The TollI don’t even know where to start with The Toll. It’s no secret that I haven’t loved The Arc of the Scythe series as much as others have and if I’m being honest I didn’t understand why so many people loved them. Suffice to say I have changed my tune on these books completely. The Toll was an absolutely fantastic book and I adored it with my whole heart.

The Toll was the perfect conclusion to the series and Shusterman stepped up every level of his craft in this novel. The plot was tightly woven, the characters fully explored and the themes of the whole series made fully resonant.

The most impressive element of this novel to me is the plotting of the book. Shusterman introduces a lot of moving pieces into the narrative. Unlike the previous novels in this series, we follow so many more perspectives in great detail across multiple timelines. Each point of view never felt extraneous or unnecessary and worked in creating a rich tapestry of perspectives that gave the narrative it’s needed scope. A lot of technical skill is required to have so many plot threads hanging in the balance while keeping a reader invested, yet Shusterman does it effortlessly. Each chapter builds and builds to a stunning conclusion.

The way Shusterman played with form and mixed media to tell his story was also fascinating. In all the books I’ve read by him Shusterman in some way incorporated mixed media to add to his worldbuilding and story, but the different ways he did it in The Toll was unlike anything I’ve seen from him before. Not only does he incorporate journal entries and news reports in between chapters as he did in the previous two books, but he also occasionally plays with structure and perspective within the chapters of the novel. It was a brilliant technique in getting the full scope of the multiple character’s emotions and upped up the dramatic tension in every scene it was used in.

A problem I had in the previous two books of the series was my struggle to fully immerse myself in the characters particularly our protagonists Rowan and Citra. In this book the lack of a central protagonist made this problem feel moot. And further from that I think I now fully understand how Shusterman wrote characters in his series. Unlike most YA I don’t think there was any intention at having a very close relationship with the character and the 3rd person perspective goes to show that. However, I managed to fully latch on to so many characters in The Toll because of the scope Shusterman provides in this novel. We get to see all of our protagonists over time in this novel I latched on to the deepest wants and desires because I got to see how much they grew and changed.

The themes of this book and I think ultimately its heart was so resonant in this book. I think sci-fi is about hope for humanity and dreaming of a better world and Shusterman delivers in that regard in spades. Our protagonists’ ceaseless desire in making the world a better place and their selfless ambition to do so was inspiring and Shusterman’s ultimate conclusion that it is possible and there is always light in the darkness is the kind of message I want to be reading.

This was one of the most satisfying conclusions of a series I have ever read. In so many ways The Toll is so much greater than the sum of its parts. Shusterman didn’t answer every question and didn’t give every character an epilogue but we’re still left hopeful for the future.

The Toll is a story made up of many small pieces that connect with each other to make a beautiful story. It was an excellent book and a perfect ending to the Arc of the Scythe series. It might be a bit presumptuous to say but I think Shusterman wrote a masterpiece with this book and it likely going to stick with me for a long time.