The Toll by Neal Shusterman

I DO NOT SPEAK WITH THE VOICE OF THE THUNDER.

**BUT THE THUNDER DOES SPEAK THROUGH ME.**

Citra and Rowan have disappeared. Endura is gone. It seems like nothing stands between Scythe Goddard and absolute dominion over the world scythedom. With the silence of the Thunderhead and the reverberations of the Great Resonance still shaking the earth to its core, the question remains: Is there anyone left who can stop him?

The answer lies in the Tone, the Toll, and the Thunder.

In the highly anticipated finale to the *New York Times* bestselling trilogy, dictators, prophets, and tensions rise. In a world that's conquered death, will humanity finally be torn asunder by the immortal beings it created?

This description comes from the publisher. *The Toll* is the third book in the Arc of the Scythe series, the first of which is *Scythe*.

Very good, but book 2 is still the best of the trilogy.

“We couldn't count our chickens before they'd hatched.”

“Or put our eggs in one basket... I wonder which expression came first, the chickens or the eggs.”

Philosophizing is turned up to eleven. Subtlety is MIA. Tepid romance is apparently contagious.

The timeline in this book is really wacky. The narrative switches between characters as usual but one starts where the previous book left off, another a few months later, and another three full years later. The timelines synchronize eventually but effort of keeping it straight breaks immersion for the first half of the book at least.

Earlier books may have hinted about religious extremism and fascism but it's all over the place in this book. The actual characters often take a backseat to the philosophizing. There's even a border wall line, in case you didn't get that current events have gotten into the author's head.

I've complained about the Citra and Rowan pairing every book so it's no surprise it continues. However every other surviving character is implied to pair off with whoever they're standing near in the last chapter. Only one couple has the slightest hint of chemistry and it's still not great.

Not the worst YA series I've gotten through but I don't expect to revisit it ever.

Almost forgot: Citra and Rowan shouldn't remember the events of Scythe Island because the Thunderhead doesn't have access to make backups!!