Scythe

A dark, gripping and witty thriller in which the only thing humanity has control over is death. In a world where disease, war and crime have been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ("gleaned") by professional scythes. Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythes' apprentices, and despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation, they must learn the art of killing and understand the necessity of what they do. Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe's apprentice and as Citra and Rowan come up against a terrifyingly corrupt Scythedom, it becomes clear that the winning apprentice's first task will be to glean the loser. "Pretty much a perfect teen adventure novel [...] Over the years, I've heard many books touted as the successor to Hunger Games, but Scythe is the first one that I would really, truly stand behind, as it offers teens a complementary reading experience to that series rather than a duplicate one. Like Hunger Games, Scythe invites readers to both turn pages quickly but also furrow their brows over the ethical questions it asks." Maggie Stiefvater, author of The Shiver Trilogy and The Raven Cycle Scythe has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 11 weeks and is a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016. It's received five starred reviews in the US and is also the winner of a Michael L. Printz Honor. Universal has optioned the film rights to Scythe.