The Toll
Ratings276
Average rating4.1
(3.5 stars)
+1 star for: THE ENDING??? wow the last 20% of this book felt like a blur, i couldn't put it down!
+1 star for: a happy ending! i was so hype when the fake out with anastasia was revealed. and HELLO??? 1,500 years alone for Astrid.... wow that reveal was so so so intense
+3 stars for: the Thunderheads contingencies for the animals!! loved it!!!
-1 star for: the overall format of the book. generally i like when books are either told out of order or have unique formatting in them but having BOTH was honestly a bit too much for me. i found it a little too confusing that at some points i just didn't care lol
-.5 stars for: MAKING MY KING ROMAN DAMISCH WAIT 117 YEARS TO BE WITH HIS ONE TRUE LOVE UGH HASNT HE SUFFERED ENOUGHHHHHH
Le colocaría 3.5 si pudiera, pero dejémoslo en 4 estrellas, los primeros 2 libros me los leí de una sentada, no podía parar de lo buenos que eran, pero este se sintió más lento como que la trama no terminaba de avanzar cosa que hizo que me demorara como 4 meses en leerlo (me provoco un bloqueo lector en resumen). Entre ayer y hoy finalmente lo termine y pues la verdad si me gusto, el final no me lo esperaba y pues estuvo chido
What a finish to this dystopic series by Neal Shusterman. I have never ever thought I can find so many plot twists in one book. Until this one. And it was really great. It will have a special place in my heart and in my bookshelf especially after meeting Neal Shusterman in person during our book convention in Prague. He is simply perfect and Arc of Scythe is such a special series.
Great, but not amazing. I think the Thunderhead was better, and Scythe is waaaay better. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't read 87% of it on my phone's narrow, annoyingy glarey and eye-fatiguing screen. Glad I have an e-reader now.
Still a good read. Buuuut what happened to those elegies Faraday told Rowan to make for his victims? That plot thread was just left there, hanging. Okay, technically that's a cliffhanger from Thunderhead, not The Toll, but still, come on. I wanted to read those elegies! I wanted to seeing how Rowan would handle them!
I guess the lesson of this book is that humanity can't be perfect. Therefore, to embrace our humanity means to embrace death and imperfection. That message still has two ways of being interpreted, though...
I took the time to write a nice long review for this, but I forgot to save it before switching to the dates read page :(
A brief summary: good book that was interesting and different from the others in the series, but had problems with subtlety. As a fluid person myself, I think that Jeri didn't need to explain their gender each time they met a new character. Readers are smart, just put something like "the characters made small talk, and found that they had a few things in common." They'll understand!
Additionally, the sections between chapters that are annotations of a Tonist text are really funny and accurate to irl religion. As someone raised Christian, that is exactly what goes on in the adult Sunday school classes.
Memulai penutup seri Arc of Scythe dengan hanya 10% ingatan dimana Thunderhead berakhir. Endura tenggelam, membawa serta Citra dan Rowan bersamanya. Thunderhead menjadi diam. Scythe Goddard dinobatkan menjadi Overblade. Jadi siapa yang akan menghentikannya?
Membutuhkan waktu yang lama untukku untuk mencapai 100 halaman pertama, karena sudah lupa Thunderhead. Butuh beberapa kali japri @myreadingplace , thanks ya bestie
Wow. This whole series invites you to rethink life.
The Toll is the third book in a series that imagines a future where humans have created sentient AI and advanced medicine and technology to the point where no-one has to die. But, alas, folks do still have to die, so there is a whole group of people, the Scythes, who are charged with killing people to keep the populations down. There is a religious movement in this post-mortality age, where some adherents are quite fervent (as always), but they believe in one true resonant sound. Some stuff happens in the books where there is a big noise - because the AI gets mad/sad, and these religious people get pretty excited about it and set up a hero/prophet (The Toll).
This whole third book is set up with three “people” perspectives: The Toll, The AI, and The Sycthes...and we see how these things play out. There are actually a lot of fantastic characters, and quite a bit is happening, but that is the gist.
Surprisingly, Shusterman is able to wrap this up with an ending that is both a bit of a twist and somewhat anticipated - bringing all of our worlds together and apart.
Recommend the whole series - you cannot start with this book, though, start with Scythe.
2 ⭐️
no thoughts, head empty. the ending was good, but not great, and everything else... i didn't hate it, but didn't love it.
also the fact that rowan was on the sidelines for 2/3rds of the series was... questionable.
Il y a tellement de personnages à suivre en parallèle que certains sont oubliés pendant un long moment. C'est un peu dommage mais on en apprend plus sur le Thunderhead ce qui est plutôt bienvenue.
La fin me semble en revanche un peu faiblarde.
—————
There are so many characters to follow in parallel that some are forgotten for a long time. It's a bit of a shame but we learn more about the Thunderhead which is rather welcome.
