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A dystopian young adult novel, Scythe tweaks conventions of the genre while pondering larger questions about humankind and social organization. The novel is set in what should ostensibly be a utopia, a perfect world where people no longer die and where a wise artificial intelligence system rules in place of fallible humans. As such, life here sounds pleasant at first, but the novel subverts this assumption by repeatedly depicting how flawed this world truly is. The characters may lead relatively secure lives, but they have sacrificed something inherent to the human experience and become dangerously complacent. Teenagers Citra and Rowan illustrate the real-world implications of life in this world early in the story as both undergo the uniquely frightening experience of interacting with Faraday, who is empowered as a scythe to kill them. Though he is not targeting them, this experience shows that they are not truly safe from the terror of death. Rowan’s circumstances further illustrate how flawed this perfect society is. He may have all the material comforts he could want, but he keenly feels the absence of any real emotional connection with his family. Thus, under the surface of this supposed perfection lies considerable trauma and discontent.
Scythe is an epistolary novel as well as a dystopian one, and the two elements reinforce each other. Epistolary novels rely on documents to tell a story instead of, or alongside, a more conventional narrative. Though the book follows a narrative storyline, journal entries from various scythes and scythe apprentices are integrated throughout. As the story of Citra and Rowan’s apprenticeship under Faraday unfolds, Curie’s journal entries reveal essential features of the novel’s world long before Curie takes on a significant role in the plot. This epistolary frame greatly enhances the worldbuilding by introducing much of the worldview that underpins this society while also ensuring that the main narrative about Citra and Rowan does not get bogged down in extensive exposition. Because Curie is far older, she provides important context about the history of the world that the teenage protagonists take for granted, though they gradually become more aware of these issues over time. Citra and Rowan are both shocked to learn that bad scythes exist, but the inclusion of journal entries from the sadistic Goddard illustrates how bad some scythes can be.
The central conflict at the heart of Scythe is the clash between old-guard scythes like Curie and Faraday, who respect the people they glean, and the terrifying new-order scythes like Goddard, who treats his victims with complete contempt. These two factions collide at the first Conclave when Rowan’s well-meaning gesture of intentionally failing his apprentice test provides Goddard’s faction with the perfect opportunity to strike at Faraday. Here, Goddard proposes that the winner of the apprentice contest between Citra and Rowan must glean the loser. As the High Blade of the Conclave, Xenocrates’ acceptance of the proposal further illustrates the troubling shift in Scythedom, showing that Goddard’s brutality has reached its highest levels of command. In the aftermath of the disastrous Conclave, Citra and Rowan’s world is shattered once again when Faraday seemingly gleans himself in a failed bid to save his apprentices. Thus, the two apprentices, who could have been friends in other circumstances, find themselves shoved onto opposing sides of the war within Scythedom when they are placed under the tutelage of the legendary traditional scythe, Curie, and the notorious revolutionary, Goddard.
Though Goddard is indisputably the novel’s antagonist, with the key conflict of the story revolving around his efforts to reform Scythedom for his own nefarious purposes, the internal contradictions of Scythedom are also their own source of conflict throughout the novel. Though being a scythe is considered a great honor since it spares one from the threat of gleaning, the reality of the work is burdensome and morally fraught. Rowan’s horrifying experiences as Goddard’s apprentice further drive this point home. In his outrage at Goddard’s brutal philosophy and violent methods, Rowan wonders why humanity accepts and even celebrates Goddard’s actions, which would have been seen as criminal and murderous in the mortal age. He is also horrified to realize that despite his hatred for Goddard, he does agree with some of his teachings and can understand how killing might feel pleasurable. Faraday had previously warned him that being a good scythe means neither enjoying killing nor succumbing to numbness. Rowan is conflicted as he tries to work through the seemingly impossible choice of following Goddard and becoming a sadistic murderer or following Faraday and living in a persistent state of trauma.
While the messiness of human nature may be a weakness, it is also its greatest strength, and characters discount it to their peril. It is Citra’s innately human willfulness and ingenuity that allows her to investigate Faraday’s death, escape Xenocrates’ attempts to frame her for murder, discover he had faked his gleaning, and eventually resume training under Curie. Indeed, the Thunderhead even admits to her that its levelheaded neutrality is not a true replacement for humanity, for it too is limited by its inability to learn from mistakes. It would never be as reckless or misguided as Citra, but it would also never be able to demonstrate the imagination and stubborn courage that she repeatedly displays. Nevertheless, this society’s skepticism about human limitation is not entirely misplaced. Even the founders of Scythedom worried whether they were doing enough to prevent scythes from succumbing to their darker impulses, and Goddard’s bloodthirstiness proves they were not wrong. Ironically, in his arrogant dismissal of humanity, Goddard completely overlooks Rowan’s very human potential to revolt against his teachings, which turns out to be a fatal mistake as Rowan eventually snaps and kills Goddard.
The importance of preserving one’s humanity in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances in a world devised to strip humanity away in favor of perfection comes to a crucial juncture at the final Conclave of the year. Here, Citra displays great compassion and understanding when required to kill her little brother to pass the final apprenticeship test. Likewise, though Rowan feels his humanity slipping in the wake of the killings he has committed, he resolves that he will not glean Citra, even if sparing her results in his own death. Upon winning the apprenticeship, Citra defies the Conclave by conveying immunity to Rowan before surreptitiously helping him flee with Faraday. Despite tremendous pressure for both apprentices to glean the other and conform to others’ wishes, Citra and Rowan both ultimately choose each other, and preserve their morality and humanity as they forge their own paths in a world that has tried to deprive them of both. By the end of the novel, their choices offer hope for greater change as Citra becomes a professional scythe committed to reforming Scythedom for the better, while Rowan becomes a vigilante who kills corrupt scythes.
The text presents complexity and paradox as innate aspects of humanity that people must accept and contend with rather than ignore or try to quash. Hiding from the darker sides of humanity, as this society has done, does not drive the darkness away. Instead, it enables people like Goddard to gain power while also dulling the better impulses of humanity. The novel repeatedly demonstrates that people are capable of terrifying acts of violence, corruption, and self-interest. Humans, however, as the novel also repeatedly depicts, are also capable of inspiring acts of compassion, intelligence, and creativity. The novel is an acknowledgment of the complexity of the human experience and an argument for a clear-eyed acceptance of this reality. Just as human nature is complex, people’s understanding of it must be similarly nuanced. Solutions to human problems cannot depend on turning over every decision to artificial intelligence, even to a program as benevolent and capable as the Thunderhead. Nor should people cling to denial about either the best or worst aspects of what people are capable of, as the post-mortal world of the novel seems content to do.
