2/5 stars (sorry it had to be said)
I had positives and negatives about the first book in the series, Scythe, but in Thunderhead it seemed like all of the negatives were amplified, and added to.
The author didn't take the time to build up Citra and Rowan's romantic relationship in the first book, so I didn't really believe anything about their story in this one. They are separated and supposedly wanting to help each other/be reunited/etc etc but I just didn't believe it or care about them at all, because judging by the events of Scythe they should be casual friends at best! And yet they love each other?? Basically there was no bedrock and foundation to their relationship that made me care about it at all in Thunderhead, which was unfortunate because that was a pretty big part of the plot.
And then there was a second underdeveloped and unbelievable romance in this book, between new character Grayson and this chick Purity that he meets. Their relationship is also a key plot point, and the supposed motivation behind a lot of Grayson's actions, but their relationship, like Citra and Rowan's, made. No. Sense. There were no feelings.
I did like that the author expanded the world a little bit by introducing different, non-scythe characters. Grayson was a decent character, who has a lot of potential to be interesting.
There were overall just a lot of lazy plot choices and plot devices that the author used, especially in the middle chunk of the book. Many many things were happening far too simply and quickly, just to lead to the endgame of the plot. But when we get to the endgame, it didn't feel earned because everything leading up to it had been fast and easy.
There was also a big decision the author made regarding the villains that I was extremely disappointed by and annoyed about. I'm not going to get into it because it's a pretty major spoiler, like the most major of all the spoilers, but it was idiotic, unrealistic, disappointing, and overall lazy writing.
The author tried REALLY hard to make Rowan super ~edgy~ and ~dark~ and ~mysterious~ but he literally just had no personality. The book went on and on about how much of a skilled and competent and well-trained killing machine Rowan is, but he makes idiotic decisions all the time. Which is it Neal??
TL;DR: Thunderhead was worse than the first book, because not only were the characters and romance bad, a lot of the plotlines were too.
2/5 stars
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