Reading order
Arc of a Scythe reading order
1
2
3- 3 volumes
- Volumes
- 2016–2019
- Published
- about 30 h
- Reading time
- Completed
- Status
- Dystopian#2
- Genre
Quick answer
Publication order
3 volumes2016–2019Completed
- One continuous story — Scythe, Thunderhead, The Toll — so read it in order; Thunderhead scores highest here.
- Gleanings (2022) collects stories from the same world, best read after the trilogy.
A plan for the whole series
3 volumes, 1,651 pages, about 30 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 6 weeks.
Share of volume 1’s readers who reach the last volume. Chance of reaching the last volume: medium
- From volume 2 on, the number of ratings falls most before volume 3, “The Toll” (by 31%). Plan your break after volume 2, before the series plans it for you.
- Readers scored volume 3, “The Toll”, below its predecessor (8.2 after 8.5). If you slow down there, that is on the book, not on you.
Stages
2 stages, with 1 short book from outside the series between them. You finish around December 18, 2026, 9 days later than in one go.
- Stage 119 habout 4 weeksby November 23, 2026
- BreakMaus · Art Spiegelman · 295 pp. · score 9.0
- Stage 211 h15 daysby December 18, 2026
- The end of the series
We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.
Does the series hold up
Shape of the series: even. Volume scores differ by at most 0.3 points. You get the same level from the first page to the last.
Best volume: Thunderhead (8.5, 779 ratings). Weakest: The Toll (8.2). From volume 2 on, the biggest drop in the number of ratings is between volume 2 and 3: 31%. The series is complete; you can read it start to finish with no waiting. The last volume (8.2) scores close to the series average or above it.
How this plan is calculated
The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →
Every volume in order
Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 29, 2026
Arc of a Scythe books ranked, best to worst
- 1.ThunderheadBook 2 · 20188.5
- 2.ScytheBook 1 · 20168.3
- 3.The TollBook 3 · 20198.2
Frequently asked questions
Which Arc of a Scythe book is the best?
By reader score, Thunderhead (8.5/10). The lowest-rated is The Toll (8.2/10).
Which Arc of a Scythe book is the longest?
“The Toll” is the longest at 625 pages; the shortest is “Scythe” with 450 pages.
What should I read after Arc of a Scythe?
Other series by Neal Shusterman: The Skinjacker Trilogy, The Unwind dystology.
