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What Is The Recommended Reading Order For The Scythe Book Series?

2026-07-09 12:44:21

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3 Answers

Weston

Read the Scythe trilogy in the following order: Scythe, Thunderhead, The Toll. After finishing the trilogy, read Gleanings. The anthology contains many backstory and “sidestories” that are far more enjoyable after you have finished reading the main characters and the ultimate fate of our world. Reading it in the middle of the trilogy would stifle much of the momentum that Mr. Shusterman has created for the three novels.

2026-07-13

Quinn

I’ve seen many people misunderstand the Scythe prequel novellas so I’m going to try to explain how they fit into the larger work. The core trilogy of Scythe, Thunderhead, and The Toll tells the essential story of the work, specifically the Scythes and the Thunderhead.

The novella collection of prequel short stories, Gleanings, is also published last but contains scenes from centuries before Scythe, scenes between the main novels, and even scenes after The Toll. I would recommend reading it last because it greatly adds to the reader’s experience of the world if they read the main trilogy first. The way the author releases information is intentional and reading the anthology of short stories first would ruin the mystery and tone of the Scythehood in the early days of humans as described in the main novel.

Stick to publication order. The author reveals information at a specific pace in a specific order, so reading the anthology out of order will disrupt that.

2026-07-14

Ingrid

I kind of did it in reverse order to safer publication. First, I read ‘Scythe’ by Neal Shusterman and immediately moved on to short stories published in ‘Gleanings’ (again, really great for understanding the backstory of the Scythes’ initial ideologies and the Founding Futurist theories — “Formidable” being a highly-charged and twisted ‘Scythe’-styled short). Then later on, I read ‘Thunderhead’ followed by the rest of the Scythe trilogy.

Yes, it could be seen as a messy way to read. But it worked so well for me because it completely framed the rest of the trilogy in a completely different way. (Note: I did not read any major spoilers for the actual plot twists in the trilogy here. This is a safe ‘add-on’. If you’re a total world-building first kind of person, this could even make sense to read after Book 1!).

2026-07-15

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