The Toll is the third book in the Arc of Scythe Trilogy, a series that has been compared to The Hunger Games. Earlier this year I did read the previous two books in this series, if you want to check out my thoughts on them click the links:
After the ending of the second book I picked up The Toll straight away, however it took me over 2 months to read in total. Do with that information what you will.
This is the third book in a series, so there will be spoilers for the previous books in here. If you do not mind spoilers, please read on, but if you are like me and cannot stand spoilers…come back and read this once you are done reading the series!
THE REVIEW
Summary of the book
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.
Summary taken from Goodreads
My thoughts: The layout of the book
Just like with the other books in the series, we have got different parts which separate different events within the book/story.
Within the story we also have many different points of view and perspectives: we have Citra/Anastasia’s perspective, Rowan/Lucifer’s perspective, Goddard and Rand’s perspective, Scythe Faraday’s perspective, Jeri’s perspective, Greyson’s perspective…I think you can tell what I am going to say but there are way too many perspectives for this book!
I understand that there are so many different elements of the world and the story that need to be explored to tie up all the lose ends…but I feel like it may have been better if this book was split into two. Instead of being a three book series I think it should have been a four book series, and yes it sometimes is seen as a money grab, but I kept forgetting what was happening because of the perspectives and everything that was happening.
This is why I think that the parts did not have the same effect as in the previous books. However, I will say that my favourite part was the final Part of the book as the perspectives ‘came together’ if that makes sense?
Even then, I felt that the endings was a bit weak… click to view my spoiler thoughts!
Space… it seemed like a bit of a cop out or a bit anticlimatic. I was expecting a confrontation against Scythe Goddard or a revolution lead by Anasatasia. It seemed to be leaning that way because of the television speeches that Anastasia was doing throughout the book…but I guess they were all for nothing?
And the fact that Thunderhead no longer speaks to people because everyone is still marked as unsavory just seems a bit confusing. Surely they would no longer be marked unsavory so that they could communicate again?
I pulled out all the books in the series from my shelf and something that I noticed that was really satisfying about the series is that:
Book 1 has one person on the cover…
Book 2 has two people on the cover…
Book 3 has three people on the cover!
This design continuity was incredibly satisfying when I saw it first, and I really liked the colour choices, although book 2 and book 3 were really similar… I feel like they could have potentially gone into the purple tones a bit more? I know I am nit picking…but still!
My thoughts: General
I am disappointed, I will not lie. I had such high hopes after finishing off Thunderhead and having such a major cliff hanger. It just did not live up to the standard set sadly.
The main disappointments:
- Too many characters
- Too many perspectives
But there are always positives
- Even though there were a lot of characters, I did enjoy the addition of Jeri and the further insight that we got into Greyson’s character (especially after the ending of Thunderhead).
- Even though we had a lot of perspectives, I enjoyed how they came together in the final part, as well as the different settings we were able to see throughout, but I must admit it was quite difficult to remember all of them in the end.
If I am honest, it has almost been a week since reading the book that I am writing this review, and thinking about the book is just getting me a bit down. It was, for me personally, such a let down. I really did think that the ending was a bit of a weak one and it just felt a bit anticlimactic to read especially with how long it was.
I would rather not waste anyone’s time by doing a waffley revue of it so I will end it here. Hopefully in future when I re read the series I will have a different thought process, but it was just an overall let down.
Would I recommend this book?
Overall the series is one that I have really enjoyed reading, with the first two books being some of the top ones I have read this year as they were both 5 star reads. This third book just did not live up to what I had expected or thought would happen within the series, and it did not provide the closure or the finishing touch that you would want a final book to have.
I would say that I would recommend the series as a whole, it lives up to the mantra of being the next Hunger Games in my eyes as it had the feeling or vibe linked to it. But is it the best series of all time? No. Is Neal Shusterman a great author and writer? Yes absolutely!
My rating
(3.5/5 stars)
The Little Sunflower Library 
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