The toll

The Toll was meant to be a grand finale, but instead, it felt overcrowded and distracted from Citra and Rowan’s journey. Rather than centering on them, the story was watered down by too many unnecessary perspectives.

The downfall of Scythe Goddard, which should have been an intense, satisfying moment, felt rushed and almost anticlimactic. After all the buildup, it wasn’t even Citra or Rowan who took him down it was Scythe Rand. And while that made sense for her arc, it ultimately lacked the impact it should have had.

The Thunderhead’s grand plan of sending people into space was an interesting idea, but it barely felt connected to the emotional core of the series.

The revival of the scythes from the Endura vault could have been a big moment, but by then, the story was so unfocused that it barely made an impact.

The Scythedom was dismantled, but rather than giving us a satisfying reckoning, the book just kind of moved on, leaving behind a world that felt directionless.

As for Citra and Rowan the supposed heart of the trilogy? They spent most of the book either frozen or completely irrelevant. When they finally woke up after 117 years, the book just ended. No real resolution, no satisfying character arc, just a vague “fresh start” that felt more like a cop-out than a conclusion.

And then there’s Scythe Curie. She remains dead, which would have been fine if her sacrifice had carried emotional weight in the book, but the book was so caught up in its endless side plots that her absence barely mattered. The whole thing just felt… empty.

In the end, The Toll wasn’t a thrilling conclusion it was an unfocused mess that lost sight of its own characters. It spent so much on side plots that it forgot to give a satisfying ending to the ones who actually mattered.