Gleanings by Neal Shushterman was a very enjoyable adventure back in to the world of Scythes, The Thunderhead, and immortality! The Arc of a Scythe series was always a favorite of mine, and Gleanings did not disappoint. It continued the story left off in tAoaS, yet expanded the world that wasn’t in the original trilogy. I loved how all of the short stories were connected through small details that might have been missed if you did not pay attention.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC. All opinions are my own.

Wow! Gleanings was an absolute pleasure to read from start to finish. As a big fan of Arc of a Scythe, I was excited for this book but went in with tampered expectations. I’ve only read a few anthology books (set in the Star Wars universe) but the medium works well with this universe. I’d be delighted if Shusterman surprised us with more.

The short stories in Gleanings extend the Scythe timeline and follow not only scythes but nimbus agents, unsavories, and family members of characters old and new. The stories vary in length and I found the pacing to be just right.

I have mixed feelings about whether rereading the series before starting Gleanings will give the best experience or not. It’s been nearly 3 years since The Toll came out and I’ve read many other books in that time. While all details weren’t fresh in my mind, I did quite like being surprised by “twists” and revelations. Some may prefer to at least read The Toll again before starting.

I devoured this book in a day and a half, and it has consumed my thoughts. My favorite stories are Formidable, A Martian Minute, Unsavory Row, The Mortal Canvas, The Persistence of Memory and A Dark Curtain Rises. But every story made me *feel something*. I will 100% be reading again.

Full disclosure: I'm a big #NealShusterman fan, and the Arc of Scythe series is one of my favorites by him. So I was excited to read this ARC of #Gleanings. While it did not disappoint, and while I plan on purchasing it for my school library, I come away with mixed reviews. It is, as it says, stories from the Arc of Scythe, some co-written with other authors, but most written by Shusterman. People will have needed to read all three books in the trilogy to really connect with these short stories; however, even though it had been a while since I read them, I was still able to follow along without remembering specifics. This collection allowed Shusterman to write in a variety of styles and topics all within the same "world"--some more light-hearted such as the one about the dog, others are more serious, and others touching on elements such as dreams and art--many still maintaining social criticism that Shusterman does so well. All of that being said, the trilogy is so dense (and amazing) that I think it may be hard to find this audience for teens after completing so many pages of the series itself. it is worth the purchase, however. Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC.

The different stories in the anthology all connected very well and very interestingly, yet were all very distinct and each one felt different, and it was an interesting look at the pasts and futures of characters we already know, along with other new characters.

The Arc of a Scythe is one of my favorite dystopian series and one of my favorite young adult series ever, but even though I love it so much, I was a little apprehensive to read Gleanings because I have a history of not liking anthologies very much, which this book is.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by this collection. I really shouldn’t be though, as I love Neal Shusterman’s writing and worldbuilding, and this anthology stays true to his style.

I recommend reading this book only after finishing The Toll. The stories here take place before, during, and after the series, but even the stories that occur pre-Scythe are best read afterward as there are still spoilers for the series in them and reveals that won’t make sense unless you already have the knowledge of the whole trilogy.

True to the book’s title, each of the stories has to do with gleaning in some way. Most of the stories are about characters that we’ve never met before, so I didn’t have a ton of emotional attachment to any of them, but they were still good stories. We got to peek into the lives of people all over the world and experience more fleshed-out worldbuilding for this series than we got in the original three books.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Gleanings. If you are a fan of the Scythe series then you will almost certainly enjoy this collection of stories; but on the other hand, if you want to be done with this series after The Toll and not continue on, then you’re not missing anything crucial here. This anthology is entirely extra material for the fans without being a must-read. It doesn’t negate the ending of the third book or anything drastic like that (as I’ve, unfortunately, seen done before), but simply expounds on a world that readers already know and love.



“Formidable”—4 stars
We love to see Scythe Curie being a boss. I believe that the events of this story were alluded to in the original trilogy so it was cool to see them played out.

“Never Work with Animals”—3 stars
This one really surprised me. Definitely didn’t expect it to turn out the way it did. Not my favorite story but still a good one. Also the longest one in the collection, I believe.

“A Death of Many Colors”—4.5 stars
I love reading from the Thunderhead’s point of view. And this story was really interesting, surrounding a group of people who don’t believe Scythes are real.

“Unsavory Row”—4 stars
A very interesting look at the different kinds of Unsavories and the experiences they have. I’m glad this one was included here because I feel like I understand Unsavories better after reading it.

“A Martian Minute”—4 stars
Wow, that ending got me. I wasn’t sure about this story the whole time I was reading it because I don’t generally love stories set on Mars, but then the last couple of paragraphs changed everything. That’s the thing about Neal Shusterman—he has a way of writing that leads you down a curvy path where you aren’t sure where he’s leading you but you’re invested enough to keep going, and then you reach the end and suddenly everything makes sense and you realize you’ve been on a remarkable journey and you’ll never be the same. I noticed this numerous times as I was reading the Scythe series, and “A Martian Minute” is no different. Wow.

