Thunderhead

 This review will be about Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman. It is the second book of the Arc of a Scythe series, published on January 9, 2018. This series is a Young Adult Dystopian Fantasy genre, based off of Goodreads.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A little about the book:

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:

The ending of Scythe left me reeling and I couldn’t wait to get Thunderhead next. When I first started reading Thunderhead, I felt like the transition was flawless from the first book. Neal kept up the momentum and suspense perfectly! I had so many questions after the first book that ended up getting answered but after finishing this one, I have even more. I can’t wait for the next one, The Toll. 

The writing style and pace of the first book matches with this one which is really nice. There's still a lot of fight scenes in this book but it is full of action, political , scheming, adventure, and more world building, point of views  and a new main character! Let's dive into that!

The main characters Scythe Citra, now Junior Scythe Anatasia, and Rowan, now Scythe Lucifer, continue to try to change the corrupted members in the Scythedom but in different ways. Scythe Anatasia is trying to change it from within while Rowan has gone rogue and has taken it upon himself to take down corrupt scythes across the entire continent. If you haven’t read the first book, when you graduate from being an apprentice scythe, they become Junior Scythe ,you get a ring and you get to choose a scythe name. Citra got to choose her meanwhile people gave Rowan that name, makes me wonder what Rowan would have chosen. 

With the help of her new mentor Scythe Curie, one of the things Scythe Anatasia does to change the Scythedom,  is by the way she gleans. She lets the people she has to glean choose how they die and they have a certain amount of time until it comes. She’s also become a head figure for those who are younger than her and are trying to become scythes. She’s having a difficult time though, being threatened and undermined by the “new order” scythes who still follow Scythe Goddard.

Tracking down corrupt scythes and making sure Scythe Anatasia is safe was Rowan’s plan but that’s hard to do when Scythe Goddard’s under scythes are after you. I was really hoping his luck would be better in this book, he’s been through a lot in the first one. Here’s to hoping he gets a break in the next book!

I really loved that Scythe Faraday’s point of view was added to the book. I really enjoyed being able to see his point of view of all that’s happening and how he’s contributing. There were a few new interesting things that were added besides Scythe Faraday’s point of view though. The second new point of view, Greyson Tolliver, a regular young man whose loyalties lie with the Thunderhead, who basically raised him. So when he has to risk his life to do what the Thunderhead cannot do, so it asks, he doesn’t question it. The Third new point of view, Scythe Goddard. I will admit, I still enjoy reading his point of views but I hate him. Which means Shusterman is doing a wonderful job!

Now, in the first book the main characters were Citra and Rowan, but I couldn’t help but feel like Thunderhead was the main character in this one. In the beginning, it is a bit slow with introducing the Thunderhead as you're learning about it, how it operates, and how it even has favorite people. There were even some journal entries from the Thunderhead which in the first book, it was scythe journal entries. I thoroughly enjoyed it as it adds more depth to the character “Thunderhead”. 

Intriguing as it is, we got to learn about the Tonist cult and the “unsavories”, which added something different than just the scythedom and it gave more life to them instead of being in the background like they were in the first book. 

This series will stick with me forever, Neal certainly made a one of a kind masterpiece that will be hard to ever find another of. Normally, I don’t like having multiple points of views while reading a book because sometimes I just don’t care for certain characters, but reading this series so far has made me invested in these characters. I wish this would be a longer series or the same world series, because once I finish this I will miss it! 

If you enjoy fantasy/dystopian, adventure, world building, little to no romance, political intrigue, and saving the world, I highly recommend reading this book/series as it has been phenomenal for me!