Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - The Toll

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The Toll by Neal Shusterman

20 reviews

pidgepodge's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was an amazing series. A heavy topic, but, edge of your seat thrilling and hard to put down. This has become one of my favorite series, and dark as it is, it is also so so addicting.

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callistag1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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a_cera_t0ps's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was kind of hard to read, especially compared to the others in the series. I'm conflicted on how I should review this book. On one hand, it had it's moments, and those moments were strong, but there was so much going on, and it felt like too many threads were being waved all at once. The pacing was a little funky because of that, and now instead of our 2-3 main characters, we had like 8 different perspectives and 3 different new forms of the journal entries. There was so much that this book did, and I feel like it had plenty of really, really good ideas, but there were just too many. I understand that each part of the story was connected to each other, but what it added was outweighed by how it started to stop working. The entire book is so plot driven that it accidentally sacrifices the characters. There are some wonderful moments, but all of the relationships introduced and/or created barely have any time to develop.

A big thing about this book was the pacing. The ending is built up to for the entirety of this book, yet it is crammed in with no proper send off. The last 100 pages holds the primary narrative. It feels like the author got carried away with the in-between scenes that he lost focus of the primary plot. Brief character exploration scenes and years worth exposition goes from being subservient to the story to becoming 93% of the text.

I know that Neal Shusterman is a wonderful author, and I can even see his excellence in this book as well. There are scenes and ideas that hit so hard, that deserve to be published and read, but there was just too much book for one book here. As the 3rd novel in a series, it's odd to me that it felt like the season of a TV show right before it's taken off the air, especially considering that, even though this book is the official finale, there was a spin-off book.

The reason I say I'm conflicted is because I enjoyed this book. But I was also weary and disappointed. I've read worse books than this and not minded, but the reason this one is so hard is because I see how it was imperfect and yet simultaneously almost perfect.

I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea and think that thid book sucked, or that Neal Shusterman is a bad or iffy writer. I think, to a certain degree, the panic and overwhelming nature that is portrayed in the story makes it as good as it is. I'm really just. .. well, conflicted.

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hales_1243's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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ggcd1981's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

The Toll é a conclusão da trilogia de Arc of a Scythe. Na minha opinião foi uma boa e adequada conclusão, porém não foi excelente.

Em The Toll já se passaram três anos desde que Rowan e Citra afundaram com Endura; desde que o Scythe Goddard chegou ao poder; desde que o Thunderhead se fechou para todos, menos para Greyson Tolliver. O livro tem linhas de tempo diferentes para mostrar acontecimentos importantes a partir do ponto de vista dos personagens mais instrumentais da história. Alguns são personagens já conhecidos dos dois volumes anteriores, outros são personagens introduzidos nessa terceira obra. Esses personagens novos considero um dos pontos fracos de The Toll pois não sou fã de apresentar personagens importantes no livro final de uma série. No mundo de Arc of a Scythe, após três anos desde que Endura afundou, Goddard se tornou Overblade of Mid-Merica. Os eventos do livro são uma mistura das linhas temporais para mostrar o que aconteceu ao longo dos três anos e nos dias atuais. Greyson passou a ser considerado “The Toll”, uma espécie de Messias, por ser o único que não foi marcado como Unsavory pelo Thunderhead. Ele se tornou uma espécie de profeta para os tonistas. Scythe Faraday e Munira (a bibliotecária de Alexandria) encontram a Terra de Nod a que rimas infantis fazem referência. Este lugar é na verdade um sistema de ilhas, ponto cego para o Thunderhead, criado pelos Scythes originais. Faraday ao chegar lá descobre que um segundo Scythe é necessário para abrir a segurança do local e acessar o que Faraday acredita ser a medida de segurança deixada pelos Scythes originais caso o sistema do Scythedom desse errado. Munira e Scythe Faraday vivem nas ilhas por um ou dois anos. Os ex-agentes Nimbus procuram Greyson (tudo orquestrado pela Thunderhead) e o rapaz lhes dá as coordenadas da Terra de Nod. Os ex-agentes seguem então para as ilhas sem saber para quê ou porquê. Loriana, uma das ex-agentes, é escolhida pelo Thunderhead para seguir planos providos pela inteligência e que necessitam da aprovação da agente. Ao mesmo tempo, o Scythe Possuelo do Scythedom Amazônico está a bordo do navio de Capitão/Capitã Jerico ou Jeri. Não gostei muito deste últime personagem nove pois Jerico tem um autodomínio emocional, um ar de arrogância, um ar de sempre estar no controle e saber de coisas que outros não sabem, mesmo quando isso não é verdade, que me irritava um pouco. Jerico é de Madagascar e tem gênero fluido (mulher quando o céu está claro, homem quando o sol está escondido). Elu e sua equipe recuperam e abrem o cofre de Endura com os Diamantes de Scythe e descobrem Citra e Rowan mortos. O Scythe Possuelo os esconde em sua região. Citra é bem tratada, mas Rowan é preso porque é acusado de afundar Endura. Scythe Morrison, um Scythe com quem ninguém realmente se importa, é enviado por Goddard para matar Greyson. Scythe Rand continua visitando os bancos de dados do Thunderhead para falar com o construto de memória de Tyger. Morrison se disfarça de chef e infiltra os tonistas para realizar sua missão, mas Greyson descobre que Morrison vai matá-lo por dicas sutis do Thunderhead. Greyson e Morrison fazem um acordo após o scythe falhar na missão. Eles forjam a morte de “The toll” e Morrison se torna guarda-costas de Greyson enquanto este, agora com mais liberdade, viaja pelo exterior fazendo aparições como “The toll” ressurgido e conserta a bagunça que os Tonistas extremistas fizeram.

