In the highly anticipated finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy, dictators, prophets, and tensions rise. In a world that’s conquered death, will humanity finally be torn asunder by the immortal beings it created? Citra and Rowan have disappeared. Endura is gone. It seems like nothing stands between Scythe Goddard and absolute dominion over the world scythedom. With the silence of the … With the silence of the Thunderhead and the reverberations of the Great Resonance still shaking the earth to its core, the question remains: Is there anyone left who can stop him?
The answer lies in the Tone, the Toll, and the Thunder.
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The Toll by Neal Shusterman, published by Walker Books Ltd., is the third and last book in the Arc of a Scythe trilogy, a young adult science fiction series. If you haven’t read the first two books, it would not be wise to read this review! This book takes off after the sinking of Endura at the end of Thunderhead. In the years that follow, Goddard becomes Overblade of the Merican Scythedom, Faraday and Munira discover the Land of Nod, and Greyson becomes a religious figure known as ‘The Toll’ as the Thunderhead only speaks to him. Soon these characters, and many more, will find their paths cross in what could be described as destiny.
While this series has some obvious themes of what death means in a postmortal age and the influence of technology, The Toll has major religious themes. It appeared to me as if the Thunderhead was a god of sorts, always trying to figure out how to be more in touch of humanity. Greyson, playing the role of The Toll, and humanity’s connection to the Thunderhead, would be a Jesus-figure, but not altogether blameless. Though Greyson lies and makes mistakes, he still wants to make the world better and even has his own resurrections story. The religious group call upon “The Tone, the Toll, and the Thunder,” thus making a holy trinity. Though their faith is sometimes misguided, especially when zealots get involved, it proves not to be altogether unfounded. With notes from the future of how people interpret The Tonists’ beliefs also show how many religious beliefs can be misinterpreted and mistranslated through time.
This book, ultimately, was kind of crazy, but in a good way. Shusterman is such a brilliant storyteller, how he’s able to weave many characters’ lives together and incorporate even the smallest details from book one to the final book with such importance. We were introduced to some new characters in this book which made me wary at first but one turned out to be a favorite of mine: Jericho ‘Jeri’ Sobranis, a gender fluid person who feels feminine under the sun and masculine under the clouds. I thought Jeri was a great representation of gender fluidity, and though Jeri did have to constantly remind characters of preferred pronouns, Jeri’s whole identity wasn’t in that. Jeri actually had some really important parts within the story, tagging along to see the wonder of characters crossing paths. I want to give this book five stars for it’s absolute brilliance. However, there are some reasons I have to knock a star out….
The first reason is for the slow pace in the beginning. It took about a hundred pages to find out what happened to Citra and Rowan. The first hundred pages seemed to focus on Faraday, who is one of my favorite characters but I needed to know about the others due to the last cliffhanger! I also felt that this book had just too much to fit in. I think the storyline would have fit better over a longer series. The first two books span about a year, and then around four years take place in the third book, sometimes wavering back and forth so the timeline became confusing to me. Perhaps this is how some of the brilliance of seeing how characters will interact comes from, but there were times it just seemed too complicated. I’m also a bit creeped out by the Thunderhead’s attraction to Greyson and not wholly satisfied with the ending, though near the ending made me yell and cry as I felt a shift in my heart.
Goddard has risen to power and the Thunderhead has labeled all but one human Unsavory. Greyson, now the only person left to speak with the Thunderhead, quickly becomes a Tonist figurehead. As he attempts to sway those around him for the better of humanity, Goddard is basking in power, gleaning any and all he pleases. The perfect world is falling apart and help will come from an unexpected place. But can the Thunderhead help a world that it can no longer communicate with? Or has it made an error in it’s calculations?
Neal Shusterman showed the theme of a perfect society achieving it’s inevitable downfall with sarcasm, wit and dark humor. I enjoyed the Thunderhead’s scheming and it’s attempt to circumvent rules without breaking them. I also enjoyed seeing Greyson emerge as a reformed and driven character. As with the previous books, there were snippets in between chapters, but this time they varied. Sometimes readers were privy to information from Scythe journals, other times it was people from centuries in the future trying to glean meaning from the events unfolding in what would be their past. Although I felt the latter was more filler than anything else.
