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OLDER FICTION
Shusterman, Neal

The Toll

628 pp. | Simon | November, 2019 | Trade ISBN 978-1-4814-9706-0 $19.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-4814-9708-4
(2) YA Arc of a Scythe series. In this final volume in Shusterman's dystopian fantasy trilogy (Scythe, rev. 11/16; Thunderhead, rev. 3/18), Scythe Faraday is preparing to sail into the Thunderhead's blind spot to a small archipelago; now that the scythedom has run off the rails, he is looking for the fail-safe he believes the founding scythes have left behind. Greyson Tolliver, the only person not marked "unsavory" and therefore the only one who can communicate with the Thunderhead (the virtually omnipotent, artificially intelligent, cloud-based guardian of humankind), transforms himself into a mythical figure known as the Toll. Meanwhile, the Thunderhead manages to have Citra and Rowan retrieved from the depths of the Endura wreck and revived from their dead-ish state. They are quickly separated, becoming additional pieces that Shusterman moves around the chessboard as he works through the tangled machinations of the plot, shifting subtly from an emphasis on individual characters to a broader focus on humankind; ethics, politics, race, religion, gender, and sustainability are all contemporary issues woven into the story's fabric. The conclusion is surprising and bittersweet, but there is a note of optimism that lingers beyond the last page.
Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020

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