Name: Toll
Rating: 4.178571428571429 (427 reviews)
ISBN: 9781534455597

Neal Shusterman

Kevin Tong

From New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman comes the thrilling conclusion to the Printz Honor-winning series Arc of a Scythe. 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.

Arc of a Scythe #3

Toll

In the highly anticipated finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy, dictators, prophets, and tensions rise. In a world that’s conquered death, will humanity finally be torn asunder by the immortal beings it created? Citra and Rowan have disappeared. Endura is gone. It seems like nothing stands between Scythe Goddard and absolute dominion over the world scythedom. With the silence of the Thunderhead and the reverberations of the Great Resonance still shaking the earth to its core, the question remains: Is there anyone left who can stop him? The answer lies in the Tone, the Toll, and the Thunder.

The Toll

I was unsure on how this was going to end for almost the entirety of the book. But Shusterman doesn’t write for plot, he writes for message (that just comes with good plots) and it came together. 

Abigail F

amelia <3

Krys C.

Did I think the writing style was getting messy with all the different alternating POVs of essentially what could be one scene? Yes.

Am I willing to overlook that just because of that ending that altered my brain chemistry and changed the trajectory of my life and remade me as a person? Also yes.

When I tell you this series is SO GOOD. SO GOOD. I've rated all three books 5 stars. The worldbuilding is absolutely insane and the plot is sooo good as well. Citra is my absolute fav she just does her thing and I respect her for doing that.

Yeah I just love reading about politics of non-existent worlds :) 

If you liked this book, I recommend: contemplating your existence and the existence of AI for at least a day.

Laura

When I tell you this series is SO GOOD. SO GOOD. I've rated all three books 5 stars. The worldbuilding is absolutely insane and the plot is sooo good as well. Citra is my absolute fav she just does her thing and I respect her for doing that.

Yeah I just love reading about politics of non-existent worlds :) 

If you liked this book, I recommend: contemplating your existence and the existence of AI for at least a day.

abby .˚｡⋆ ༊ .˚｡⋆

wow i really can’t even put into words how i feel about this conclusion to the series. I’m going to miss all of the characters, and i felt satisfied with the endings of their story. SO GLAD that some people got what they deserved in the end. I did feel like the pacing of the story was kinda clunky at times, and then timeline was just so confusing i wish we could’ve gone year by year instead of so many time skips, but i think they tied together nicely in the end. Ultimately, i highly recommend the series and i loved it!!

Luke Harkness

Absolutely phenomenal series

This whole series has grabbed me like no other. Not only is it easy to follow but it is so encaptivating and enjoyable to do so too.

There are so many great characters and a hideously intriguing world that has been built here by Shusterman.

There's no doubt I'd read more if another trilogy was made of this series.

Christine

oeuf I was almost hoping the books would warrant more than three stars but like. the characters I really cared about are mostly gone. this book doesn't even really have citra + rowan dangitttt

chloe rae

nina 

⭐️3.5 stars ⭐️ Spoilers ahead, folks! 

Honestly that ending on its own was something. I liked the way that Shusterman showed that humanity who is flawed in so many ways, was still able to corrupt a perfect, post-mortal world. Even in this “utopia” where humanity overcame all of the world’s problems (death, sickness, poverty, crime, hunger) for 200 years, they was inevitably going to revert to their old ways when people like Goddard or any new-age scythes come into power. At the end of the series, ships were launched into space, to protect the human race, and finally succeeding in off planet colonisation, and the founding scythes’ failsafe was enacted: reintroducing 7 sicknesses of the mortal age to control the population numbers, meaning the end of the scythedom. All in all, it was an interesting way to wrap up the series and it was in a way that I didn’t expect. I thought the series would end with Citra and Rowan overthrowing Goddard and the scythedom returning to order. This, however, was a different direction to take, but was honestly more realistic as it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

While the last 25% of the book was entirely gripping, a fair rating for the book as a whole is 3.5 stars. While the ending successfully wrapped the series, it is my least favourite book in the trilogy. The first half was extremely slow with an influx of new characters and plot lines that jumped back and forward in time, which made it confusing at times to follow. Also, the Citra and Rowan content was severely lacking. The two protagonists were background characters in their own finale and spent a total of five pages together in the whole book! Despite this, I am very sad to finish this series and, as a whole, will be one of my favourites and one I will think of fondly for a long time.

