The Toll

by Neal Shusterman ★★★☆☆

Like with previous reviews of books in a series, I will start with a warning:

If you have not yet read Scythe and Thunderhead, STOP READING THIS NOW! 

My review below is of the final book in the trilogy, The Toll, which will contain major spoilers for the first two books in the series, but not for The Toll. If this is the first you're hearing of Scythe, my review of the excellent first book in the series is here.

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It's interesting to get to the end of a trilogy and reflect on the path to get to that point. I inevitably find myself wondering, "Did the author know where this was going from the beginning, or did it evolve over time?". In the case of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy, my best bet is that it evolved. The direction of the series seemed to shift with Book 2, Thunderhead, and it continued to drift with The Toll. At the same time, there are breadcrumbs tracing back to Book 1 (Scythe) that are significant in The Toll. Shusterman did address this at least once (thank you, internet!) in a Reddit post, where he said, "The Toll ended EXACTLY where I planned for it to end, from the very beginning of SCYTHE. But how it got there was very different from the way I planned!" I would say that statement makes perfect sense having read The Toll — the end seemed clear, but the path to get there seemed more convoluted.

At the end of Thunderhead, the series is at a dark crossroads. All of the Grandslayers have been killed, Endura has been sunk, and the ever-evil Robert Goddard has been elevated to High Blade of MidMerica. Rowan / "Scythe Lucifer" and Citra / Scythe Anatasia are trapped within a vault at the bottom of the ocean, "deadish" (but not dead) due to the preserving temperature at those depths and the strength of the vault. Scythe Faraday and Munira have discovered the Thunderhead's blind spot and are en route. After the massacre on Endura, the Thunderhead has declared all of humanity unsavory, and leaves humans adrift without its connection and guidance while still operating the basics that drive a functioning society.

That's to say there is a LOT to resolve; however, The Toll takes a looooong time to build toward that resolution. The first 1/3 to 1/2 of the book is slow-paced setup to the pending resolution, before things start to accelerate and the conclusion to the series is gradually unveiled. Shusterman still writes a great action sequence; however, there are disappointingly few in The Toll.

I was captivated by Book 1, as evidenced by my glowing review, but books 2 and 3 never fully captured the same magic. Some of that may be due to the novelty of the idea that wears off in subsequent books. I would attribute some to some plot direction and choices that didn't capture my interest at the same level as the early portions of the series. To put it bluntly, the series got progressively worse for me as it continued: Thunderhead failed to match Scythe, and The Toll falls short of Thunderhead.

As a complete series, however, Arc of a Scythe is still a pretty compelling body of work. I do commend Shusterman on getting to a mostly satisfying conclusion and wrapping up the vast majority of outstanding questions. One thing that never sat well with me was the omniscient Thunderhead's inability to conquer space travel; that actually gets addressed and resolved in The Toll, which I appreciated. Unfortunately, the path to get to the conclusion simply wasn't as exciting as the start of the journey.

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Book Details

• Title: The Toll

• Author: Neal Shusterman

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

• Publication Date: November 5, 2019

• Format: Ebook

• ISBN-13: 978-1481497084

• Pages: 640