Scythe

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Part 1, Chapters 1-5

Part 1: “Robe and Ring” 

Reading Check

1. What are the two main characters’ names? 

2. What is surprising about Scythe Faraday’s appearance? 

3. What is the name of the artificial intelligence that governs the world? 

4. What job do the scythes do in the novel? 

5. Which profession’s journal is shown at the end of chapters?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Citra get mad at Scythe Faraday at the end of Chapter 1? 

A) He ate her family’s dinner.

B) She believes he dislikes the food provided.

C) She believes he is forcing small talk before gleaning someone.

D) He is rude to her parents.

2. When Scythe Faraday goes to glean Kohl Whitlock, how does Rowan react? 

A) He watches in awe.

B) He tries to fight Faraday. 

C) He cheers Faraday on.

D) He refuses to let go of Kohl’s hand. 

3. Citra and Rowan meet for the first time at what event? 

A) a ballet performance

B) an opera

C) a movie

D) an art gallery 

4. What does a person receive if they kiss a scythe’s ring?

A) immunity for one year

B) immunity for their family

C) the opportunity to become a scythe

D) the opportunity to choose the scythe’s next gleaning 

5. Scythe Faraday chooses Citra and Rowan for what task? 

A) to provide immunity to whomever they want

B) to be his guests at cultural events 

C) to spy for him

D) to be his scythe apprentices

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response. 

1. What does it mean to “reset” or “turn the corner” (Chapter 2)? 

2. Why does Rowan become an outcast at his school?

3. How does Scythe Faraday choose whom he will glean? 

4. What does Scythe Faraday do to show “common decency” to the people he gleans?

Part 2, Chapters 6-11

Part 2: “No Laws Beyond These”

Reading Check

1. Where does the mass gleaning take place in Chapter 6?

2. What is the name for a group of scythes? 

3. Who is Esme? 

4. Who does Rowan invite to Scythe Faraday’s house? 

Multiple Choice

1. How must scythes and scythe apprentices record their thoughts?

A) a vlog

B) a journal

C) an audio recording

D) a sketchbook

2. What surprises Citra about witnessing gleanings? 

A) She does not become desensitized to gleanings.

B) She finds herself enjoying them.

C) She always vomits after a gleaning.

D) She is looking forward to completing her own gleanings.

3. In Chapter 8, “A Matter of Choice,” what task does Scythe Faraday assign Rowan? 

A) He must polish Faraday’s blades.

B) He must clean Faraday’s guns.

C) He must study new methods of gleaning. 

D) He must choose the person who will be Faraday’s next gleaning. 

4. What defense mechanism did Scythe Faraday install in his scythe ring? 

A) The ring burns if someone else puts it on.

B) The ring cuts off the finger if someone else puts it on.

C) The ring becomes freezing cold if someone else puts it on. 

D) The ring’s alarm sounds if someone else puts it on. 

5. What do Citra and Rowan study in their apprenticeship with Scythe Faraday?

A) methods of gleaning

B) the history of the Thunderhead

C) the science of reviving people

D) methods of gleaning as well as the history and science of gleaning

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response. 

1. Why do students at Rowan’s school believe he took the scythe apprenticeship? 

2. How does Citra feel about Rowan as they spar in Black Widow Bokator’s class? 

3. How does Rowan react to the gleaning of the man who they drown in the river?

4. After Scythe Faraday gleans the man during dinner and does not glean his family, why must Citra keep this a secret?

5. Describe how Citra feels about Scythe Faraday. 

Part 2, Chapters 12-17

Part 2: “No Laws Beyond These”

Reading Check

1. What does Scythe Faraday warn Citra and Rowan will happen to them at Vernal Conclave?

2. Who is “The Great Dame of Death”? 

3. At the Vernal Conclave, how many apprentices are approved for Scythedom? 

4. How are Citra and Rowan tested in Chapter 14? 

5. Who are scythes Rand, Volta, and Chomsky? 

Multiple Choice

1. What happens during the Tolling of the Names at Vernal Conclave? 

A) The scythes come up with new names for themselves.

B) The newly appointed scythes are given their names.

C) Each scythe reads the names of some of their victims.

D)  A bell inscribed with the names of former scythes is rung. 

2. What does Citra say is the worst thing she has ever done? 

A) She beat up her little brother when he annoyed her, and he had to be hospitalized. 

B) She enjoyed the gleaning of the woman in the parking lot.

