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A review by turtles1738
The Toll by Neal Shusterman
1.0
To say The Toll was a disappointment would be an understatement. I’m actually baffled by how bad it is. Especially coming off Thunderhead which I found to be the best book in the series. Everything from the poor pacing, lackluster plotlines, unnecessary new characters, and disappointing treatment of existing characters left me wishing that I left the series unfinished.
One of the most glaring issues I had with The Toll was how the characterization of several key characters from the previous two books were completely undermined. One of the worst being Scythe Constatine. In book two he comes off as reasonable, intelligent, and always looking for the truth. However, in this book he blindly follows Goddard and doesn’t even seem to suspect his involvement in the fall of Endura. Most of the old guard don’t seem to question Goddard’s involvement in Endura which made me feel insane. Like they all just became stupid and forgot everything Goddard had done in the last two books.
The most jarring characterization choice has to be the fate of Citra and Rowan though. The book essentially ends with them abandoning earth to form a new colony on a different planet. Which was an extremely baffling and unsatisfying conclusion to their arcs. After everything they've experienced throughout the trilogy, the decision to leave behind the world they fought to change felt completely contradictory to what their characters were.
Another issue I had was the sudden and somewhat forced exploration of gender fluidity in the novel. For some reason, Shusterman decided to introduce a new character named Jerry. Whose only purpose was to be a token LGBTQ+ person. Multiple chapters and instances were dedicated to Jerry explaining what it means to be gender fluid. Which all felt like politically motivated insertions rather than natural parts of the narrative. The heavy-handiness of it really took me out of the book every time. It was that jarring and ungenuine feeling.
I could go on and on about how bad the Tonist plot line was, but I feel I’ve given this book more time than it deserves.
One of the most glaring issues I had with The Toll was how the characterization of several key characters from the previous two books were completely undermined. One of the worst being Scythe Constatine. In book two he comes off as reasonable, intelligent, and always looking for the truth. However, in this book he blindly follows Goddard and doesn’t even seem to suspect his involvement in the fall of Endura. Most of the old guard don’t seem to question Goddard’s involvement in Endura which made me feel insane. Like they all just became stupid and forgot everything Goddard had done in the last two books.
The most jarring characterization choice has to be the fate of Citra and Rowan though. The book essentially ends with them abandoning earth to form a new colony on a different planet. Which was an extremely baffling and unsatisfying conclusion to their arcs. After everything they've experienced throughout the trilogy, the decision to leave behind the world they fought to change felt completely contradictory to what their characters were.
Another issue I had was the sudden and somewhat forced exploration of gender fluidity in the novel. For some reason, Shusterman decided to introduce a new character named Jerry. Whose only purpose was to be a token LGBTQ+ person. Multiple chapters and instances were dedicated to Jerry explaining what it means to be gender fluid. Which all felt like politically motivated insertions rather than natural parts of the narrative. The heavy-handiness of it really took me out of the book every time. It was that jarring and ungenuine feeling.
I could go on and on about how bad the Tonist plot line was, but I feel I’ve given this book more time than it deserves.