Correction: A previous version of this review misstated the name of Scythe Goddard's character.

With a surprising amount of humor for the large body count, it elevates and deepens the series with a gently optimistic examination of the fine human line between utopia and dystopia. The stellar conclusion to Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe trilogy is a gripping adventure that never stops building momentum as it refocuses the books on a grander scale. Some previously central characters, particularly Rowan, take on smaller roles, while others, including Greyson and a hypercompetent, genderfluid sea captain named Jerico Soberanis, are given space to charm. Scythe, the first book in his series Arc of a Scythe is a Michael L. My Review I needed a break between THUNDERHEAD, the second book in the series, and THE TOLL.

Meanwhile, Greyson Tolliver, the only human to whom the nearly omnipotent AI known as the Thunderhead will talk, has become the Toll, spiritual leader to the oppressed Tonist religion, as the Thunderhead secretly works to build something game-changing on the remote Marshall Atolls. Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award. 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. Citra must convince the world of Goddard's villainy, while Rowan, universally despised as the destroyer of Endura, must simply survive. When Citra and Rowan are discovered preserved in the wreckage of Endura, three years after the events of Thunderhead, they awaken to find that megalomaniacal Scythe Goddard is now Overblade of all North Merica and is consolidating power worldwide.

The toll neal shusterman