Reviews

The Toll by Neal Shusterman

Only show reviews with written explanations

jreadsalot's review

Go to review page

medium-paced

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

3.0

ap088's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Do I normally rate DNFs? NOPE.

This is an exception.

I DNFed 150 pages in. 150 pages of content far amped up from the other two books (was it really necessary to make me question for two whole chapters whether Shusterman was implying a sex scene or not? Like, bruh, you killed someone with a tuning fork, chopped someone's head off, and then glued it back on to someone else's body. JUST STATE THE THING). 150 pages of characters I didn't know. 150 pages where my anger turned up and up and up.

Faraday? A frail, weak shadow of the man we once knew.

Curie? *incoherent, angry goat screaming*

Citra and Rowan? We're just going to pretend that didn't happen.

Munira? Flat.

Goddard? STUPID. Why, oh why couldn't there be a different villain from book 2-3? Why???????

Why is this book so stupid

Why

W
H
Y

I am angry. I am not pleased. I loved Scythe with all my heart. I disliked Thunderhead because it took what was brilliant about Scythe and marked it down to a sub-par, ordinary YA dystopian.

But this book? It took Scythe's brilliance and chucked it in a trash can, burned it, and scattered its ashes on a cigarette tray to be thrown out with the garbage.

1 scathing DNFed star.

maida's review

Go to review page

2.0

”You can't expose a lie without first shattering the will to believe it. That is why leading people to truth is so much more effective than merely telling them.”

I think this is the most disappointed I’ve been in… quite a while. The amount of potential this trilogy had made it almost impossible to ruin and yet… I didn’t like this conclusion.

I think Neal Shusterman bit more than he could chew. There were way too many time jumps and different storylines that it was not only hard to follow, but also not really fun to do so.

Let’s go through some of the things I liked about this book:
• The religious parallels. “The Tone, the Toll, the Thunder”, I mean, c’mon! It was brilliant.
• The Thunderheads’ experiments.
• The interpretations of Tonists teachings between chapters were funny as hell.
• And, I can’t believe I’m saying this, Greyson. I really did like his chapters this time around. He truly was my beacon of light through this book.

Now, as for the things I didn’t like:
• As I’ve already said, I thought the pacing was dreadful. The time jumps made no sense and a lot of stuff felt… inconsequential, in a way?
• Jeri. I mean… What? What’s the point of them, again? Besides, you know, being the only lgbtqia+ character in the whole trilogy. Is that what people call… a token?
• I can’t believe I’m mentioning this again, but are we really supposed to root for Rowan and Citra’s relationship? I’m-
• Goddard has been a comic book villain since book one, but this just got way too out of hand.

In a sense, what I’m most disappointed about is the fact that this book didn’t surprise me at all. Yes, there were a couple reveals that I thought were interesting… but not at all what I’ve come to expect from this book series.

Still, the Arc of Scythe series was really fun to get through, and though I didn’t enjoy thins finale as much as I wanted to, I’m still glad I got to read the whole thing at once.

8. A book with a two-word title where the first word is ""The""

amelia_rose_20's review

Go to review page

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.25

8/10 | "The Toll" delivers a fulfilling and heartrending conclusion to a remarkable series. Its unexpected journey, though slightly less intense than its predecessors, satisfyingly resolves the fates of its characters.