The Toll by Neal Shusterman
(Arc of a Scythe, Book 3)
Released: November 5, 2019 | Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian
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It’s been three years since Rowan and Citra disappeared; since Scythe Goddard came into power; since the Thunderhead closed itself off to everyone but Grayson Tolliver.
In this pulse-pounding conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe trilogy, constitutions are tested and old friends are brought back from the dead.
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Neal Shusterman cut an entire subplot from The Toll after realizing it didn't work with the ending he wanted. The discarded storyline followed Citra's brother as he trained to become a Scythe in her absence. Shusterman had already written the whole thing, so instead of letting it go to waste, he planned to save it for a future Arc of a Scythe short-story collection.
REVIEW
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆
Absolutely amazing… BUT. 👍👍👍🤷♂️
As expected, The Toll is beautifully written and brimming with the philosophical depth that made this series so compelling. In fact, Arc of a Scythe is easily the most thought-provoking dystopian YA series out there; smart, layered, and absolutely deserving of “must-read” status. A damn-near perfect trilogy.
That said, I’m very big on endings. To me, a bad ending can sink a great book, and a great ending can rescue a mediocre one. The Toll somehow lands in the gray area in between. It’s not bad… it’s just not the ending I was hoping for.
It didn’t leave me reflecting on the mortality of man, the looming threat of overpopulation, our increasing dependence on cloud computing, or society’s near-religious reverence for AI.
Instead, I found myself thinking, Really? You went that route? In a borderline Stephen King kind of way (and he’s notorious for shaky endings), the story felt like it didn’t have a clearly mapped endgame. Yes, loose threads were tied up, but that nagging question of where do our characters go from here? still lingered.
SPOILER: Turns out, the author’s answer was simple: Somewhere else. The world went to hell, so they just… left.
