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Mortals were children of extremes. Either death was sublime, or it was unthinkable � such a mélange of hope and terror, no wonder so many mortals were driven mad. We post-mortals lack such imagination. The living do not ponder death anymore. � Scythe Michael Faraday

This review does discuss the ending of the book but it is marked as spoiler.

This was initially a hard book to review for me, then the ending happened. Until the halfway point I disliked it, to the point where it was an effort to continue reading it. For anyone that did actually see my updates along the way, you will know why. The timings are ridiculous. There are maybe 5 different timelines running concurrently with little to no care as to keeping the reader informed as to who was it what timeline as to where that timeline fits in the grand scheme of things. Initially, I didn't even realise how many there were, is that a bigger problem? I think that is a bigger problem.

Okay so I'm going to go into why my rating is so low first. But it is a spoiler sooo... (view spoiler)[Still with me? The ending to me was just awful. There is is no signposting of that at all. That virtually all the key details only really popped up at the 70ish% mark is seriously problematic in a book that is some 600 pages long. Creating colonies out of the however many massacred Tonists felt a bit like jumping the shark. That said I did appreciate some parts of the ending. Like the solution created by the founders, the new roles of the scythes and Astrid. But overall it was just ugh. Is that the best you can do? You legitimately went and then the little girl woke up! Cirrus' whole existence was sort of indicated but I just thought Gaia was going crazy at least at first. Don't even get me started on how creepy that whole section was for Cirrus to even get there. If I had to give him a name as I gave Gaia one, not that he needs it it would be Hyperion (a Greek Titan associated with celestial bodies son of Gaia). Honestly, I wish Shusterman had just let Rowan burn. Yes, there are plot points for his existence but jeez that is a lot of death you just unnecessarily put on the shoulders of a 21-year-old (I think, seriously time is so odd in this book). Most of it just feels like wasted potential. Rowan and Citra I was always on the fence about. Most of the time they were together it was high adrenaline and I just can't see anything between them actually working. Citra has proven herself strong. Independence becomes her. As I said let him burn, he would be saving all those people. Goddard's death initially felt so anticlimactic, but I love that part of the ending. I wish we had been allowed to see more though, Possuelo too. All we know is he didn't die. What happened to Murina? Surely both of those two deserve more than a hand wave?(sorry this section is quite rambly) (hide spoiler)]

Don't get me wrong I did like some aspects of the book. Possuelos reappearance (I really like him FYI) and mou anje (my angel) as a nickname for Citra, Faraday and Citra spending time together, Rand's whole arc and Morrison. Morrison I really didn't expect, that he would be so loyal to Greyson and become a better person was unexpected and endeared him to me. My OTP for this book may well be Joel/Morrison and self-esteem. Greyson well Greyson did as I expected. He may not have done as I expected but he was a core element to the whole story and he developed as a person. Ayn is wonderfully fleshed out in The Toll she is much more than one might expect and I am immensely grateful for that.

The shining light for me and the reason I persisted is a character readers didn't even meet until this book. Jeri. Jeri is a gender fluid character and is amazing. (Someone really needs to tells me if their coding is phobic or not. I can help you with aspecs but gender fluid is not my area.) Jeri is from the Madagascar charter area, everyone from there is gender fluid, which I really like as an experiment. For most of the book, they present as female. At 24-5 they are a total boss. Wise beyond their years and take no shit.

I think most of the pseudo-romantic relationships in this series except maybe Ayn and Tyger are unnecessary. The series may have worked better without them. Shusterman with due respect to him did not do enough groundwork across the trilogy to sustain them and encourage them. I am also very aware that I am likely in the minority on that. I know this was likely a trilogy because symbolism but I think it may have worked better as a quadrilogy. Allowing for a better build. Or even if the trilogy was better thought out. This feels like a conclusion that without planning or consultation with the other books.

I really didn't hate this book as much as it might come across. It's just a disappointing ending to a series and I have reviewed it in a series context. I would still recommend Scythe to people, it does stand alone but as for The Toll, I'm not sure. It has its good points and it's bad points but I think what people might imagine and the fanfics I'm sure to find are going to be better. I guess this just isn't where I thought this was going. As a quick aside that is a super clever cover in the context of the text. All of them are tied to problems for Goddard. It's also just visually appealing.

"There is opportunity in every disaster,"[...]"a ship goes down, that's when I get excited. Because I know there are always treasures in the wreckage. Look what I found at the bottom of the sea. I found you." � Jerico Soberanis

A representative gif (1st half):

A representative gif (2nd half):