Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Toll by Neal Shusterman

26 reviews

judereadsalot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, and War

luluslittlelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Transphobia

aviery's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Kidnapping

its_van_vulpen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Torture and Religious bigotry

Minor: Suicide

The first half of the novel was fairly confusing as the story was constantly skipping throughout the timeline. If you are not a fan of multiple perspectives, this is not the book for you as we are not only given the perspectives of the major characters, but also of random side-characters that are only minimally relevant to the story I did really enjoy the social commentary on real life politics and religion present throughout the novel.

The character of Greyson Tolliver as The Toll and the Tonists perception of him shows how supposed religious figures and miracles can, in reality, just be regular people and misunderstood events.

*Minor Spoiler Ahead* The main romance in the novel was a little unbelievable to me as the two characters spent relatively little time with each other not only in this book, but in the whole series. Despite that, I'm not a particularly picky person so it personally doesn't bother me and I liked the two characters together.

invaderlinz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

ravensandlace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Find this review and others like it at https://aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com

You ever read a book where you get just a satisfactory ending. Sure, you are sad the series is over because you have grown to love the characters but you are happy with the way things ended and you can say goodbye to those characters peacefully. And yes, of course, you would love another book but only to stay in the world for just a little bit longer. That’s how I felt with this series. It had just a satisfactory ending and I couldn't be more happy about it. 

This book was a lot better than Thunderhead even though I do have a complaint. There are all these weird time hops. Like years would pass and I’d have to read a few paragraphs about what happened during that time. It wasn’t that bothersome but it was a bit annoying. Why not just have the events happen in the book instead of having me read recaps all the time. 

One positive thing I must point out is the gender fluid rep. In this Scythe world there is a whole island that is gender fluid. I can’t speak for the accuracy of it as I’m not gender fluid but I thought that it was super awesome. The character was also asked their pronouns, something we need to normalize. 

Overall, like I stated above, just a real satisfactory ending to this series. I’m sad it’s over but I am happy with the ending. It wrapped up a lot of loose ends that Thunderhead left. The ending was a little convoluted but not the worst thing I have ever read. Truly a great book and I can’t wait to see it on the big screen as I just read that Scythe is being made into a movie! *insert incoherent screaming* I highly recommend this book series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma