Ever since I read Unwind as a teenager, and then discovered Challenger Deep which quickly became my favourite book ever, Shusterman has been right at the top of my auto-buy authors list. Neal Shusterman has been my favourite author for a long time now. Have you read my reviews of the first two books in the series? If not, here they are: Scythe | Thunderhead In this pulse-pounding conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe trilogy, constitutions are tested and old friends are brought back from the dead.

Readers who enjoy a good dystopian series should check this one out.It’s been three years since Rowan and Citra disappeared since Scythe Goddard came into power since the Thunderhead closed itself off to everyone but Grayson Tolliver. I’m glad I finally did sit down and finish the series. So, I liked some of questions the story raised in that vein. But it does present some interesting questions about our dependence on technology and whether that’s a good thing. There are TONS of books out there where the computer turns out to be the super villain, right? This one isn’t really like that. On the one hand, I really enjoyed that this is a technology-positive story.

It’s not presented really as a religion, but it sort of functions that way. It also views itself as a sort of shepherd of humanity, and humans have come to rely on it as a companion they can speak to at any time. The Thunderhead knows all of history and connects to each person (outside of the Scythes) so that it knows them deeply. In this whole series, humans have a really interesting relationship with technology. I think this book needed to feel really big, and it did feel like that to me. This book introduces some new characters that I enjoyed a lot. I liked all the buildup where the story bounced between different characters, and it feels like all of them begin moving toward one cohesive goal.

As he and his allies discover more about the history of the Scythe system and Goddard becomes still more unhinged, it becomes pretty clear they need to do something big. Grayson finds himself in a really strange situation with the Thunderhead once again. Rowan and Citra return, but of course if Goddard finds out they’re alive, they’ll be in trouble. Scythe Goddard is in charge and pretty much willing to do anything to cement his power. This is kind of a dark book, especially at the beginning. The ending of THUNDERHEAD kind of overwhelmed me, so it took me a while to feel like I was ready to pick up where it left off. I needed a break between THUNDERHEAD, the second book in the series, and THE TOLL.

The Toll by Neal Shusterman