I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Short and Sweet Review

Humanity has conquered hunger, disease, and even death. Now Scythes are the only ones in the world who can end someone’s life to keep the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen by Scythe Faraday to be his apprentices and learn all about becoming a Scythe.

Citra and Rowan were normal teens until they were chosen by Scythe Faraday to become his apprentices. Neither one of them wants the job but they don’t really have a choice. Citra and Rowan join Faraday on his gleanings and learn what it means to be a scythe. We see that each scythe has different methods for what they do. When Citra and Rowan go to a scythe conference the other scythes notice a friendship between them which isn’t ideal. Now Citra and Rowan are pitted against each other and only one of them can win the job and the other will lose their life.

This book was amazing! There was so much going on, but in a good way. I liked seeing how different scythes operate and how sometimes the gleanings did take a toll on them, we get to see more of their thoughts with their journal entries. We see Citra and Rowan taken under the wing of other scythes and it was interesting to see what they learned and it was kind of sad that they were separated from each other. It’s such a fascinating world that Shusterman has created, it made me want to be a scythe. I loved the little mystery and seeing how everything played out. The characters are great and I loved how they never lost who they truly were. I can’t wait to read the other two books in this series!