The Toll Review

    Now that the Grandslayers, Rowan, and Citra are all gone, Goddard has risen to power and appears unstoppable. The Thunderhead has gone quiet, and more Tonist beliefs are coming to fruition. Will the Tone, Toll, and Thunder be enough to prevent Goddard from controlling the entire world and make everything right?

    Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Let's begin:

    After the first two books, I found this to be pretty disappointing. It did not make it onto my favorites list, and I honestly regret buying it instead of renting it. I only took away one more star in comparison to the others, but I probably should take off one more. 

Like with the other two books, and most books in general, there were some minor grammar and spelling errors. For example, a few missing commas and periods along with some words spelled incorrectly. Again, these are not common enough that it hinders the reading experience, but I always mention them when they occur more than a couple times throughout the novel.

    This next issue is one that I have discussed since book one and that is, unfortunately, still very present in this third book. The romance feels forced so much to where I do not feel anything when reading it. It is still present with Citra and Rowan and Rand and Tyger, for example, along with a new couple that I will not provide names for to avoid spoilers. This new match is done a bit better, as in there is more development, than the others; however, it still does not have much of a build up before the characters are suddenly in love with each other. This is unrealistic and takes you out of the book in a way. I feel that Neal Shusterman simply is not very strong with romance in books and has only slightly improved. There would still need to be many improvements in order for me to fully support the relationships. Scenes that are supposed to either get you worried or make you happy in relation to the romance made me feel no different from the page before. I understand this is not a romance novel, but if love is going to be included, it should be done properly.

    While this is more of a personal preference, I felt it necessary to discuss. The book, especially in the beginning, jumps around a lot in both point of view, storyline, and timeline. I found that it was a bit too chaotic for my taste, and I kept getting confused. This improved through the book as characters and storylines started coming together and the other timeline disappeared, but it was enough to bother me in the beginning. If you are good at keeping track of many different things at one time, this most likely will not bother you, but it is not for everyone.

    I purchased the Barnes and Noble exclusive edition which contains commentary from the author for each chapter. I am both happy and bothered by this. On one hand, it explains some things that I either was confused by or did not like. It allowed me to see why Shusterman wrote the plot, character, or whatever it was the way he did, giving me clarity. On the other hand, it highlighted all of the areas that I simply did not see in the book. I feel as though the author had many good intentions with the book and was trying to depict many things on the pages after reading the commentary, but that he did not do this well. There were many things he talked about that I did not think came across well or the way he wanted them to.  Therefore, I am grateful for the clarification the commentary provided, but upset that so many of the ideas he had were pointed out in that section but not within the actual novel. I almost feel as though the commentary is necessary to understand many aspects of the book which should not be the case with any well-done novel.

    According to Shusterman, the turn that the series took was hinted at even in the first book. I guess I did not pick up on these hints because I did not see the twist coming, and I was not a fan of it when I finally did. It felt like he was trying to force two different stories into one big one, and it took away from the originality of the first and second books by incorporating an overused story with the unique original. I will not elaborate more to avoid spoilers. It also felt very anti-climatic and I believed some of the characters did not get a proper ending. Once more, no spoilers so I will not expand on that.

There were some redeeming qualities in the book, though. I have said it before and I will say it again, Shusterman knows how to write action scenes. He does these extremely well, and they are always the parts of his books that I enjoy reading the most. The action is actually what always keeps me reading his books they are that well done.

    Additionally, I have always loved Scythe Rand as a character, even though she is a pretty awful person. I believe she was a really well developed character. She is very complex and real. I love getting to see her inner turmoils versus how she behaves outwardly. Her scenes are always very intriguing. I especially love her relationship with Rowan. Their scenes, like the action ones, always keep me excited and invested. In my opinion, she is the best character as far as development and even storyline go.

    Overall, I definitely did not enjoy this as much as the first two novels and believe this is the worst book in the trilogy. It was not bad in every sense of the word, but it certainly had a lot of room for improvement. I would only recommend it to certain people. For instance, those who like many different stories in one. This book simply was not for me, but it may be for you, so maybe you should give it a chance. Once again, this is all my opinion, and everyone has a different opinion.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Author: Neal Shusterman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

# of Pages: 625

Genre: YA, Science Fiction

Series: The Arc of a Scythe trilogy