Hello Lovelies,
Ready for another review? I am super excited to be reviewing the second installment in the Arc of a Scythe series Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman! The first book completely captivated me and I am happy to say this second book did not disappoint! I hope you enjoy the review!
Summary
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?
My Thoughts
Holy Forking Bullshirt.
Thunderhead was an amazing second book to Scythe by Neal Shusterman. It followed Scythe Anastasia (Citra) through her first year as a full-blown scythe under the teachings of Scythe Curie. It also shows us what happened to our favorite rejected apprentice Rowan who has taken up the mantle of Scythe Lucifer. This book was very slow at some parts but I kept reading because of Shusterman’s amazing writing and ability to hook me in and keep me going. I was even excited about the chapters detailing the journey of Greyson Tolliver, a new character introduced.
One thing I was very confused about was the whole “Land of Nod” storyline and how that plays into the entire book. Farraday was so focused on it and I didn’t really understand the significance of it apart from the fact that no one knew if it was real or fiction.
Besides that, the book was amazing and I was breathless at the end watching the events unfold. I cannot wait for The Toll to come out!
Rating
Thanks, lovely humans!
XOX Shelby Grace
2 Comments
The land of nod is a place the Thunderhead knows nothing about. It was a place no one even thought existed- of fairy tales. Faraday went there to try and get answers to stop Goddard. There weren’t supposed to be cameras there (or at least that was the assumption) However, they were mistaken.. The Thunderhead saw them and in seeing them, found out that they had discovered a large group of islands hidden from him since his inception. The Thunderhead is supposed to be all knowing in order to guide humanity to its best possible place (even though he can’t actually make anyone do anything, but only nudge them so to speak).
It was his first feeling of betrayal. Between that and the meltdown of the sythedom the thunderhead had come to the conclusion that he had let it go too long without humanity knowing consequences (there is no natural death, the basic income is in place etc). Power has been abused, he has been left without knowledge (or so he now knows) and so now humanity must learn consequence.
And so Thunderhead ends with it finding Grayson after everything the Thunderhead had put Greyson/Slayd through and finally speaking to him and we now know that Toll picks up years later having abandoned humanity (speaking to NOONE but Greyson).
However, to your point, that is ALL we know about the Land of Nod and the islands that Faraday and his assistant found. Because the last we hear from them is the chapter where they find the knowledge of the islands and suddenly realize the Thunderhead has observed them doing so, the chapter ending with Faraday saying- we’ve made a terrible mistake. We don’t hear from them again the rest of the book. So our knowledge is really of how the Thunderhead feels about what he observed more than what the purpose is of the Land Of Nod and the islands that were discovered.
Not sure that, that helps?
Thank you! This was extremely helpful!