I just reviewed Gleanings by Neil Shusterman as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was nice to revisit some beloved characters and also discover new ones.
One of my favorite stories in this book was ‘A Death of Many Colors’, simply superb!
The co-authors lent new voices to an already loved series and it was a nice to read how they go about writing behind the mind of a scythe.
Overall I’d recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the series and is looking to revisit that world.

Loved reading these stories from one of my favorite fictional universes of all time. It was so interesting to see different backstories and more in depth stories that went kind of behind the scenes of the first 3 books and I loved the idea!

This is a book of short stories - some giving some backstory to The Arc of the Scythe trilogy, some giving some continuation of the trilogy. I loved seeing the stories that continued the story!

I missed the Arc of a Scythe series desperately, so it was a wonderful surprise to not only find this short story collection coming out but also be accepted to review an early eARC. Neal Shusterman is just as captivating and witty with this world. The level of detail and thought put into this world beyond the trilogy baffles me. He's created such a realistic and vibrant world that it can thrive off of the characters and atmosphere alone. I am worried about accidentally spoiling fans, so I'm choosing to leave my rankings below with the titled story. On release day, I'm planning to update my review with in-depth descriptions and analysis. I just don't want to do that now, especially because the eARC was protected.

1. The First Swing (technically a poem) ★★★★/★★★★★
2. Formidable ★★★★★/★★★★★
3. Never Work With Animals ★★★/★★★★★
4. A Death of Many Colors ★★★.75/★★★★★
5. Unsavory Row ★★★★/★★★★★
6. A Martian Minute ★★★★★/★★★★★
7. The Mortal Canvas ★★★★★/★★★★★
8. Cirri ★★★★.5/★★★★★
9. Anastasia’s Shadow ★★★.5/★★★★★
10. The Persistence of Memory ★★★★/★★★★★
11. Meet Cute and Die ★★★.25/★★★★★
12. Perchance to Glean ★★★/★★★★★
13. A Dark Curtain Rises ★★★★★/★★★★★

By far my favorite overall was A Martian Minute, and y'all will understand why. The three five star short stories just hit my heart in a way that I still can't seem to not think about. They left me with some deep thoughts after finishing, and I had to lay back and not read to digest them. What I loved the most about these stories is that they're an even mix of answers for many questions left unanswered in The Toll and fun, innovative takes on Gleaning. This world didn't start with Faraday or Citra—definitely not Goddard—and I love that Neal allows us to grow with other scythes and people. It made me really happy to explore the larger expanse of this world, beyond the planes of earth or not.

I was such a huge fan of this series so I was super excited to have the opportunity to read Gleanings and I was not disappointed! Gleanings has stories from when scythes first became a thing, during their prime, and there are even a few stories that are set after the end of The Toll. Some of the stories include characters that we know, for example the book’s second story is one titled “Formidable” which is about when scythe Curie first became a scythe. Scythe Curie was one of my favorite characters in the Arc of a Scythe series and that story actually ended up being one of my favorites. I thought this book was a very interesting read and I’m glad I got to be invested in the scythe world again. If you enjoyed any of the other books, you’ll like this one as well!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc!

Gleanings by Neal Shusterman returns to the world of The Scythe. Each chapter is its own short story that ties in some way back to the original trilogy.

After the first few chapters I realized a book solely focused on gleanings is a little depressing. However, the stories did start to vary a little more further in, and ultimately it was a fun revisit for fans of the series.

I recommend for reader of The Scythe trilogy. It likely would be hard to understand as a stand alone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster to an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw Shusterman was publishing more in the Scythe universe, I was excited beyond belief and just knew I had to get this ARC and let me tell you I was NOT disappointed in the least.

As with all short story collections, some of the stories are stronger than others, but this is a solid collection. Every story in it is good, if not excellent. I loved seeing short stories that mentioned the characters we are already so familiar with, but it was even better learning about the early Scythedom/post-mortal days. I have to say my favorite short story had to be Cirrus's story, or the Halloween party one. I think publishing these as short stories was the better choice versus another novel. Towards the end of the last Scythe book, it was beginning to feel like a slog to get through the books even though I enjoyed the premise. Breaking up more Scythe stories into smaller pieces made this easy to get through without a ton of commitment or a huge overall conflict to work through.

It took me two days to get through this collection, and that's only because I was making myself savor it and not rush through it too fast. Shusterman and the authors he teamed up with for some stories did an amazing job expanding this universe, and I would be extremely happy to see another anthology like this.

Absolutely recommend.

Gleanings by Neal Shusterman is a fun read. All the short stories, tied together by one world is really fascinating and each story is more diverse and unique then the last one. I love how developed the characters are from the previous series, and this proves how developed they are, you can jump right in and remember why you loved and rooted for them, even though you haven't read the series in a year! It's great book to immerse yourself back into the world and characters.

Thanks Net Galley for an arc of this book!

An interesting mixture of stories that both weave with the original plot and ones that add a background that help give it extra life. One or two of the short stories I could have done without, but for the most part, it pulled me right back into that world!

Gleanings is Neal Shusterman's most recent installment of The Arc of the Scythe series. This collection of short stories, written by a variety of authors, will take readers through a bunch of characters, both old and new, timelines, and settings as the mythology of this world (and world's beyond) is explored and delved more deeply into. Some of these imaginings are longer than others, but all will keep the reader turning the page! As a teacher, one idea that floated through my head was having my students creatively explore and attempt writing their own vision or installment to Shusterman's beautifully scary world-oh the possibilities!

