When Dr. Warthrop begins to doubt fourteen-year-old Will Henry's loyalty, he sets him against one of the most horrific creatures in the Monstrumarium unaware that Will's life and his own fate will lie in the balance.

In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed (gleaned) by professional reapers (scythes). Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythe's apprentices, and despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation they must learn the art of killing and come to understand the necessity of what they do. Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe's apprentice. And when it becomes clear that the...

Sixteen-year-old Lady Ember Morrow fulfills a family obligation by joining her friend Alistair in the Conatus Guard and begins training to help with the order's true mission, to seek out and stop evildoers and their unnatural creations.