Thunderhead
Neal Shusterman
Normally, I don’t like sequels. Most of the time, they only serve to draw out and build up the final book in a trilogy. Thunderhead is a glorious exception that lives up to the atmosphere and expectations set by Scythe.
Scythe Anastasia, also known as Citra Teranova, has shaken up the scythedom with the results of last year’s ceremony, but so has Rowan. Masquerading as Scythe Lucifer, donned in all black, Rowan has continued with the task he set himself at the end of Scythe, putting him at odds with Citra, as he sets ablaze any scythes he deems unworthy of following the creeds of the scythedom.
The Thunderhead has been watching, as much as it is allowed, the affairs within the scythedom…and it does not like what it sees. Forbidden from directly interfering, the Thunderhead undertakes a plot to infiltrate and analyze deadly and deadly-ish events occurring in its domain. If there is a fault in the programming logic, a loophole, anything, it will take advantage of what it can to reduce its blind spots. What it finds there reveals imminent danger from outside forces to the world, but what can the Thunderhead do when it is not allowed to interact with scythes? What can it do when its perfect world is being threatened by the very people it was perfected for?
I don’t think my blurb, and especially the one on goodreads, does this book justice. In all honesty, I will probably rewrite it many times before I publish this post because no one seems to want to mention Greyson who is, by all means, one of the main characters of this book.
Greyson has been through the proverbial wringer. His parents are gone, and he has been raised as a Ward of the Thunderhead. In some ways, he sees the Thunderhead as a true parent and confidant, and he begins the process of becoming a Nimbus Agent for the Thunderhead as a way to thank it and give back to it. The Thunderhead has other plans for Greyson though, and sends him deep undercover into the world of Unsavories, people cut off from the Thunderhead for committing infractions against society, in an attempt to use him to “see” into its blind spot. What he finds implicates more than just minor infractions, it could mean murder in a world where murder isn’t supposed to exist anymore.
I’m not sure why other reviews (myself included) haven’t included Greyson in their blurbs, but he really should be included since he plays such an intrinsic role in the novel. I wasn’t the biggest fan of him initially, and Shusterman does an excellent job of keeping bias towards characters in check, much like he did with Scythe, but he won me over in the end. Terrible things happen to Greyson, and he does terrible things, but they are written with an impartiality that even the Thunderhead might be proud of. Might.
Greyson is flawed in the same ways that Citra and Rowan are flawed, they are only human and immensely inexperienced when it comes to challenging systems of power and people in search of power that have been around for centuries. In a sense they are the proof that the nature of humanity is change, and keeping society in a static state, even if that state is as close to utopia as one can get, is not sustainable. This is something that Shusterman capitalizes on as he gives the Thunderhead more of a role in this book, by showing how the AI does its best to accommodate the nuances and idiosyncrasies of humans.
It was refreshing to read things from the perspective of an omnipresent AI, especially its own self-ponderings about the nature of existence, omnipotence, and humanity. Shusterman crafts a simultaneously perfect, and thus flawed, character by including its voice within Thunderhead, and I look forward to hearing more about the Thunderhead in the following novel.
Simply put, I loved this book.
It was exciting, it was well-paced, and it wasn’t overbearing when it came to romance, but didn’t make it feel forced either. It expanded on the world created in the first novel, fleshing out humanity as well as scenery. More importantly, it was unpredictable, with delightfully dreadful events unfolding, and full control of my reading attention. I highly recommend reading Scythe, and then devouring this novel after.
The Little Book Witch 
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