Goddard, que neste livro se tornou um vilão absolutamente odioso, apesar de o autor fazer um bom trabalho de mostrar como a mente dele funciona, vai atrás de Citra/Scythe Anastasia mas ela foge com Jeri. Rowan é sequestrado e Goddard planeja uma grande execução pública para ele. Jeri e Anastasia encontram asilo numa região Africana. Lá seus aliados fazem Anastasia cavar nos arquivos do Thunderhead e encontrar informações incriminatórias sobre Goddard e então fazer transmissões ao vivo. O mundo começa a se revoltar contra o Overblade e o Scythedom. O gleaning público de Rowan é organizado, mas os Lone Star Scythes do Texas, uma região que não serve Goddard, o resgatam. Goddard, enlouquecido por sua humilhação, ordena a morte de todos no estádio que vieram assistir. As pesquisas de Anastasia a levam até Greyson escondido nas cavernas com os tonistas que estão sendo perseguidos pelos scythes de Goddard após os atos extremistas de alguns sub-grupos da religião. Anastasia e Greyson trabalham juntos para encontrar o scythe Alighieri. Greyson e Jeri começam a se apaixonar, o que para mim foi meio estranho pois até então Jeri mostrava sentimentos por Citra então essa mudança foi um pouco súbita. As pesquisas de Anastasia e o depoimento de Alighieri revelam que Goddard desempenhou um papel no gleaning em massa de pessoas nos projetos de exploração e colonização espacial.

Na Terra de Nod, os ex-agentes estão construindo naves espaciais para serem lançadas guiados pelos planos fornecidos pelo Thunderhead. Isso ocorre em segredo do Scythedom. Ao longo do livro, há trechos do Thunderhead tentando fazer iterações de si mesmo sem sucesso. Anastasia, Greyson e Jeri seguem de barco finalmente para a Terra de Nod, sem saber que um inspetor colocou um dispositivo de rastreamento no barco e alerta Goddard. O Thunderhead, durante essa viagem, assume o controle da mente de Jeri e experimenta ser humano, tocando a bochecha de Greyson. Isso é suficiente para compreender a dimensão humana necessária para fazer uma iteração perfeita de si mesmo. Ao chegar às ilhas, ocorre um reencontro entre Anastasia e Faraday. Tonistas estão sendo mortos a torto e a direito e o Thunderhead arranja de seus cadáveres serem congelados e transportados para a ilha. Rowan é colocado em uma dessas caixas. A LoneStar Scythedom tentou fazer com que ele matasse outros scythes que se opunham a região do Texas, mas Cirrus, a nova iteração do Thunderhead que não possui as mesmas limitações, o ajudou a escapar. Rowan e Anastasia se reencontram nas ilhas e decidem deixar para trás o mundo dos scythe e seguir o plano do thunderhead e embarcar para um novo planeta. Enquanto isso Goddard chega em um avião e faz com que o piloto ejete mísseis derrubando alguns foguetes que tem moradores da ilha e foram carregados com os corpos dos tonistas mortos. Estes corpos serão implantados com memórias de pessoas necessárias para fazer a humanidade prosperar (alguns dos tonistas porém serão revividos pois a tonista irmã Astrid convenceu Cirrus a deixar a religião ter uma chance de sobrevivência em um dos planetas a serem colonizados). Cirrus será o novo Thunderhead para os colonos. Citra e Rowan correm em direção a um foguete, mas Citra é atingida por metal. Rowan a carrega a bordo, contudo Cirrus o informa que só poderá reviver os mortos quando chegar ao destino em cerca de 100 anos. No avião, Scythe Rand glean o piloto e esfaqueia Goddard que estava descontrolado, depois o leva com ela para a cápsula de segurança. Isso foi um elemento frustrante do livro pois esse foi o fim de Goddard e depois de todo o ódio que desenvolvi pelo personagem achei esse final simples, frustrante e não satisfatório para quanto mal ele fez. Rand, após todo o ocorrido nas ilhas, coloca as memórias de Tyger de volta no corpo do rapaz que havia sido “roubado” para a ressurreição de Goddard. Faraday e Munira usam o segundo anel de scythe que finalmente conseguiram para ativar a medida de segurança dos Scythes originais. Um dispositivo é ativado, os anéis de scythe quebram e doenças são liberadas no mundo. Essas doenças foram desenvolvidas a partir das doenças da idade mortal e elas passam a matar pessoas em intervalos de alguns anos assumindo assim o papel dos scythes de controle populacional de forma imparcial.

