The Toll is probably one of my most anticipated reads of 2020, given how much I loved the earlier installments, Scythe and Thunderhead. I had planned on purchasing my copy once my daughter’s school year was done, so it would be easier to carve some solid reading time and give me a chance to relish the book. Unfortunately, we ended up going into community quarantine before that happened and book shopping wasn’t going to be possible for a while. I had resigned myself to waiting out a pandemic, until I realized that it was available in ebook format on Scribd. Being quarantined was suddenly a whole lot more bearable.
After the sinking of Endura, Scythe Goddard has manipulated majority of the scythedom to follow him while those that oppose his ways dwindle in numbers. Grayson Tolliver has become the Toll, after being recognized as the lone human the Thunderhead speaks to and with the Tonists making him a figurehead of their beliefs. Scythe Faraday seeks out the fabled Land of Nod and the supposed fail-safe created by the first scythes in case the scythedom fails. And in a vault under the waters of Endura, Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch remain deadish while the world changes up above.
After the earlier volumes of the Arc of a Scythe series, I have come to expect a few things from author Neal Shusterman. I expected further expansion of the dystopian world featured in the series. I expected new characters to be introduced and add different layers to the narrative. I also expected, given the cliffhanger ending and who ended up triumphing in Thunderhead, that there would be extensive descriptions of how the world would change afterwards. I expected Goddard to be extra annoying and destructive. I expected mysteries to be unearthed and solved. I expected drama, intrigue and nailbiters.
I got them all and more.
I should point out that I wished for, instead of expecting, Citra, Rowan and Faraday to succeed in their respective journeys and missions. I didn’t want to expect too much, since Neal Shusterman isn’t one to serve us a completely happy story and isn’t shy in dishing out the tragedy. I was confident that he will give us the best ending, but I wasn’t as sure if I was going to be emotionally okay at the end of the series.
A lot happens in The Toll, not just because it covers events within the three years after Endura’s demise, but also because there are more narrators, both old and new. While Citra, Rowan, Faraday and Grayson’s perspectives demand the most of my attention, the additional voices of the salvage ship captain Jeri Soberanis, Faraday’s companion Munira Atrushi, former Nimbus Agent Loriana Barchok, and a few others help to further emphasize the expansiveness of The Toll‘s story. And then there’s the Thunderhead itself, both witness and key player to these events. There are many pieces at play, with the characters involved in their respective plots, that you wonder midway through the book how they would all come together, characters and plot points alike.
But come together beautifully, they do, culminating in the reveal of the Thunderhead’s ultimate plans, as well as the fate of both scythedom and humanity. It was a finale worthy of the excellent world and myth building that author Neal Shusterman wonderfully crafted over the course of three books. I had my guesses as to where the book and the series would end, but I was still surprised at its conclusion. As well as a little exhausted because those last few chapters were all kinds of exciting and terrifying.
Even if you’re not into sci-fi or dystopian, I would suggest picking up the Arc of a Scythe series. It’s excellently paced, beautifully ambitious in its world building, and is a great study in humanity, both good and bad qualities given spotlight. There’s plenty of action and Neal Shusterman is a master at building anticipation that lead to endings that might not be completely happy, but definitely feels right.
Happy reading!
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