Wonderful!

Scythe by Neal Shusterman is simply an incredible book.  Set in the future, where poverty, diseases, and war no longer exist sounds like a utopia to beat no other.  However, immortality also exists, and to deal with population control, society has Scythes.

Scythes "glean" people (i.e. kill) in this world, and we meet two young people who become apprentice scythes in this first of what might be a trilogy. The book is told in alternating chapters from these two protagonists, as well as via reading journal entries from various scythes; each with their own viewpoint on their role in society, as well as showing how they determine who to glean.

This book in many ways could be a stand alone novel, but I am looking forward to future installments because the world building, character building, plot and current resolution are so wonderfully handled.

I truly loved this book; I can't rave enough about it.  Compelling, engaging, thrilling, beautiful, thought provoking and timely are all thoughts I had at various points.

I book talked the book, and read the first few pages; I have never had students literally run out of my room to see if our school library had copies, with any other book talk.  I have a long wait list for my copy, and many students I am sure ordered a copy of their own.