Rowan quer se juntar a Citra no estado de morte, mas Cirrus o convence de que as chances de sucesso da missão aumentam com a liderança dele. Após 117 anos, ele acorda Citra no novo planeta colônia. Essa separação temporária de Rowan e Citra foi uma decisão um tanto estranha do autor, acredito que para adicionar mais drama a conclusão. Na Terra, as pessoas estão morrendo das doenças liberadas e os Scythes assumiram o novo papel de matar por compaixão para salvá-los de mortes dolorosas. Greyson e Jeri terminam juntos, porém, para minha frustração, Greyson destrói o fone de ouvido através do qual ele conversava com Thunderhead dizendo que marcou a inteligência artificial como unsavory porque este havia assumido o controle do corpo de Jeri sem permissão e não poderia pedir perdão a Jerico por que estu, assim como o resto da humanidade, ainda está marcado como unsavory. Isso para mim não fez sentindo. O Thunderhead cumpriu o papel de pais para Greyson a vida toda e o livro deixa claro que a Inteligência tem sentimentos paternais profundos pelo rapaz. Para Greyson cortar comunicação com o Thunderhead é como alguém cortar relações com os próprios pais porque estes ofenderam seus parceiros. Considerando que o Thunderhead deixou claro que sabia que o que fez foi problemático, mas não havia outra maneira e a inteligência não causou nenhum mal, a ação de Greyson pareceu absurdamente desproporcional. Não fez sentido. Fica implícito que Greyson retornar a se comunicar com Thunderhead está condicionado a inteligência desmarcar a humanidade como unsavory o que, segundo o Thunderhead , acontecerá eventualmente. Mesmo assim a escolha do autor ao fazer isso gerou em mim uma antipatia pelo relacionamento de Greyson com Jeri que não seria necessário caso isso não houvesse ocorrido.

No geral, gostei do livro, mas como apontei houve pontos fracos e elementos que me frustraram. No balanço, o final funcionou mesmo que não tenha sido 100% satisfatório. Dou 4.25 estrelas.

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allidone's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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rachelditty's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

An incredible finale to a smart and captivating series. Neal Shusterman is an insane mastermind of his craft, and ot shows in this entire trillogy. There's so much to love.

It's about love and compassion. It's always been about love and compassion.

I think the only thing that keeps me from giving it 5 stars is that I don't love the dip in narration from Rowan toward the end when he's in the Lone Star region. I felt like he got a bit sidelined after he was nearly burned to death.

Reading about Scythe Faraday and Murina at the beginning, hearing the Thunderhead's siren but not understanding what it is, and knowing they're about to be marooned on a secluded island where no new will reach them, was incredible to read. It's upsetting and tense, and just like not knowing when Rowan and Citra will come back, you have no idea when Faraday and Murina will learn about Endura. And the whole time, Faraday has such hope and faith in Curie. It's so sad.

The Thunderhead really does evolve into one of my favorite characters in the series. It makes jokes to Grayson, who rolls his eyes but secretly finds them funny. Understanding the Thunderhead's thought process is so interesting and sympathetic to me. It monitors Grayson because it can't embrace him. It doesn't give him reassurance or scorns he doesn't need, but that doesn't mean it isn't afraid for the state of the world and the people on it. My favorite scene in the book is when Scythe Morrison comes to glean Grayson, and the Thunderhead has to work around its own programming to help Grayson escape. I love that it finds ways to sneak around the blind spots of its own rules. Chapter 23, "How to Glean a Holy Man," is my favorite chapter.

Scythe Constantine is such a gray character. You don't want to trust him because he's hunting Rowan in book two, but is also a confidant of Curie and Anastasia. When Rowan and Constantine see each other in this book, and Constantine is kind of gloating only for Rowan to respond with "I love you too" is such a fun dynamic. I would have loved to see more of them hating each other in a begrudgingly allied way.

The Mile High Gleaning is blood chilling. Watching Rowan succumb to the fact that he really will die in front of thousands of people, only for Goddard to turn everything on its head and glean the audience, is awful to watch. Rand tried to make things better, but she only made things worse. It's such a punctual point of Goddard's inability to return from this line of morality he's crossed, aside from Endura, and literally everything else that's talked about in this book.