The ending seems a little weak to me.
It's hard for me when authors break their own rules. The world and characters did not feel entirely consistent in this final installment, and it made it hard for me to be satisfied with the ending.
Age range: 15+
Probably too violent for younger readers. Plus, the philosophy of death may be distressing.
Simplemente estoy en shock. No sé qué decir. Me ha encantado esta trilogía, y ese final, madre mía. He cogido mucho cariño a Greyson/Trueno, sin duda creo que es de mis personajes favoritos. Además, creo que no podría haber tenido un mejor final, 10/10 Shusterman.
I love fantasy and sci-fi, but I also enjoy it when there is a real thing and thought put in the story. Neal Shusterman was able to give something realistic and fascinating at the end of this trilogy.
We continue to explore the idea of mortality and immortality in this last book, and it is still fascinating. Definitely, this trilogy is one of the best YA sci-fi that I've ever read! Excellent story and brilliant ending!
8 8 8 7 8 7 9 7.86 4
I loved this book. Such a Good ending to this Series
CAWPILE SCORE
C-8
A-8
W-8
P-7
I-8
L-7
E-9
TOTAL-7.86/10
very glad that it didn't fall into the trope of the AI turning bad.
I will be talking about it on Libromancy https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-nkj8z-1152cee
This book captivated me through every moment, I felt myself taking deep breaths and my heart racing to figure out what was next - wanting to know what was next. It's a feeling I haven't felt in a long time but it is very welcome, this book somehow, was able to outshine the prequels. A splendid ending to a story that I will not be forggetting.
Sadly, I found the ending quite disappointing. I also don't understand the need for romance, but I guess it's what you get with YA novels.
Every single book this man has written has made me cry so far. The stories are woven together so well.
I loved Jerico in this book and loved that they were a bigger part of the story yet again. I kind of knew where their path was going and am really glad that it ended how I hoped it would. This goes for Greyson as well. To be honest I lose the way all the characters stories were left at the end.
You best believe I will be reading all the books this man has ever written and my life will be better for it.
HOLY MOLY!!! This book had such suspense and mystery! At every point you were unsure of what would happen next! I said before that Scythe Anastasia and Greyson were my favorite characters but I have to correct myself cause Jerico is the ABSOLUTE BEST!
Não fazia ideia do que ia rolar pra finalizar essa história e Neal Shusterman foi lá e me surpreendeu com um final maravilhoso. Gostei demais de todo o ritmo desse livro, que é sim um pouco mais lento que os outros - que são porradaria grande, mas a história é tão boa e as construções das tramas tão interessantes que detalhes ficam em segundo plano. É um final de trilogia muito bom, amei assim como amei os outros dois.
My feelings about this third installment of the Arc of Scythe trilogy are very mixed. While I enjoyed the action and intrigue, I found that there was just too much going on which made it hard for me feel attached any one storyline. I feel like this book would have been better in a pared down version with more focus.
In this final book of the series, Scythe Goddard has achieved reign over much of his continent after the sinking of Endura. His influence reaches even farther into other regions of the world. His new order of scythes embraces mass gleanings and shows no conscience or mercy. The Tonists have a new prophet, the Toll, who can still speak to the Thunderhead, which has gone silent to all others. These two forces stand at odds with each other and could destroy humanity.
My main issue with this book is that there are too many story lines, and the narration jumps around too often between these story lines. It never allows the reader to connect completely with each story line before switching to a different one. Some story lines are abandoned for quite a while so that when the book comes back to them, the reader has lost touch with that story and its characters. I am aware that this may be an aspect of the book that some readers find appealing, but it is jarring to me. I can appreciate the skill that it took the author to weave these story lines together, but it just didn't work for me.
I also wish that Citra and Rowan had played more prevalent roles in this book. These characters that I grew to love in the first two books are the main reason for my continued reading of the series. To have them be so absent in this book is disappointing.
I will say this for this book: It is a wild ride. I do not regret the experience of reading it even though ultimately it disappointed me.
Arc of Scythe as a whole has, for me, evolved from an above average start with [b:Scythe 28954189 Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1) Neal Shusterman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456172676l/28954189.SY75.jpg 49179216] to pretty damn good with [b:Thunderhead 33555224 Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe, #2) Neal Shusterman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1505658534l/33555224.SY75.jpg 54332060] but even with it I had some reservations.Now I don't rate books 5/5 that often. There are only handful of them deserving of the rating, in my opinion, but The Toll is one of them not just for being a great book but an amazing conclusion to the Arc of Scythe trilogy.While usually I note the things I disliked in my reviews, I can't think of anything worth mentioning. It was a fast read (about 5h in total) and I enjoyed it immensely. The ending left me satisfied and I teared up a bit.