Review: Thunderhead (N. Shusterman)
WOW. This book blew me away. I started it today only intending to read half of it (at most), but now here I am and I've finished the entire thing. And done none of what I actually needed to do, but whatever. It was 100% worth it.
Thunderhead takes up the story of Citra (who is now Scythe Anastasia) and Rowan (now "Scythe" Lucifer), as they both struggle to adapt to their respective new worlds while simultaneously witnessing the rising of the "new order" of scythes, who see the late Scythe Goddard as a martyr for their cause. Rowan hunts the rogue and corrupt scythes, and Citra attempts to glean with compassion and uphold what it means to truly be a scythe. But not everyone is happy with the changes being brought upon the system, and will go to great lengths to ensure that the "new order" comes out on top...
This book was a really different take than the first one, since we got to peek inside the mind of the Thunderhead in this one, where we didn't really get to before. Which was kind of weird, because the Thunderhead sounds like a human, but it's also super obvious from the tone of voice and detachment that while the Thunderhead may sound human, it isn't. And there is a ton of suspense created by introducing the Thunderhead as a character, because most novels and movies have conditioned us to associate AI with evil. Is the Thunderhead evil? Will it turn evil? There are a ton of questions brought up by its introduction.
I love Citra and Rowan, and the best part is that they returned (as awesome as ever) with more characters! Some of them were familiar faces (Scythe Curie), some of them were new (Greyson), but they all had one thing in common: they were either awesome (and I loved them), or they were spectacularly evil (and I hated their guts). There were no characters where I questioned why they were even in the book (well, there was one but then their presence got explained and IT ALL MADE SENSE), I enjoyed reading all of their chapters, it was just overall a good time.
I think I almost liked this book BETTER than the first one (which is super rare with me, I generally like first books and then am just disappointed by all the rest) because there was less romantic tension (I don't like romance. Can you tell?) and we got a whole new look at the world that Citra and Rowan are living in. Having this fully-fleshed out picture with new characters, a clearer setting, it just made it so much easier to read, enjoy the book, and not have all of the questions that I need answered. (But to give you an idea of how much I love this series... I reread the first one in December and STILL remembered all of the names and people (I have the memory of a toothpick), and the only people I didn't remember it turned out they were new so it didn't matter!)
I love this series. I love this book. And I immediately added it to my cart the second I was finished. Which is rare for me (books are expensive!)
5/5 Stars