Shusterman, Neal. SCYTHE

Shusterman, Neal.  
SCYTHE
New York : Simon and Shuster, 2016
IL YA
ISBN 978-1-44247-242-6


Way back in the year is 2042, humans conquered death and now everyone is immortal.  That's right. No one can die. Well they can be deadish but then revived. And they can even decide to become younger. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? But of course if no one can die, the world gets more and more crowded. So Scythes came into being. The Scythes are specially hand picked and trained in the art of gleaning. Gleaning is killing. But when a Scythe gleans someone, they stay dead. This helps keep the population from becoming overwhelming. When Citra and Rowan are picked to be scythe         apprentices, they are both confused. Neither one wants to be a scythe and find the thought of gleaning abhorrent.  They do agree to be apprentices because their families are granted immunity during their training.  The apprenticeship is hard and neither particularly want to be successful. They are both apprenticed to the same Scythe which is unheard of. The Conclave of Scythes allows it to continue on the condition that whoever becomes a scythe must glean the other. There are many unexpected events along the way which will keep the reader going and trying to figure out what is going to happen.