The Toll by Neal Shusterman

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?
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.

I’m going to admit, I was a bit confused when this book first started. I didn’t realize there was a time gap because I hadn’t read the blurb. I’d figured they’d have immediately started trying to salvage Endura, but clearly not.

I’m going to admit this right now, I can’t stand Goddard. He’s egotistical, he’s power hungry, and he’s a grade-A jackass. Yes, I said it. He’s a jackass. The way he treats people makes me want to reach through the pages and punch him. I can see why everyone hates him.

Greyson Tolliver’s character becomes much clearer in this book – he’s more defined than in Thunderhead and his reason for being in the story makes a lot more sense now than it did when I read Thunderhead. He’s not a particularly likeable character for me – he’s more just there because he needs to be, not because I’m intended to like him.

Sycthe Anastasia and Rowan are back, still like Anastasia better than Rowan and have no idea why those two are so much in love with each other, because there really isn’t much of a romantic arc to this story at all. But there you have it, they’re in love, for whatever reason.

I rather liked the Thunderhead and its scheming to save humanity. I understand totally why it was creating the different iterations of itself and how Cirrus came to be. I also understand that quite frankly, humans can destroy anything, even a perfect world. It’s our nature to destroy what is good and perfect.

I do wish for one thing though. Even if it’s just a novella, I want to see the aftermath. Both on earth and in space. I want to know what groups made it, which ones didn’t. I want to know of their lives after they made it to their new homes. I’m sitting here with burning questions and no answers.

This one was fast paced, even though it took me a bit to read it because I paused to read Blood Heir. When I was working on The Toll, I didn’t want to put it down. It’s a definite must read if you’ve already read the first two books.