This book took me three weeks to read and that's never a good sign when it should be a fairly quick YA novel. I expected this novel to be similar to Vicious by VE Schwab in that it wasn't my thing, but I could still appreciate it and recommend it to people who enjoy books like this, but that didn't turn out to be the case. I thought Vicious was well done. I couldn't stand reading this one.

One of my biggest issues was how flawed the world seemed to be. It fell apart under the slightest scrutiny. They say there's nothing left to learn, then go on and on about all the things they can't do (colonize space, have enough room for the growing population, etc). There are no countries with individual government because the supercomputer runs everything, but there are "regions" with borders and separate laws. They don't live life normally because they have no fear of death, but also spend half their lives being terrified of scythes which seems to amount to the same thing (even though death is admittedly much less likely, it still happens).

The supercomputer is apparently a benevolent god who is the best government anyone has ever seen, but they decide to take the power of death away from the computer and give it to humans, who they've already stated are inherently more flawed and corrupt than the Thunderhead. They do this because...reasons. Death is a part of humanity? The computer would be too cold and calculating? I'm not really sure. It seems like if you have this perfect benevolent god, you don't let the corrupt humans kill people.

There were many hugely dramatic plot points that were just resolved quickly and off screen, never to be mentioned again. There were no real consequences for any of the main characters. The huge dramatic plot points that were meant to change their whole lives just didn't. There were too many obvious loopholes.

At one point a character is accused of murder and everyone just kind of goes with it. This is a society where this is no crime and hasn't been for hundreds of years (at least, the time period is kind of vague). There is no murder. Period. But when a character is accused of murder, the reaction is similar to someone's reaction in our time. They're horrified and shocked because murder is awful. They're not shook to their core that everything they believed about their society is a lie. It didn't make sense in their world.

Spoiler

Rowan spends a year training with all kinds of kill arts and apparently becomes the best killer in all of existence. In only a year. Even with the hardest training regimen, I don't buy that. Especially since he goes up against scythes who have been killing for centuries and apparently cuts them down like they're nothing. It takes time to learn those skills. There's a difference between being good because you've worked hella hard over the past year and becoming the greatest killing machine the world has ever seen in a matter of months.

Overall, I found this book frustrating. Maybe it might be better for people who have the ability to just go along with a story and not ask too many questions, but even then I can't understand the hype and love for this book. I won't be continuing on with the series.