Reviews with content warning for Genocide - The Toll

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The Toll by Neal Shusterman

32 reviews

haddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Absolutely amazing series! Was such a weird feeling of wanting to read the book and being so invested but also the absolute dread of what could happen to the characters.
I did think this was a little long to read, but it was extremely well written as always. I love how the author introduces characters and sets the scene.
I honestly don’t know how I feel about the ending ???

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t see how the ‘romance’ between citra and rowan is needed.. however their reunion and their ending did make me tear up a little.
ALSO I NEED TO KNOW IF SISTER ASTRID MADE IT BC WTF <spoiler/>

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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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_verena_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Es war nicht schlecht, aber irgendwie langatmig. Bei Teil 1 und 2 konnte ich fast nicht aufhören und hier musste ich mich ein paar mal fast zwingen weiter zu hören...

Einige Gedanken/Fragen, die bleiben:

- Goddard als Allegorie für Trump? Große Klappe + rücksichtslos, aber es steckt kein Mastermind dahinter, sondern ein trotziges Manchild (irgendwann sagt er ja auch, er möchte eine Mauer bauen)
- Goddards Ende war recht unspektakulär... Ich dachte da würde es zu einem spektakulärem Showdown zwischen ihm Citra/Rowan/Faraday kommen...
- Seeeeehr viele Charaktere, die keinen so wirklich interessieren kommen plötzlich vor (vor allem auf der Insel). Durch diese vielen POVs verliert man irgendwie den roten Faden und es war irgendwie mühsam jedes mal wieder in die Geschichte rein zu kommen
- Jericho! Ich liebe es einfach, dass es einen genderfluiden Charakter gab!
- aber warum musste der Thunderhead von Jeri Besitz ergreifen? Finde die Erklärung, dass er Authentizität kennen lernen will sehr dünn...
- noch weniger Rowan als in Teil 2
- generell war Rowans Storyline in Teil 2+3 nur mehr, dass er gefangen genommen wird und entkommt und das in Endlosschleife
- Citra auch nur mehr Nebencharakter, keine Tiefe, sie bleibt oberflächlich und entwickelt sich genauso wenig wie in Teil 2
- die Chemie zwischen Rowan und Citra war so gut wie nicht vorhanden (in keinem der Bücher). Erst als er um sie trauerte, habe ich sie (zum ersten und einzigen Mal) gespürt 💔
- Tyger???? Wie konnte er wieder belebt werden? Keine Erklärung wurde gegeben...
- Warum überhaupt ins Weltall? Hinter uns die Sintflut? Dann hätte Citra auch ihre Ansprachen nicht machen müssen, die Storyline ist komplett im Sand verlaufen

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alyanna_dm's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad 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? N/A

4.75

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ging090803's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Incredible.
Each book was better than the previous one. I'm glad I stuck to it.
I loved how we had so many POVs but were still kept in the dark for the major plots so it kept the story intriguing. I couldn't stop reading, I just wanted to know what would happen next.
At some point, it started to circle a little, but I was still hooked on the story. Tho, the thing that got me mixed up a little was how the chronological order wasn't really followed.
The story takes place 3 years after the sinking, but it is important to know what happened in between. Yet, it goes back and forth between periods and I'm the kind who needs some order in a timeline to not get lost, but it was still manageable.
Goddard has not changed. He is still execrable. He still gets on my nerves.

Love turned Rand weaker I feel. This is not a bad thing but didn't feel like the psycho from the first book.

Greyson was okay. He was a little bit of a pain in the "rear" being the martyr and the big guy at the same time.

But he got better more the book advanced. We could see, by the end, why he was truly chosen

2 things bothered me tho :
1.

Faraday's depression. He was important for a while then became nothing. It was kinda sad and a little useless by that point. He discovered the atolls and then... nothing but complains. I do understand his feelings but at what point was he a necessary character. And the little deception when they opened the bunker. I was waiting for the big reveal.

Citra and freaking Rowan. Why??? First, their relationship is sooo intense, I feel it's a little overtop. Yet, don't get me wrong, I'm still a stucker for them both. That's why my heart literally shattered when she was killed in the final scene and Rowan had to wait another freaking 117 years before getting together. They are like another type of Romeo-Juliette lovers and it was painful to read. Torture.

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shamciar's review against another edition

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hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I think I enjoyed the commentary on politics, religion, and technology and their places within society more than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the cast, but this book feels more plot-driven than character-driven. The concept of gender fluidity could have been writtwn better, and the abrupt ending left a lot things on the table. Otherwise, I am satisfied with this book.

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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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lydz1106's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.5

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shellbell_04's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.25

I loved the characters and the story itself, but the timeline jumped around a lot…to the point it was really confusing…but I stuck with it and finished

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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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