Ally

ASDFASDFJASLDF 

ok uh

the entirety of the book was ~good~. like 3.5 good? I just remember liking the first one so much and I continue to think, why does this one (and the thunderhead) just not click with me as much? I guess I will not know . . . 

it was a good conclusion like GOOD

o final foi TÃO ATOA. Pareceu q ele escreveu a história e no final ficou com preguiça de acabar. Não se passou grande coisa 

taci

alexandra

Audrey Lord

I loved this series and this book was the perfect ending

Anum Memon

** spoiler alert **
           #spoiler alert. #spoiler alert. #spoiler alert. #spoiler alert. #spoiler alert. I finished The Toll and I feel like it was the perfect ending to a series that has changed me in ways that you could not imagine. I loved the ending where Rowan says "only a moment ago" to Citra. I loved it because they were on another planet and it was 17 years later. I also love how Rowan and Citra have gone through so many hardships but they finally got their happy ending that they most certainly deserved. I also love how Scythe Rand kills Scythe Goddard and she also brings back Tyger in his own body. First of all, Tyger and Rand are my second favourite couple. Also Rand always had a good heart all along. Oh, Jerry and Greyson I did not see that couple coming but I kind of loved their threesome ship with the Thunderhead. Curate Mendoza was so annoying, like backstabber much. Anyways I'm so glad he's dead. Lorrainea and Morrison ( Joel ) is kind of a ship. Have to add that I'm happy and sad for Mother Astrid. Also cried like a baby when Citra died ( thankfully she was revived ). Anyways I LOVED THIS BOOK.

Millie Roberts

Fran Gutiérrez

Where to start…
“The Toll” is the conclusion to the Arc of A Scythe trilogy, and I have mixed feelings. 
On the one hand, I know that this was the only way to finish the trilogy, and it was a pretty satisfying ending. However, just because I know the book had to be this way doesn’t mean I love the book. Let’s take a closer look:

PROS 
Pacing: Whereas I found “Thunderhead” to be a bit too slow for my taste, I found “The Toll” a quicker read. It had action, and plenty of plot twists and plot points to keep the reader going. 

Satisfaction: Finishing a series isn’t easy, and this book does a pretty good job of wrapping up all the loose ends and making use of all the seeds that had been planted in the previous books. It was pretty much all it needed to be.

Representation: The book has a genderfluid character! I’m not genderfluid so I can’t speak on the accuracy of this representation, but any book/author that attempts to include marginalized perspectives into the narrative, I appreciate. 

Romance: If you’ve read this series then you know that the romance in the first book is just...not it. But I’m happy to report that even though the romance is very very scarce, the bits of romance that we see in this book were adorable, I’ll admit.

CONS:
Length: While I understand the necessity of many of these scenes, it did feel like the book was a bit too long. A lot of scenes could have been cut and changed next to nothing in the story. 

Stakes: Ok, so the stakes in this book are insanely high, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the specific stakes of Rowan Damisch. In the first book, we are told that Rowan has always been the “lettuce” in his family, and that Rowan had no problem leaving them behind to become a scythe. And then, all of a sudden in this book we are expected to believe that Rowan cares so much about his family to the point that it changes some of the decisions he makes throughout the book? It felt a bit inconsistent to his character and cheapened Rowan’s personal arc in my opinion. 

Unattachment: So the story was good, the characters were fine, and the moral dilemma that is posed throughout the series was interesting. So why did I give the book three stars? Because I enjoyed it a lot! But there were many parts of the book in which, even though I was interested and involved in the story, I felt unattached. I don’t know if it was narration style or what, but at many points in the book I didn’t feel anything. Which is why:

I liked the book, but it was just that: entertaining and cool, but sadly, unlike the first book in the series, this book doesn’t really mean anything to me.

Toll Arc of a Scythe #3

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