Scythe

Neal Shusterman’s 2016 YA science fiction novel Scythe tells the story of two teenagers in the dystopian future who live in a world where death has been defeated. Weighty existential and philosophical questions abound in this first entry of the Arc of the Scythe Series, which has been highly praised for its insight and readability. The second book, Thunderhead, was released in 2018, and 2019’s The Toll completed the trilogy. This first installment explores themes of The Value of Mortality, The Necessity of Sacrifice, The Value of Compassion, and Human Fallibility and Weakness.

Content Warning: Both the novel and this guide contain references to suicide, abuse, and violent death.

Plot Summary

In the year 2042, the world’s artificial intelligences become sentient and form an omniscient network known as the Thunderhead. Because the Thunderhead has access to all that can be known, it quickly learns how to keep humans alive forever. The Thunderhead is put in charge of the government and rules benevolently and objectively. However, the problem of overpopulation and finite resources persists, so population growth is maintained by a group of people known as scythes. Scythes are required to “glean”—i.