C) She tried on Scythe Faraday’s ring.

D) She never took the blame for tripping a girl who fell and broke her neck.

3. What arrangement does Scythe Goddard make with Maxim Easley? 

A) Easley’s family will receive immunity for each year Goddard and his group live in Easley’s estate.

B) Easley will receive immunity in exchange for Goddard controlling Easley’s company.

C) Easley will become Goddard’s apprentice in exchange for his house.

D) Easley will receive immunity in exchange for finding Goddard’s next victims. 

4. Xenocrates holds which office or position in the Sycthedom? 

A) Mighty Blade 

B) Ultimate Blade 

C) High Blade 

D) Thunder Blade 

5. What does Scythe Faraday do when he “invoked the seventh commandment” in Chapter 17?

A) He gleans himself.

B) He gleans Goddard.

C)  He quits the scythedom.

D) He forfeits his apprentices.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response. 

1. Describe Citra’s first impression of Xenocrates. 

2. Which important people did Scythe Curie glean just before the Thunderhead was given control? 

3. Describe what Scythe Goddard does during the Vernal Conclave. 

4. What does Scythe Rand propose at the Vernal Conclave in regard to Faraday’s apprentices? 

5. How does Scythe Goddard feel about gleaning, according to his journal?

6. Why did Scythe Faraday “invoke the seventh commandment” in Chapter 17? 

Part 3, Chapters 18-24

“The Old Guard and the New Order”

Reading Check

1. How does Scythe Curie glean her first victim with Citra as her apprentice? 

2. Why did Scythe Curie take Citra as an apprentice?

3. Who are the Tonists? 

4. What is Scythe Curie’s real name?

Multiple Choice

1. How does Scythe Curie honor her gleaning victims? 

A) She buries them herself. 

B) She cooks their family dinner to hear stories from the victim’s life. 

C) She sings them a song. 

D) She writes their eulogy for the newspaper. 

2. What reason does Citra give for having killed the girl, who she spoke about at Vernal Conclave, when she was younger? 

A) The girl had bragged about being a good dancer while mocking Citra’s dancing.

B) The girl started dating a boy that Citra liked. 

C) The girl had called Citra ugly. 

D) The girl was a better student than Citra. 

3. Which group often repeats the following phrase: “That which comes can’t be avoided” (Chapter 22)?

A)  The Scythedom

B)  Apprentices of the Scythedom

C) The Unsavories

D) The Tonists

4. What is Citra looking for in the “backbrain” of the Thunderhead? 

A) information about the Tonists

B) information about Xenocrates

C) information about Faraday’s self-gleaning

D) information about Rowan

5. Which of the following is part of Rowan’s training with Goddard? 

A)  taking care of Esme

B) poisoning live humans without their knowledge

C) killing live humans with blades

D) serving Goddard and the other scythes food and drinks

Short-Answer Response

1. What does Scythe Curie mean when she says she looks for people to “get a sense that they’ve been here too long” in Chapter 18? 

2. What does Scythe Curie claim is Citra’s penance, or atonement, for killing the girl when she was younger? 

3. When Rowan arrives at Scythe Goddard’s estate, what event is happening? 

4. Describe how Rowan’s training with Goddard and his scythes begins. 

5. Describe how Citra feels when she returns home and visits her family in Chapter 23.  

6. Describe how Rowan feels as the next Conclave approaches.

Part 3, Chapters 25-29

“The Old Guard and the New Order”

Reading Check

1. Which two characters grant immunity to survivors of the mass gleaning in Chapter 25? 

2. How do Goddard and the other scythes celebrate upon their return from the mass gleaning? 

3. In Chapter 28, what does Scythe Curie warn Citra about Rowan? 

4. Who is accused by the Scythedom of murdering Scythe Faraday? 

Multiple Choice

1. How does Scythe Curie respond at Harvest Conclave when someone yells, “I love you!” to her?

A) She tells them that she loves them back. 

B) She blushes.

C) She gleans the person who yelled it.

D) She asks them why. 

2. How are Citra and Rowan tested at Harvest Conclave? 

A) with a quiz about the history of the scythedom

B) with a gleaning competition

C) with a Bokator competition 

D) with a poison-making competition

3. Based on her research in the Thunderhead and the “backbrain,” what does Citra suspect about Faraday’s self-gleaning? 

A) that he was murdered by Goddard

B) that he was murdered by Xenocrates

C) that he self-gleaned to avoid choosing between Citra and Rowan

D)  that he self-gleaned because he couldn’t handle the guilt of scythedom any longer 

4. What job does Tyger have?

A) He is a live subject for practice gleanings. 

