A review by melike
The Toll by Neal Shusterman
5.0
*takes a deep breath*
*screams*
I CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE HOW I‘M FEELING. this was so much to process and i genuinely did not know what to do with myself after i read that very last sentence. i am so sad that it is over, i am going to miss these characters and the way this series made me feel. i‘m already feeling incredibly nostalgic.
first of all i want to talk about how GOOD Neal Shusterman‘s writing is. not only is his style amazing, but the way he weaves the story together is immaculate. each character has their own arc, and the moments when their paths cross and their stories intertwine are so exciting. Shusterman really is a genius writer.
the story itself was, simply put, just mindblowing. there were scenes in the story that made me feel like i was not reading a book but watching a movie with the way they made me feel. during the last 10% of the story i was constantly on the edge of my seat and i would not have been able to put the book down to save my life because of how engaging it was.
i have seen some people say that it was too long and that it dragged out a bit, and i see where they are coming from, though i honestly cannot say that i completely agree with that. yes it‘s a bit longer than the previous installments, but there was constantly so much happening and so much build up and development in the plot and the characters, that i feel like it would all have been a bit too rushed had the book been shorter. i personally liked the way this was handled; it started out with a bang basically, and crazy things kept happening while there was time to properly develope them inbetween until we got to the big moment. i am actually also pretty satisfied with the way the story concluded, and i loved that, until the very end, it continued to explore and ask questions about morality, directly and indirectly.
The last thing I want to mention are the characters: They were fantastic and I love them a lot, especially Citra, Rowan and Greyson. When I first started this series, I never would have thought that they would become this dear to me, but here we are. it‘s gonna be hard to let them go, but i feel like the author mostly did them justice, and i am happy with the way their stories ended.
that being said, i do have some qualms about certain things in the story overall that i want to briefly mention.
(spoilers in the next paragraph)
1. i really really wish there had been more of citra and rowan together. yes, they had different roles to fulfill, but i feel like we as the readers barely got to see them together ever since the first book. i would have loved to have more moments of those two.
2. i don‘t know how i feel over rowan having to wait over 100 years for citra. it was very romantic, and i definitely didn‘t hate it, though i didn‘t love it either. i guess the reason for this might also be because of point #1, i just really wanted them to spend more time together, though they finally have all the time in the world now. other than that, i love where they are now: they did what they needed to and found their ways back to each other, and they can finally be happy.
3. i hate that faraday was left completely alone, and munira went back to the library of alexandria. i hope they at least stayed in contact somehow because it‘s sad to think of both of them as lonely.
4. i‘m super upset that we did not see a single kiss between greyson and jeri
*screams*
I CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE HOW I‘M FEELING. this was so much to process and i genuinely did not know what to do with myself after i read that very last sentence. i am so sad that it is over, i am going to miss these characters and the way this series made me feel. i‘m already feeling incredibly nostalgic.
first of all i want to talk about how GOOD Neal Shusterman‘s writing is. not only is his style amazing, but the way he weaves the story together is immaculate. each character has their own arc, and the moments when their paths cross and their stories intertwine are so exciting. Shusterman really is a genius writer.
the story itself was, simply put, just mindblowing. there were scenes in the story that made me feel like i was not reading a book but watching a movie with the way they made me feel. during the last 10% of the story i was constantly on the edge of my seat and i would not have been able to put the book down to save my life because of how engaging it was.
i have seen some people say that it was too long and that it dragged out a bit, and i see where they are coming from, though i honestly cannot say that i completely agree with that. yes it‘s a bit longer than the previous installments, but there was constantly so much happening and so much build up and development in the plot and the characters, that i feel like it would all have been a bit too rushed had the book been shorter. i personally liked the way this was handled; it started out with a bang basically, and crazy things kept happening while there was time to properly develope them inbetween until we got to the big moment. i am actually also pretty satisfied with the way the story concluded, and i loved that, until the very end, it continued to explore and ask questions about morality, directly and indirectly.
The last thing I want to mention are the characters: They were fantastic and I love them a lot, especially Citra, Rowan and Greyson. When I first started this series, I never would have thought that they would become this dear to me, but here we are. it‘s gonna be hard to let them go, but i feel like the author mostly did them justice, and i am happy with the way their stories ended.
that being said, i do have some qualms about certain things in the story overall that i want to briefly mention.
(spoilers in the next paragraph)
1. i really really wish there had been more of citra and rowan together. yes, they had different roles to fulfill, but i feel like we as the readers barely got to see them together ever since the first book. i would have loved to have more moments of those two.
2. i don‘t know how i feel over rowan having to wait over 100 years for citra. it was very romantic, and i definitely didn‘t hate it, though i didn‘t love it either. i guess the reason for this might also be because of point #1, i just really wanted them to spend more time together, though they finally have all the time in the world now. other than that, i love where they are now: they did what they needed to and found their ways back to each other, and they can finally be happy.
3. i hate that faraday was left completely alone, and munira went back to the library of alexandria. i hope they at least stayed in contact somehow because it‘s sad to think of both of them as lonely.
4. i‘m super upset that we did not see a single kiss between greyson and jeri