Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Toll by Neal Shusterman

28 reviews

hilocrasher's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Gore, and Gun violence

shamciar's review against another edition

hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I think I enjoyed the commentary on politics, religion, and technology and their places within society more than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the cast, but this book feels more plot-driven than character-driven. The concept of gender fluidity could have been writtwn better, and the abrupt ending left a lot things on the table. Otherwise, I am satisfied with this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, and War

leof555's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Suicide

a_cera_t0ps's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was kind of hard to read, especially compared to the others in the series. I'm conflicted on how I should review this book. On one hand, it had it's moments, and those moments were strong, but there was so much going on, and it felt like too many threads were being waved all at once. The pacing was a little funky because of that, and now instead of our 2-3 main characters, we had like 8 different perspectives and 3 different new forms of the journal entries. There was so much that this book did, and I feel like it had plenty of really, really good ideas, but there were just too many. I understand that each part of the story was connected to each other, but what it added was outweighed by how it started to stop working. The entire book is so plot driven that it accidentally sacrifices the characters. There are some wonderful moments, but all of the relationships introduced and/or created barely have any time to develop.

A big thing about this book was the pacing. The ending is built up to for the entirety of this book, yet it is crammed in with no proper send off. The last 100 pages holds the primary narrative. It feels like the author got carried away with the in-between scenes that he lost focus of the primary plot. Brief character exploration scenes and years worth exposition goes from being subservient to the story to becoming 93% of the text.

I know that Neal Shusterman is a wonderful author, and I can even see his excellence in this book as well. There are scenes and ideas that hit so hard, that deserve to be published and read, but there was just too much book for one book here. As the 3rd novel in a series, it's odd to me that it felt like the season of a TV show right before it's taken off the air, especially considering that, even though this book is the official finale, there was a spin-off book.

The reason I say I'm conflicted is because I enjoyed this book. But I was also weary and disappointed. I've read worse books than this and not minded, but the reason this one is so hard is because I see how it was imperfect and yet simultaneously almost perfect.

I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea and think that thid book sucked, or that Neal Shusterman is a bad or iffy writer. I think, to a certain degree, the panic and overwhelming nature that is portrayed in the story makes it as good as it is. I'm really just. .. well, conflicted.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Genocide, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Gore, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Gaslighting

bookishlucy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don't know how to put into words how I feel about this book. Neal's worldbuilding is so expansive without being overwhelming or confusing. While there are a lot of different characters, even new ones not previously introduced until this book, I connected with all of them. The ending was an emotional roller coaster and I basically sobbed through the last 70 or so pages.
It's been a while since a series has moved me this much and I'm already wishing I could experience it again for the first time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Grief, Suicide, Kidnapping, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent and Car accident

chelly_reads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Murder

jenheartbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Good stuff. I was consistently impressed with plot points, often surprised, and amused by the humor. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Violence

hales_1243's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Grief, Homophobia, Blood, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Transphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Child death, Kidnapping, Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Cancer, Abandonment, Gun violence, and Vomit

Mention of plane crashes.

fancypotato1995's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Classism, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Genocide, Hate crime, and Violence

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

cerilouisereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Genocide, and Fire/Fire injury