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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What we have here is the ultimate example of Speculative Fiction. There's plenty of fantasy, of that which feels imagined, and there's science with spaceships and floating vehicles, and there's even some horror with all the killing that goes on in this book. Plus, there's mention of the history of that galaxy, which has multiple interpretations, some of which just feed perfectly into fantasy. As I said, this is Speculative Fiction, this is the gold standard for encompassing the entire genre.
There's also a grab bag of diversity (though it is set in another galaxy, so take that as you will). There are two main characters, one with "brown skin" (Cyra). Cyra's chapters are written in first-person, but the chapters belonging to Akos are written in third-person limited. It sounds jarring, but it isn't. The book is gripping and wonderful. When does the next one come out? The ending has me needing the next book.
Some of my favorite parts:
"The pain I chose, instead of the pain that had chosen me." This is a line that anyone suffering from chronic pain will appreciate.
The book just came out January 17, 2017, but it feels very current and politically relevant (in the USA, in my opinion).
"Ridiculous, really, but sometimes people just believed what they were told. It was easier to survive that way."
There's also a grab bag of diversity (though it is set in another galaxy, so take that as you will). There are two main characters, one with "brown skin" (Cyra). Cyra's chapters are written in first-person, but the chapters belonging to Akos are written in third-person limited. It sounds jarring, but it isn't. The book is gripping and wonderful. When does the next one come out? The ending has me needing the next book.
Some of my favorite parts:
"The pain I chose, instead of the pain that had chosen me." This is a line that anyone suffering from chronic pain will appreciate.
The book just came out January 17, 2017, but it feels very current and politically relevant (in the USA, in my opinion).
"Ridiculous, really, but sometimes people just believed what they were told. It was easier to survive that way."
I went in hoping I would like this book, since I enjoyed Divergent so much, and was happy I wasn't disappointed at all. Carve the Mark is a great science fiction adventure with plenty of romance and action, set in an intriguing unique universe where people develop a "currentgift" that endows them with special abilities. But Currentgifts are not always readily apparent, nor are they always seen as a positive ability. The two main characters are Cyra, a girl whose currentgift causes her immeasurable physical pain, and Akos, a boy who is kidnapped from his family and forced to be a slave to Cyra. Akos' currentgift can take away Cyra's pain, so that she can use her currentgift to do her nasty brother's evil bidding. This forces Cyra and Akos to have an awkward close relationship when they are sworn enemies. Akos also has issues concerning his younger brother, and there's interplanetary politics at play as well, making this a complex and exciting book. Looking forward to the sequel.
“To continue to love someone so far beyond help, beyond redemption, was madness”
2/5 Stars
To continue to love this book because of Divergent is far beyond help, beyond redemption. It’s madness.
Recommendation: Trigger Warning for people who have suffered through rape, abuse and specially self harmed. Controversial portrayals of chronic pain. Beside that, rather dull and forgettable. Not exactly worth the read but wouldn’t advice against it either.
Full 3K Word Review with Rants, Spoilers & Book theorizing @ Sweet & Unholy
Carve the Mark is a slow spaced sci-fi book from the come back writer Veronica Roth begging to be called serious. In a way, Carve the Mark is almost everything the Divergent Series was not and while I’d love to say that is for the better, I’m afraid to say otherwise.
Divergent was a very young, fast paced dystopian novel that did not require much effort from the reader. Everything happened fast and was action packed, leaving little space to think back on the potential flaws. And that wasn’t bad, we were entertained for many hours, and the novel is memorable. It didn’t exceed in its world building, but the book didn’t take itself or its society too seriously, it just presented us with enough information to understand how it works, why the bad guy wants to take over and how the good guys fight back for it before its all over. Its not perfect, but its original and good.
CTM wants to be intelligent and tackle heavy subjects without any proper trigger warnings, it wants to be diverse and intends ends up offending a wide arrange of minorities and turns out ableist in the end. It is very slow paced, which is not necessarily bad, but you’d like things to at least happen. It isn’t worth the 500 pages it goes on for.
Unlike Divergent, it heavily relied on the World Building since Roth decided to go down the political road in which it failed in both regards. But that’s a rant written down below. If she knew how to do something, she should’ve probably stuck to it.
CTM is a book about two nations at war, the big bad mean Shotet and the good, innocent flower picking Thuve and the current that runs through both as an invisible, magical energy. Cyra is the princess daughter of the current dictator, who’s current gift resembles the real life condition of chronic pain, added to the fact touching others inflicts this pain onto themselves. Akos is a Thuve carton-cutout boy who according to his Oracle mother, is destined to serve Cyra’s family. True to the prophecy, the Novaek family kidnaps Akos and his brother from their peaceful home in Thuvet to force them to serve their Royal family. As it turns out, Akos’ gifts causes the current not to flow through him and thus only needs to touch Cyra to make her pain end because true love can conquer it all true to the YA formula.
It’s predictable, and the small semblances it has to good ideas or plot are dragged on and poorly performed. There are only three main characters, out of one falls completely on his face with poor development and so much missed potential, the other is a walking cliche, and the third is a compelling, interesting woman that’s also a well of missed potential. Which is all that this book is, potential. So much potential. Sadly, Roth can’t live off potential, and I can’t grade potential either. It isn’t a bad book per se, but its just not good either. Forgettable amongst everything.
Ps. If I hear one more time CTM is Star Wars for women, I will commit a horrible crime. This book tries to Sci Fi too hard, while YAing too hard while falling flat in its face for world building.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Holy ableism and racism, Batman! Full review to come after I eviscerate this book in my masters paper.
I just don't know with this one. Parts of the story I really enjoyed and other parts that left me confused. The gifts are an interesting concept but I disliked how Cyra's gift was portrayed. Originally the story was about survival and then it morphed into something strange.
Very good, but you have to get through the first few chapters to really get into the story. There is a lot of flashback and time jumping in th begining.
I will start off by saying that this is much better than Divergent (I couldn't even get halfway through Insurgent) however I feel like Veronica Roth's writing is still problematic in a few ways. My main issue with Divergent was the world building, I just found the factions to be ridiculous and the society to be borderline nonsensical and could never get past it. The world building in Carve the Mark is better but still felt like it wasn't fully fleshed out, leaving me with a million questions about the different countries, cultures, and the current gifts even after I finished the book. It just all felt a bit muddled. I also was really thrown off by and did not understand the choice to make one POV first person and the other POV third person. It was just awkward and strange and even with the swapping it sometimes felt like Akos and Cyra's voices weren't distinct enough from one another. Overall? It was okay. Not great, not terrible. We'll see how the next one goes.
I listened to the audiobook while working and started off having a hard time following the world she created. Overall I enjoyed the story, but didn’t realize it was a series so the ending up was a bit of a disappointment until I realized that