I received an Earc of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this. It was so good to be back in the Scythe world. I loved all of the stories. There wasn't one that I found uninteresting or boring. Each one was unique and entertaining in its own way. My personal favorite was the one with Trixie the dog. It was very entertaining and I found myself laughing so much. The stories in this book give an even deeper insight to the Scythe world and it was amazing!

Rounded to 3.5 stars.

CONTENT WARNING: murder, blood, violence

It’s been a while since I read the original series, but I was excited to dive back into it. I remember how eagerly I read all three of the books, and hoped that this collection of short stories would carry that same feeling. And while some of the stories did, they lacked a feeling of cohesiveness overall.

There were some stories that I liked a lot, some of which featured characters that I remembered from the original series, and some that had all new characters. They touched on different aspects of the world, including people who had their lives touched by scythes in various ways, whether it was living in fear of being gleaned, being forced to work with or for scythes, or simply being related to a scythe.

In other stories, we got to see things from the other side of the coin. These stories were told from the POV of the scythe themselves, and while some scythes worked for the lofty goals they were intended to further, others succumbed to greed, power, or control. Some were difficult for me to like, and there were other stories that I just struggled to connect with. These were generally the ones that took place in space, although there was one that definitely got me, and I was surprised to discover who’s origin story it was, since it was so long since I had read the first three books.

Overall, this was a difficult book for me to rate, since there wasn’t necessarily an underlying connecting factor to the stories, and they lacked an overarching theme running through them aside from there being a scythe in every story. However, I did enjoy reading this, and it was a quick and fun read, that made me think of the cost of living in a society where death, disease, crime, and other things that we face on a daily basis have been eliminated, and society is basically a utopia.

Gleaning is a companion novella to the Arc of a Scythe series by Neal Shusterman, written in collaboration with other writers. I enjoyed all of the stories except for "Never Work With Animals" as I was confused about how it fit in the Scythe series with the topic that is discussed. I didn’t enjoy it as much because I had no investment in the Scythe that we followed. Some of my favorite stories were “The Mortal Canvas,” because of the discussion of art and creativity and that’s a topic close to my heart. “A Martian Minute” was fascinating because it explored the Mars colony that was mentioned throughout the series and I liked seeing what actually happened. “A Dark Curtain Rises” was interesting to read because I was dying to know what happened after The Toll and this sated that curiosity, at least for now. I loved the Arc of a Scythe series and this book was no exception. The way Shusterman crafts his worlds is something I haven’t seen before and every detail was beautifully written. Shusterman accomplished something amazing with this series and it left me thinking about it long after I’d finished. This collection allows Shusterman to explore more topics about life, humanity, and morality within the Sythe world that there wasn’t time for in the trilogy, but still could be explored within the context of this world. I was very impressed with these stories and I cannot wait for my copy to come in the mail!

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for the Advanced Reader Copy!

Literally can not get these stories out of my head, these stories tied in REALLY well to the Scythe series. Such a stick-with-you work of art that is haunting, but addicting to read about, especially with the intense world building. Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC of Mr. Shusterman's work. Review to be posted on GoodReads, Amazon and IG.

I love the Arc of the Scythe series so I was so excited to see a new collection exploring more stories in the universe. The short stories in this collection really enhance the overall world that the story of Scythe takes place in - this felt like a very welcome edition and added a lot to the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me an ARC of Gleanings. I have read all books in the Arc of a Scythe series so I was extremely excited to read Gleanings. I very much enjoyed reading this collection of short stories as they enriched the scythe world even more and allowed us readers the ability to jump back into this world. As our library has all three Arc of a Scythe books, we will definitely be purchasing Gleanings once it is published. I know the students and faculty at our school will highly enjoy reading the creative and thought-provoking stories in this collection.

I loved the first Scythe book and I liked the rest of the series, but I didn't necessarily NEED this book to exist. There were a few really interesting nuggets in here but there were also some that were a struggle to get through. I would recommend this to people who are big fans of the Scythe world and would really appreciate some extra stories that take place before, during, and after the main story, but casual fans can skip this. (If you're not a wannabe completist like me...)

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an arc of Gleanings in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars -- rounded up.

I devoured the first three books of this series, so I was very excited when I saw another book was coming out. This was a great read and was a multitude of stories from varying points of views and characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but there were some stories that I skimmed through because I just wasn't interested. However, on the flip side, there were some very intriguing and wonderful stories. The stories do not connect in any way but offer insight into some of the other characters within the books.

I found myself wanting more stories about the main characters that I fell in love with reading the stories originally, but they were not present. I rated this book the way I did because I felt a little let down especially after consuming the first books.

I hope for more books in this series and maybe explore some of the main character's past more.

This is a collection of stories from the Scythe universe. It covers aspects from interesting gleanings, different scythes, and past and future stories of main characters. My favorite story was definitely the one with the dog. It had me laughing out loud. I recommend this for any fans for Scythe, but definitely read the trilogy first, because there are spoilers.

This is one of my all time favorite series so I was so excited and it did not disappoint.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Shusterman along with other authors has written beautiful short stories with insight of this world as well as backgrounds of many of the characters.

I would love more of this world.