— 4.75 stars —

WOW.
I NEED THE SEQUEL.
I NEED ANSWERS.

***

What an amazing sequel Thunderhead is.

As per usual, this turned out to be more "me talking about my feelings", rather than an actual review. Sorry if that’s not what you were looking for. But thank you if you read it, I really appreciate it!

I’m usually never a huge fan of the second books in a series. Most of the time, they don’t live up to my expectations. That’s just how it is, and I’m sure a lot of people probably feel the same way sometimes.

That being said, that’s not what happened with Thunderhead.

This sequel was amazing. Following Citra in this new life as Scythe Anastasia, the danger that comes with this position, the new order that seems to rise quite literally from the ashes of the "Scythes" killed and gleaned by Rowan, before becoming Scythe Lucifer... it created a captivating story.

I loved the world created by Neal Shusterman, and his writing.
I loved the political aspect of this story.
I loved the relationships between the characters.
I loved the way the plot was unfolding.
There were many plot-twists, many things that left me in awe.

Scythe Curie owns my entire heart. I loved her in this book. I did cry buckets at the end. She would have been an amazing High Blade. I truly hope they’ll (meaning Scythe Faraday and Munira —by the way, I LOVE THEM TOO—) found a way to bring her back because she deserves to live more. I want her back. I need her to take revenge on Goddard (he won’t be called a Scythe by me. NEVER. He doesn't deserve this title and he can rot in hell.)

I also loved Greyson Tolliver. Not only he's a really interesting character, but his presence took a entire different path than I was expected. I knew he'll end up having a big part in the story, but not something like that. It's like he's the chosen one or something and I'm really curious about this new status of him. He's literally the only person the Thunderhead want to talk to, and/or acknowledge as worthy of its presence. I LOVE IT.

And finally, what I loved too was the Thunderhead. I was intrigued by it in the first book, but I really loved seeing how, somehow, this entity was growing towards humanity.
All throughout the book, the Thunderhead kept saying that it couldn't feel, act, be something remotely human. And of course it can't: it's an AI. But in some of its actions, the Thunderhead was also contradictory: it supported Rowan's action, it supported Citra, seemed to have a true attachement to Greyson, and so on. There are a lot of things that somehow made the Thunderhead close to feel like a human being could. And I really liked seeing that.
I liked how they try to find loopholes everywhere, how the Thunderhead had to makes things work when its own laws made it impossible. It was like a gigantic puzzle that couldn't be resolved unless you find the tiniest gap to act. I found it captivating. 

However, there were tiny things that did bother me a little (but it's not really a big deal, just me being a bit picky). Some parts were pretty slow in my opinion, especially the little parts with the unsavories. I really liked learning about them, seeing how they were an important part of this world, despite being left aside, but yeah, unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. The characters I didn’t like that made their comeback. I don’t like them so I put them there, but let’s be real, it make quite an amazing story too.

Anyways, I 100% recommend this series and this sequel, and I just cannot wait any longer for the third installment!