{"id":36921,"date":"2020-02-03T22:18:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T02:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36921"},"modified":"2020-02-03T22:18:18","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T02:18:18","slug":"review-of-the-toll-by-neal-shusterman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36921","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Toll, by Neal Shusterman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Toll<\/p>\n

Arc of a Scythe<\/em>, Book 3<\/p>\n

by Neal Shusterman<\/p>\n

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019. 625 pages.
\nStarred Review
\nReview written December 5, 2019, from a library book
\n2019 Sonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #5 in Teen Fiction<\/p>\n

I should not have checked this book out and taken it home when I was supposed to be reading Middle Grade Speculative Fiction for the Cybils Awards. But how could I possibly resist? Still\u2026 625 pages! I could have read three middle grade books in the time it took to read this.<\/p>\n

And I didn\u2019t read it all at once. I used a couple of chapters of this book as a reward for doing my other reading, which actually worked surprisingly well \u2013 by this time in the series, the author had several threads going at once, so there were logical places to pause my reading.<\/p>\n

Yes, you need to read this trilogy in order. Definitely. And I don\u2019t want to give much away about the earth-shaking way Book 2 ended.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, Neal Shusterman brought all the threads and all the characters to a satisfying conclusion. I was surprised how well he pulled it off.<\/p>\n

This third book\u2019s title character is the Toll \u2013 a prophet who\u2019s arisen among the Tonist religion, the only one the Thunderhead will talk to, because the whole world is Unsavory. But there\u2019s a lot going on beyond that \u2013 power has been seized by ruthless people. Scythes are supposed to kill a small percentage of people to keep the earth from becoming overpopulated. But they aren\u2019t supposed to enjoy it. <\/p>\n

Can the surviving main characters we\u2019ve come to care about in this series do anything about the seizure of power by those who are evil? Can the Thunderhead do anything, despite the separation of scythe and state?<\/p>\n

I am still amazed that Neal Shusterman was able to come up with satisfying affirmative answers to those questions.<\/p>\n

This series makes you look at life and mortality and the human race with new eyes.<\/p>\n

storyman.com<\/a>
\nsimonandschuster.com\/teen<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/toll.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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