B) He is a professional partygoer. 

C) He is a servant for Goddard.

D)  He is a researcher in the “backbrain” of the Thunderhead. 

5. Which of the following is mentioned in Faraday’s journal? 

A) that he sees evil in Rowan and now fears him

B) that he believes it was a mistake to have Citra as an apprentice

C) that Goddard is his son

D) that he aspires to take Xenocrates’s position as High Blade

Short-Answer Response

1. How does Rowan subvert, or disobey, Scythe Goddard during the mass gleaning at Magnetic Propulsions Laboratory in Chapter 25?

2. What does Rowan notice about Scythe Volta after they return from the mass gleaning?

3. How would you describe the difference in how Goddard and his scythes and Curie and Citra arrive at Harvest Conclave?

4. Explain the outcome of the test that Citra and Rowan have at the Harvest Conclave.

5. What realization does Rowan have about Xenocrates after seeing him at Goddard’s party? 

Part 4, Chapters 30-36

“MidMerican Fugitive”

Reading Check

1. Who speaks with Citra while she is being revived?

2. In which region does Citra hide from Xenocrates and his guards?

3. What is Goddard’s vision for the future of the Scythedom?

4. Who dies in Chapter 35?

Multiple Choice

1. How does Citra disguise herself when she is on the run from the Scythedom? 

A) as an apprentice of a scythe from the southern region

B) as an Unsavory 

C) as a Tonist pilgrim 

D) as a Nimbus Agent

2. Who does Citra find at the address of Gerald Van Der Gans? 

A) Faraday

B) Rowan

C) Curie

D) Goddard 

3. In Chapter 35, where does Goddard take his scythes for Rowan’s first real gleaning? 

A) Rowan’s high school 

B) Tyger’s house

C) Scythe Curie’s hometown 

D) a Tonist monastery 

4. In his journal, what does Scythe Faraday claim will keep people human after death was conquered? 

A) empathy and the pain it causes

B) love 

C) fear and its consequences

D) shame 

Short-Answer Response

1. What does Citra learn about her future in Chapter 30? 

2. Who was the threat that Faraday wrote about in his journal? 

3. Explain Curie and Faraday’s relationship history as shown in Chapter 31. 

4. Describe Rowan’s apprenticeship and how he feels about it. 

5. Describe the event that prompts Rowan to think of himself as “the monster of monsters[...] The butcher of lions. The executioner of eagles” in Chapter 36. 

Part 5, Chapters 37-40

Part 5: “Scythehood”

Reading Check

1. After Rowan kills Goddard and his scythes, what does Xenocrates ban as a gleaning method?

2. At the Winter Conclave, Citra is annoyed that there is more talk about the four dead scythes than whom?

3. Rowan admits that he is afraid to die, yet what does he fear even more?

4. Which apprentice wins the competition and becomes a scythe?

Multiple Choice

1. What is unusual about Scythe Goddard’s remains? 

A) His skeleton is missing its skull and scythe’s ring.

B) His remains have not been located.

C) His skeleton is missing its ring finger along with his scythe’s ring.

D) His remains have become mummified. 

2. How do the other scythes treat Rowan as he arrives at Winter Conclave? 

A) They cheer for him. 

B) They glare at him or avoid him. 

C) They seem to fear him. 

D) They smile and greet him kindly. 

3. Who is driving the car parked outside of Winter Conclave? 

A) Scythe Goddard

B) Scythe Faraday

C) Scythe Volta 

D) Tyger

4. Who is Scythe Lucifer? 

A) an unordained scythe who is rumored to be gleaning the Blade Guard

B) an unordained scythe who is rumored to be hunting Xenocrates

C) an unordained scythe who is rumored to be gleaning corrupt scythes with fire

D)  an unordained scythe who is rumored to be granting immunity freely to others

Short-Answer Response

1. What is implied about Xenocrates’s relationship with Esme?

2. Describe Citra’s final test to become a scythe. 

3. Describe Rowan’s final test to become a scythe.

4. Explain who wins the appointment of scythe, the name they choose, and why they choose it.

5. Explain the outcome of the Winter Conclave for both Citra and Rowan.