While the book was fast paced and I found any spare moment to sit down and read it, when I finished I felt like something was missing. Characters that were once active and outstanding to read, fell to the wayside and became only ghosts of themselves, serving to move the plot forward and little else. Throughout the series the character arcs were brilliantly written. Citra, Rowan, Greyson and Goddard to name the most prominent, were unique and allowed a build up of tension and conflict to keep the reader glued to the pages. I won’t say that their arcs didn’t come to appropriate endings for them all, but some were left lacking.
And the ending was so well built up and tempered into being an exciting mix of hope and desperation, but it fizzled out too soon. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t entirely satisfying either. Like all the build up and anticipated conflict was concluded too soon, too anticlimactic. Do I still think this series is worth reading? Yes, absolutely. The writing style is enjoyable and the humor was perfect for me, I just wish it had concluded better.
I gave this novel four and a half stars.
I have to say, this was a phenomenal ending to the series, and I am very happy I finished this series.
Continuing from the second book, a lot is up in the air. Citra and Rowan are seemingly gone, and Scythe Goddard is now in control of North Merica. With this new world order, the planet seems to be teetering on the edge of something chaotic. Can anyone stop Goddard and his insatiable lust for power and control before things get even worse?
There are so many great things about this book.
The characters, first and foremost were what really made this journey a great one. There are plenty of characters in this book, maybe technically too many, but Shusterman spins an interconnected web between them that makes each of them vital, salient to the plot. Obviously, Citra and Rowan are my favorites, and I enjoyed seeing them continue to fight for a better world. I will say that they didn’t have as much progression as they did in books one and two, but that didn’t bother me. I think they simply plateaued as people.
Greyson was probably the biggest shock for me. In the second book, he kind of came off as a poser to me, and going in I still had that feeling. But he really did grow on me and I think he had some great progression, enough to make me think at the end ‘You’re okay kiddo, you’re okay.’ I also loved Jeri’s gender fluid character. They get major kudos for bringing attention to non-binary individuals as well as some major support through this novel.
The plot was riveting. We kind of start the book with a hard reset. The way back to a better world is going to be a rollercoaster ride, and that’s exactly what we got. Mystery, action, and double crosses in spades!
I will admit that the first half of the book definitely had its slower moments, but at a certain point there’s a shift and things just keep amping up. And those last 100 pages? That’s why this is a four and a half star and not just four stars. I was blown away in those last pages. Obviously I can’t spoil it for you, but I thought I knew what was going to happen and I was so wrong! I loved the shift that happened and the ending that resulted.
Overall, this book and series are unforgettable, and it ranks right up there with Lois Lowry’s Giver series. If you like YA/Dystopian with a thoughtful twist, give this series a read!
Neal Shusterman is, hands down, one of my favorite authors now. He weaves such a great tale into every single one of his books. This was a great ending to the series, and if you haven’t read SCYTHE or THUNDERHEAD, you must go do so now. These books are so rich, so full of depths that make you think and leave you in awe of Shusterman’s storytelling talent. I love the way this book ended the series, in the only way it COULD end. I won’t give anything away, but it was very satisfying. Ahhhh. I’m sorry this series is over, but I’m glad I got to read it.
2.5
Okay, I don’t even know where to start with this book and how to review it without spoilers, but I will try my best.
I really enjoyed the series so far, book one was a bit slow but great. book two was a faster pace and still great.
This book…… I had some issues with…. but that was okay until we hit the end. And the longer I think about the end the angrier I get about it. But I will (try) to get that in a bit without spoiling it.
The beginning was okay but a bit slow again, but it picked up shortly after it we caught up with everyone who is still alive form previous books.
Not only that, but we also meet some new faces and people,( if you know the series you know that the two are not always are a same ). For the most part I liked that, I loved that we get to see things happening all over the world and how the events from last book affect everyone around the globe. But at the same time that made it confusing at times.
The thunderhead is still there but not talking to anyone except to one person… for the most part. Thunderhead had a plan and that plan is taking place everywhere and lots of work to get there. On a side note, thunderhead became downright creepy at some points in this book, just saying .
We the reader and for that matter the characters, don’t know what that plan is until the very end, when it is happening .
The ending …. Wow ……
I will just leave it at that
This book is not short and we had like 600 some pages to come to a great end, but this felt like a cheat …. this felt stupid. That for almost 600 pages we worked toward this ending. ….. Honestly I think he could have tagged 100 more pages on book two and get to this ending and skipped book three completely.
