Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I will try to write this review without any spoilers. I really enjoyed this book, the second in the Arc of the Scythe series, The Thunderhead. It picks up about one year after the first book ended. I felt like the first book was more focused on how the Scythes interacted with civilians and gleaned (killed) to curb population growth since death and illness had been conquered on Earth. The second book was more focused on political intrigue, the inner workings of the Scythedom as well as a closer look at the computer system, The Thunderhead, that managed, cared for and protected civilians, but is separate and apart from the Scythe world.
The continued world building in this book is fascinating. One thing the author does in a lot of his series is included journal entries or letters between chapters. In the first book, they were the entries of Scythes, but this time, it was primarily entries from the Thunderhead, itself. The Thunderhead was pretty quiet in the first book, so this was really fascinating. Also, we are introduced to Greyson Tolliver, who also gives more insight into the Thunderhead as well.
The book moves pretty fast and was pretty plot driven. I enjoyed all of the new settings and how they fit in and interacted with the rest of the world. And some of the plot twists I did not see coming.

I don’t remember there being any profanity in this series. There really wasn’t much sexual content in the book either, other than one person ogling another person. There is one scene where a character throws themselves at another character in a very vulnerable way, but there isn’t anything graphic. But the violence is pretty substantial. The books are, after all, about a group of people who kill people to help curb the population growth. So, keep that in mind.

Even though the premise is morbid, I still recommend the series. And the second book is even better than the first. I am looking forward to the third book in the series!
1