Jericho was always such an interesting character to me. The captain was intelligent and loyal, and was always there to provide a sense of calm to the other characters. I loved Jericho's dynamic with Grayson, and with Anastasia, and having the captain be the one to be a middle-man for Grayson and the Thunderhead, and then be the character to bring up the idea of vessels, was such miniscule foreshadowing that was incredibly done. Even the similarity in Hello Grayson. It was just so well lined up. I'm glad Jericho and Grayson stayed together after everything.

I cannot even express how amazing I think the end of this book is, and the end of the series. The founding Scythe Da Vinci putting hints to the failsafe in not only a children's song, but the ENTIRE Tonist religion? The two prongs being the transmitter? The Tonist's putrid water of diseases being the ten diseases in everyone's nanites once the diamonds are destroyed? The fucking signal the transmitter lets out being a G-flat (or is it A-sharp?). It's all just so INCREDIBLY smart and well-rounded, I cannot believe it all comes together so seamlessly.

Grayson marking the Thunderhead as unsavory for what it did to Jericho, saying it, like humanity, can be redeemed in his eyes in time. Scythe Faraday and other scythes in his footsteps taking the chance to not choose people for death, but help them pass on in a calm and painless manner when they become sick, giving the family the chance to mourn and giving the person a fast passing. Rowan being there when Citra finally wakes up, after hundreds of years in space, having turned a corner so he looked the same to her. It's all about love. The whole series was just about humanity's compassion for one another and the love we show. It's so good. I cannot express how good it makes me feel by the end. It's about love. It's always been about love.

Quotes I Loved:

"'If the bar can't be lowered... then the floor must be raised,'" (p. 185).

"'Why stress my emotional inanities by thinking of terrible things?'
A fine philosophy until the terrible thing comes to you," (p. 217).

"'A successful lie is not fueled by the lair; it is fueled by the willingness of the listener to believe. You can't expose a lie without first shattering the will to believe it. That is why leading people to truth is so much more effective than merely telling them,'" (p. 308-309).

"The rest of the world saw them both as symbols. Intangible light to guide them in the darkness. She understood now why ancient peoples turned their heroes into constellations," (p. 444).

"If there was one thing Rowan had learned, it was that no one could be trusted to stay true. Ideals eroded, virtue tarnished, and even the high road had dimly lit detours," (p. 529).

"'Only a moment ago,' Rowan tells her. 'Only a moment ago,'" (p. 631).

What an incredible series.

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emilysreadingbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

**includes spoilers for the first two books in the series**

Endura has sunk, Citra and Rowan are assumed dead, Scythe Goddard has set himself up to wield unlimited power, and the Thunderhead has gone silent for everyone except Greyson Tolliver. With Goddard’s biggest opponents dead, and the Thunderhead unable to interfere in scythe business, is there anything that can stop him?

The writing style in this book is unique, but made the book much more interesting to read. There are a variety of plots and subplots in this novel, but they are all woven together to push the main plot foreword. While this is a long book, there isn’t a moment of lull in the action; everything Shusterman wrote has a purpose to the plot.

The limited amount of romance in this entire series was refreshing. I love romance, but it is often included with no real benefit to the plot. I was actually surprised that this book includes the romance, considering that the first two books in the trilogy contained essentially none, but in this book it added to the plot, and created a bigger emotional response.

The ending is teetering on the edge of being either brilliant, or literally dues ex machina. But I’m not mad about it? The more I think about it and the more time it’s been since I finished, the more I think this book is brilliant. Very few authors could successfully write a plot twist like this, but Neal Shusterman pulls it off beautifully.

Overall, I gave this book 4 stars. It was a well-written, interesting novel, but I found the plot twists at the end to be a big leap, even though it was pulled off.

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cepbreed's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I am in awe. I really thought this book was on track to be the worst in the series, but I couldn't have been further from correct. In fact I enjoyed it the most out of all three. The story is long and convoluted yet every single thing happens for a reason. Each little detail is brought back and explained in a way that makes Neal Shusterman seem like a human on another level of existence. The mind he has to weave all of these details together is amazing. The ending filled my heart. I had grown to love each character so much I wanted the best for each of them. I am so glad he gave his creations the ending they deserved. Such a masterful balance of world-building, character arcs, and romance. Never was there a moment where I felt bored even when details were introduced that we wouldn't be able to comprehend for another 20 chapters or more.

I was particularly moved by the cutting off of the Thunderhead. It was such a beautiful and melancholy moment. I never thought I could have grown so fond of an AI. Also, I am so glad to see Scythe Rand, who I despised, come into her own in a way that did not compromise her character. She is cold and calculating yet her act to fix the mistake that was her killing Tyger and bringing Goddard to life made me love her.

Ranking of the books: The Toll, Scythe, Thunderhead

Song:

Glory and Gore - Lorde

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alexhaydon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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