Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

(Spoilers for Scythe)

Goodreads 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?

My rating: 4 stars.

(spoilers for Thunderhead)

Content warnings: PG-13. Some mild swearing, two different couples having implied sex, one of them more than once, "pleasure houses," characters die bloodlessly, some die repeatedly, a decapitated head is attached to another body, bodies are burned, quasi suicide without the actual consequences. 

Thoughts: I find it interesting that a book series about people who kill other people can have such depth on themes like the value of a human life, and the gravity of the end of a life. It's what I appreciate most about these books.

On that note, Rowan's whole beginning was tricky. On the one hand, I wanted to root for him. On the other there feels like there should have been a better way to do it. But it didn't feel like the book was saying he was exactly right, just presenting his actions as a natural conclusion from where he had come from. And that was nice, leaving the reader to still wrestle with the moral judgement of the character for themselves.

There were some things that actually caught me off guard, like what happened to Tyger/the resurrection of Goddard. It's rare that a book can surprise me quite that much, so props to Shusterman for that.

Then again there were a few content things that didn't exactly need to happen... It wasn't fully shown "on screen" but it was enough to be uncomfortable at the very least, and something to be aware of.

Although I think the book handles its subject matter well, the plain fact that the world is what it is in the first place can be a little uncomfortable. While the value and impact of life and its loss do effect the characters, and in a thought provoking difference of ways, the fact that the world sees it as necessary to unnaturally kill people at all isn't quite an idea I appreciate very much. While the book begs over population and a bare vestige of what humanity was for the scythes to exist, in the end reading about people learning and seeing it as their duty to kill others isn't something I would normally get behind.

But on the flip side, it can use that as a vehicle for larger discussions on life, its worth, and even purpose. It's not for everyone, but if you're willing to think deeply about the themes, it is an exciting way to spark those thoughts.