The only thing I liked about the ending was Citra and Rowan and some others but I can’t say much because of…… Spoilers.
Over all liked books one and two. I enjoyed the series for the most part. I did not care for the ending much ….. At all.
I think I give the overall series 3.5 – 4
This book 2.5 There were some parts I liked but for the most part I thought this book could/ should have been avoided ….. I also feel like I should watch The 100 again.
🙂
I’m still pissed this ended and I read it long ago. I know all great things must come to an end but it physically hurts when I think how much I loved these characters.
A great ending to a thrilling story! A few parts read a little slow but the build up was exceptional. I did enjoy the many different perspectives but wished for more of Citra and Rowan. That said, this series is still an absolute joy to read and this book is compelling and enthralling. All in all, a wonderful read!
Such a great trilogy, I am excited for the movies and just hope it does the books justice like Harry Potter
Oh, my, gosh. I LOVED this series. See my review on book one for more details, but frankly, I need more.
This took an interesting turn to finish out the series. It was still really good and the story kept me engaged. I am glad I listened to it and I would highly suggest it. But, be ready for a surprise twist about how things are handled.
I was so excited about the release of this book, because I absolutely LOVED Scythe and Thunderhead. I had high expectations, which might be part of the reason for my disappointment. But I was disappointed, for several reasons.
First, while Scythe followed Rowan and Citra almost exclusively, and Thunderhead followed them and also introduced Grayson, The Toll was all over the place in terms of characters. There were several new characters introduced whom I never had a chance to care about because we didn’t stick with any one perspective long enough. Citra and Rowan didn’t even come into the story until like 4 hours in. While the scope of the plot was always worldwide, in the other two books we got to experience worldwide events as they affected one character (or a few) with whom we could identify. In this one, though, it felt like we were observing the whole thing from 30,000 feet. It’s like the difference between reading statistics about a disaster, versus hearing an individual’s story that tugs on your heartstrings.
Second, it had been long enough since I read Thunderhead that I forgot how certain characters came to be where they were… and if The Toll does refresh the reader’s memory on this, I missed it. This might be my fault, because I was listening to the audio version, so maybe I wasn’t paying attention to every detail. But it required suspension of disbelief on a number of points because I couldn’t recall why things were the way they were. Some of the events that occurred in The Toll also didn’t make a lot of logical sense to me. They just seemed convenient plot devices to keep the story moving.
Third, there was a very clear political agenda, it seemed to me. The author’s views about the way society should be (from a particular political viewpoint) played heavily into the story, and was painted in a soft romantic light. This made me feel like I was being emotionally manipulated to agree with him.
For all that, I did still enjoy the story. I was fully engaged at least in the parts where Citra/Scythe Anastasia and Rowan were together or searching for each other. I still loved the character of the Thunderhead –in many ways, its character seemed like God to me. (I disliked some aspects of the ending, mostly because the Thunderhead was my favorite character.) But it’s hard to know how to wrap up a story like this one. The overall plot is still incredibly creative and unique. I just wish I could recommend the first two books in this series without necessarily recommending the third. But Thunderhead ends on a cliffhanger more or less, so it doesn’t really leave that option.
Endura has fallen. Citra and Rowan are missing. Scythe Curie has sacraficed herself, and Goddard is not in charge. The Thunderhead has gone silent and everyone declared unsavory. Goddard needs to be stopped, but by whom?
I don’t want to give anything away in this book because I know that many people have been waiting for this book. It is a large book, and characters from all different directions are coming together to try and resolve what has happened. Trying to rectify what has happened to Endura. Getting the Thunderhead to talk to them again. Figuring out where to go next and what role the Scythes should have moving forward.
The ending was a bit of a let down, but I think it was only because I was hoping for more. He did wrap it up, and we know what is happening when he ends the book, but I wished for more none the less. I am mostly just sad that this series is over because it has been awhile since I have found a good trilogy to be excited about.
This was the thrilling finale to a great trilogy and the author did a great job with the ending of the main characters…
I’ll miss the thunderhead so much 🙁
In this book you’ll be able to know more about Greyson and of course scythe Anastasia, scythe Lucifer, scythe Faraday and the despicable schyte Goddard.
Goddard is doing everything to keep the power and kill his enemies and the tonists among them.
The thunderhead has a lot of secret plans for the toll aka Greyson and for human kind, if you loved the first two books then you must read this.