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A review by oashackelford
The Toll by Neal Shusterman
5.0
The Scythedom has been turned upside down by Scythe Goddard. Scythe Anastasia is missing, the Grandslayers have been murdered, and the thunderhead is no longer speaking to the people. Well, he is still speaking to one person. Greyson Tolliver has become the Toll, a quasi-prophet for the tonists, and at this point he is the only person in the world who can hear the Thunderhead. He is also the only person standing in the way of Scythe Goddard's quest for power. Can the scythedom ever return to normalcy? Will the world survive Scythe Goddard's cruelty?
I know a lot of people felt like this book did not answer every question they had about the futures of all of the characters in this book, but I thought it answered the questions that it initially set out to answer and reasonably left the future somewhat ambiguous so that the reader could come to their own conclusions.
I thought that it was a very satisfying end to the series. I thought that it was interesting to make the series more about humans and how morally gray we all are, rather than just focus on all of the gleanings. I feel like this book makes you take a look at yourself and think about how you conduct your life, and whether or not you would consider a change. One of the recurring themes of the book is that humans no longer have passion in their lives because no one gets desperately sad and death is no longer feared. It makes you think about whether or not you appreciate your own life and enjoy the highs and lows of it. It also makes you think about people's quests for power and how power corrupts even the most incorruptible.
If you don't like ambiguous endings, then you might not enjoy this book. However, if you do enjoy thinking about books for a long time after you have read them, and books that lead you to the right conclusions but not spelling them out for you, then I think it is a great ending to the series.
I really liked that the final decision of the founding scythes was to end the scythedom and to let death be random again. I don't think that the scythes were ever meant to govern the people and I was worried when Goddard started taking over that they were going to rule as minor gods and no longer pay attention to the people as people anymore. I do wish that they would have spelled out Goddard's crimes against humanity in greater detail, but I don't think that it was the point. I did think that it was very entertaining to have Anastasia do live broadcasts and talk to the people that way, but I didn't understand why Alighieri, even if he thought he was giving himself credit, would have told anyone on a live broadcast that he helped to end humanity's space colonization efforts.
I know a lot of people felt like this book did not answer every question they had about the futures of all of the characters in this book, but I thought it answered the questions that it initially set out to answer and reasonably left the future somewhat ambiguous so that the reader could come to their own conclusions.
I thought that it was a very satisfying end to the series. I thought that it was interesting to make the series more about humans and how morally gray we all are, rather than just focus on all of the gleanings. I feel like this book makes you take a look at yourself and think about how you conduct your life, and whether or not you would consider a change. One of the recurring themes of the book is that humans no longer have passion in their lives because no one gets desperately sad and death is no longer feared. It makes you think about whether or not you appreciate your own life and enjoy the highs and lows of it. It also makes you think about people's quests for power and how power corrupts even the most incorruptible.
If you don't like ambiguous endings, then you might not enjoy this book. However, if you do enjoy thinking about books for a long time after you have read them, and books that lead you to the right conclusions but not spelling them out for you, then I think it is a great ending to the series.
Spoiler
I really liked that the final decision of the founding scythes was to end the scythedom and to let death be random again. I don't think that the scythes were ever meant to govern the people and I was worried when Goddard started taking over that they were going to rule as minor gods and no longer pay attention to the people as people anymore. I do wish that they would have spelled out Goddard's crimes against humanity in greater detail, but I don't think that it was the point. I did think that it was very entertaining to have Anastasia do live broadcasts and talk to the people that way, but I didn't understand why Alighieri, even if he thought he was giving himself credit, would have told anyone on a live broadcast that he helped to end humanity's space colonization efforts.