary social program because it it guides people as well. The Thunderhead basically watches over everyone, makes sure major rules or laws are not broken and gives advice to those who ask. It’s sends out officers when needed and revives the deadish, those who have died but have not been burned or don’t have important pieces missing are able to be brought back to life. Only a scythe can end someone’s existence legally. Also Scythes and The Thunderhead are not allowed to communicate. Their 2 separate governments don’t interfere with each other. If there is a need to communicate they need to bring in a Nimbus Agent to be their go between because they can’t speak directly to each other.

Thunderhead starts out with Rowan now a vigilante who has self proclaimed himself as Scythe Lucifer. Rowan (or Scythe Lucifer) is gleaning any Scythe who follows Goddard, Well not any Scythe, he does have to see that they have no redeemable qualities as well, and instead of gleaning with honor and compassion are ending victims for fun and prejudice. Some of those Scythes are even gleaning for bribes!
Scythe Anastasia (aka Citra) & Scythe Curie are still working together and she is under her tutelage. Citra has made an honorable Scythe and even shaken things up where the New Order feels threatened by the junior scythe herself! Because of that smeone in The New Order has decided that Scythe Anastasia and Scythe Curie must be ended so they may keep gaining power and The Old Guard will fall. But the Thunderhead, who sees all but is unable to help because it’s against the law for him (it, whatever) to get involved with Scythe matters, has one of his charges, who is on the fast track to becoming a Nimbus Agent, try and stop the assassination attempts in a covert mission, and he also had to convey this with out telling him directly and just left certain clues for him to pick up on. Because again it is illegal for the Thunderhead to have any dealings in Scythe matters. And to this he had to turn Greyson into an Unsavory. A person who operates outside the law and can’t even speak directly to the Thunderhead. This destroys Greysons whole future of becoming a Nimbus Agent and takes him down a scary and dangerous path that Greyson really struggles with whether the demise of his whole life is worth saving the 2 Scythes or if it is even possible to even save them.

My favorite characters are back, Rowan, Citra, and Scythe Curie. And if you finished Scythe another favorite is back that I will not name. This book has me by the seat of my pants for the most part because you weren’t quite sure if The New Order (the Bad Guys) or The Old Guard (the Good Guys) would prevail. Especially when there were some serious surprises I didn’t see coming. Somethings I did, like I knew Tiger was going to be used to get back at Rowan and I knew part of what was intended for him. But there was no way I could know the extent of it like the way he brought about another resurrection. But I knew that person would be back. It was such a weird ugly turn and even though Tiger isn’t a deep guy it was heart wrenching. And listening to The Thunderhead take all this in and know what was going on and not able to do anything to stop it was beyond frustrating! Especially when he turned his back on Poor Grayson after everything he had done for The Thunderhead and how much he really seemed to love him, almost like a child loves a parent.
It was nice that the reader got to know The Thunderhead and his perspective of things. He was very frustrated when he witnessed human error or evil doings and he couldn’t always get involved. He would try to work around the laws that bound him if it would help mankind, if at all possible. He almost felt like a real person at times.

My favorite books are generally not heavy on Dystopia or Science Fiction, but The Thunderhead was so heart poundiogly good that I didn’t have any issues with the genre. Neal Shusterman put my mind through an emotional workout, where I had all these feelings while listening to it. Exhilaration, Anger, Frustration, Happiness, Heartbreak, some more Happiness and a lot of times feeling scared for the characters I have grown to love.
And then when I got to the very last part he went and ramped it up my heart some more and put it on overload leaving me with so many questions!
Mr. Shusterman you sure know how to write one heck of a fantastic book! I absolutely can’t wait to immerse myself into The Toll and see what the hell happens next. ...more

43 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2018 Jenn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, 5-star-reads, books-i-own, dystopian, sci-fi, nail-biter, read-in-2018

It's funny because as I was reading this I thought, wow this is still amazing but not as intense as the first one - then that ending happened. WHAT THE HELL SHUSTERMAN?? HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO US???

description

I'm calm. I'm calm. I promise.

*deep breath*

Slight spoilers from book 1 ahead - you have been warned.

Thunderhead takes everything from the first novel and bumps it up to an 11 on the epic scale. With Rowan on the run from the Scythedom, he has decided to take matters into his own hand on how unruly S ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jan 14, 2018 Megan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: cutthroat-bookclub, ammp-fairytale

4.5 Stars

Full review to come!

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 03, 2018 Shelley rated it it was amazing

OMG! And a wow!

In this installment of the Scythe series we catch up with Rowan and Anastasia where we left them in the last book. Both of them have moved on and become sythes though Rowan is more of a rogue, they both have their own part to play as the world around them unfolds. There is a new character named Grayson who at first appears like the average joe but he will make a deep impact on the plot of this book. The reader also gets a more indepth look at the Thunderhead which controls everyt ...more

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Jun 06, 2019 Marie (UK) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-reading-challenge

The second in the series, every bit as good as the first. `Written as both a narrative and in the thoughts of "Thunderhead" Rowan having failed to become a scythe is instead a scythe renegade wreaking his own form of Justice in an attempt to change the Scythedom. However he is not the only one and the action comes thick and fast. Schusterman writes a narrative that takes the reader along with it ...more

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Mar 15, 2021 Duygu rated it it was ok

Shelves: popsugar-2021, aty-2021

I like my books to have real endings and not cliffhangers. I know this is a trilogy but Scythe was so beautifully executed and then we have this one...

There were so many things going on at once, which kind of got meshed together at the end but at what cost?

Unless you read The Toll, you won’t feel satisfied. Perhaps it was done on purpose, but still, sometimes you want to finish a book and have at least a sense of mini-closure and not everything up in the air at the end.

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