“The Mortal Canvas”—4.5 stars
This was one of my favorite stories in the collection. I love art and artistic exploration, and I enjoyed seeing it through the eyes of these four students as they worked to impress Scythe Af Klint.

“Cirri”—3 stars
A story told by “the solitary offspring of the Thunderhead’s brief union with a human,” called Cirri. This story won’t make sense unless you’ve finished The Toll. This one was less exciting than some of the others.

“Anastasia’s Shadow”—3.5 stars
This is a story about Citra’s brother, Ben, undergoing scythe training, and it turned out to be rather wholesome in the end.

“The Persistence of Memory”—4 stars
Ironic and funny, this story is the second one about art in this collection. I enjoyed it, especially the ending.

“Meet Cute and Die”—5 stars
Even though I didn’t know any of these characters before reading this story, I love them all now. Marni and Cochran, who actually did have a meet cute before they both died. I laughed out loud multiple times during this short story. One of the best in the collection, in my opinion.

“Perchance to Glean”—3 stars
This story takes place in Antarctica, where people have collective dreams together and scythes glean only during dreams. I thought this was a cool concept, but I have to say that this is the weakest of all the stories in this collection and was a little confusing at times, as is common with stories set in the unlawful land of dreamscapes.

“A Dark Curtain Rises”—3.5 stars
A story that takes place far after the end of The Toll, so I won’t say too much about it other than it was unexpected but I liked it. An excellent ending to this collection and also to the Arc of a Scythe series of books as a whole.

I was really excited when I saw that there was going to be a new Scythe book. Its been about a year since I read the original trilogy but I remembered it being pretty good. Well, this book added pretty much nothing to the series, sadly. I found myself scanning the stories instead of reading them because I was just so bored. Some of the stories had almost nothing to do with the original trilogy. Others were a little more connected, but without a quick review of the original trilogy, there's no way you'd even remember who the characters were. Honestly, this book added nothing to a really good trilogy and I feel disappointed that the chance to enhance the trilogy was wasted. I still love Neal Shusterman though and I will still read anything he writes (even if I'm bored to death)!

If you like shusterman then youre gonna like gleanings. Its Scythe just more; It's hard to say too much or too little but if you know anything about the scythe series and you enjoyed that read heres more of that world and that lore. I would say for a reader who doesnt know the series maybe not start here but overall still an enjoyable book.

A couple of years ago, I read and reviewed the Arc of a Scythe trilogy by Neal Shusterman. I absolutely loved the trilogy and gave it high marks here on the blog. Well, the other day as I was trolling through NetGalley, I noticed a new book by Neal Shusterman and the cover reminded me a lot of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy. Then I noticed the title – Gleanings. That was all I needed to see to know there was a new Arc of a Scythe book coming out. I requested it and was granted my request to read and review the book.

Gleanings is a collection of short stories that take place at various points in time during the Arc of a Scythe trilogy. In some cases, it gives some backstory – such as for Scythe Curie and Scythe Goddard. In other cases it tells what happened after the end of The Toll. And in still other cases, it gives some insight into the Scythes and their various personalities, squabbles amongst each other, and relationships with other people such as family or pets.

It was nice to revisit some old friends and enemies in the Scythedom, as well as to make some new acquaintances. I will say this – you will want to read this book last. Read the original trilogy first, then read Gleanings. This is because there are some spoilers in these short stories – which is fine because they’re meant to be read after the original trilogy.

Gleanings has stories that are written by Neal Shusterman as well as having co-authors like David Yoon and Michael H. Payne on some of the stories. All of the stories are very well written and fit in perfectly with the writing style shown in the original trilogy. You won’t be able to tell a difference between the co-authored stories and the ones Neal Shusterman wrote on his own – which is a good thing. I’m usually not a fan of co-authored stories, because often the writing styles don’t blend well. That isn’t the case here and I’m super happy about that.

If you’ve read the original trilogy and are hungering for more of the Scythedom world – I highly recommend you check out Gleanings. You won’t be disappointed.

To say I devoured this book would be an understatement. The short story format works fantastically for the Scythe universe. I hope more anthologies are released!!

I enjoyed not only following the lives of Scythes, but looking more in depth at how their actions affected the day to day, ordinary people Scythes' actions affect.

The stories following up on events after The Toll were an unexpected treat I didn't know I was in for, and I enjoyed them immensely.

***I received an ARC of this books from Netgalley & Simon and Schuster in exchange for a review.***

This book was an absolutely wonderful trip through various authors' conceptions of the Scythe world. I enjoyed the short stories, including a look into the history of one the most influental Scythes in Shustermans' creation. Each short story only added to the realm of possibilities and each was its' own adventure.

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have read this book. If you’re a fan of Scythe or are planning to give it a read, read this one last. You’ll understand and appreciate it so much more after the fact. Not only that but it is phenomenal! I’m so happy there were other authors taking part in this amazing universe, with so many more perspectives given than just the Scythes in the ‘Merica’s. The different time periods of the post-mortal world, and familiar characters entwined in it all, it really is one of the best add-one to a series long after the original story has been published. The ending is incredibly satisfying and as much as I’m craving for more of this deep, dark world, I’m happy with what we’ve been given.