#I'm gonna declare it done because omg that took forever

[loren91]

Jag vill inte va nåns hemlighet

[books--andt]

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman Review and Discussion!

Oh. MY. GAWD.

As Thunderhead is the sequel to Scythe, this review contains *Spoilers*!!!

Wow. What a fantastic sequel. I was gripped from the first chapter, where we meet again with Rowan and Scythe Brahms. Scythe Brahms' way of gleaning was so eerie. I find it fascinating to learn about all the ways other scythes glean. There was no question as to why Rowan, taking on his new role as Scythe Lucifer, thought he should end Brahms, as his method was to play a creepy lullaby before gleaning!

I think the Thunderhead is such an interesting character. Throughout the story you begin to realize that this AI is much more human than we realize.

AND OMG when we found out Scythe Rand was still alive???? I threw my book across the room. I threw it even harder when we discovered that she had brought Scythe Goddard back!!!! But I'm really pleased that this was done properly. It wasn't like "oh we can bring these people back from the dead now ha ha" nope. It made sense that these characters were still alive, and how they had escaped the fire in the Tonist building.

SPEAKING OF TONIST. When the Thunderhead was screeching because it realizes that humankind has kept the Land of Nod a secret from it forever, and then it's creating noise in every part of the world, and while everyone is wondering what is going on, the Tonists are like "Ahhh! The great Resonance!" I SCREAMED. I was wondering if the Tonists would become a more important part of the story. This parallel of religion to our real world is just so thought provoking. AND!!! The fact that everyone is now labeled as Unsavoury, except for Greyson!!!!! It's like he is representing Jesus and the Thunderhead is God! WOWZA!

Learning more about the Unsavouries was really neat as well. We get taken through a day as an Unsavoury from Greyson Tolliver, and he goes to these clubs, and escape room-like parties where people are PAID to be treated poorly by Unsavouries!! The Thunderhead has LITERALLY created a safe place for Unsavouries to be Unsavoury. Even though it isn't real, they can pretend it is. Crazy.

SO CITRA. I love this character. She is so strong and intelligent. The fact that she came up with the inquest ALL ON HER OWN. YES CITRA. I also love Scythe Curie. My heart hurts for her self gleaning. But it was done in such an honourable way. She gleans the other people who, are on Endura as it is flooding, to save them from drowning. And then she gleans herself. I'M GONNA MISS HER. I really don't think she will be brought back. Scythes who self glean can't be brought back, right? Even if they could, I think it would be best if she wasn't brought back, because she died in such an honourable and memorable (for the reader) way.

AND THE INQUEST WITH THE HIGH BLADES OMG. Ok first, Scythe Kahlo is such a badass and I love that she chose Frida as her Patron Historic- but more on that later. I'm slightly confused, because after they declare that Goddard is in fact not enough of his original self, as his body was Tygers and he only has his original head and mind (not even his own vocal chords!), they decide that he must be put through apprenticeship once again so that his body is back to the level of a Scythe. After this is announced Goddard is furious, and demands that they share the votes from the other honourable scythes during the conclave in which they voted for the next High Blade, but Kahlo says that isn't necessary because the votes were unanimous. I took this to mean that everyone voted for Curie, no? And after all those High Blades drown on Endura, Goddard says that there will be no record of anyone ever saying he isn't fit to be the new High Blade. But if the votes for Curie were unanimous, then wouldn't that be logged somewhere? The system on Endura was aware that Curie was fit for High Blade, as it let her open doors with her palm being read on sensors, so wouldn't it deny Goddards????? I NEED ANSWERS.

Okay. And back to Scthes choosing their Patron Historics. I LOVED learning all the other Scythes names! We know that after each apprentice is declared a scythe, they get to choose their Patron Historic and thus be named after that. Scythe Kahlo even chose to take on the Persona of Frida Kahlo and dress/look like her. I had to stop reading to laugh when we met Scythe Beyonce! Hahahahahahahahahahhaha! And Scythe Morrison named after Jim Morrison???? Hilarious. I love theses details. So good. So so good. It also inspires me to search up the names of those that I don't know. After searching Scythe Ayn Rand, it was a very interesting detail to comprehend because Scythe Rand isn't a benevolent character, and neither was the OG Ayn Rand. What would your Patron Historic name be??

Something else I'm slightly confused by is when all this crazy-ness is happening on Endura, I thought that was because the Thunderhead was processing the fact that it just found out the Island of Nod exists, so it couldn't help out over there. But then Rowan says that Goddard was behind it all. I mean, thats what he thought, and maybe it was true in terms of controlling all the marine life through their nanites (OMG btw), but the flooding and inability to recover everything... that was the Thunderhead... no??

That ending. OMG. We've got Greyson, who is now the only human in the ENTIRE FLIPPEN WORLD who can speak to the Thunderhead. The Thunderhead now knows about the secret Island of Nod. Faraday and his assistant found the Island!! And perhaps they will try to go there and prepare what horrors have undoubtedly happened to the Scythedome/world. I also wonder how Faraday will react when he finds out Curie self gleaned? And then of course, we've got Citra and Rowan trapped in that metal sarcophagus of sorts that Curie put them in so that they could be saved in the future. But how far into the future????????? When they wake up who knows what will happen!??? Will the world be ruled by Tonists??? Will Goddard be High Blade????? WHAT WILL HAPPEN????

I can't believe I have to wait until 2019 for the next book. I will definitely be rereading this series! There are so many little details that I'd love to study.

5/5 stars!!

Thanks so much for reading! SHARE your thoughts with me!

- T