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elisehedlund 's review for:
Carve the Mark
by Veronica Roth
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I mostly picked up the book because it was by Veronica Roth, and the premise seemed okay, but the blurb totally does not do it justice! I found the premise exciting, the characters interesting, and the plot thrilling. I only had a couple of questions about how the world could realistically function, and there were no huge plot holes that I noticed, so the world was very believable. The idea of current gifts was a very good one and made for a very good book. I also really enjoyed seeing the characters grow and thought that their actions matched them well. I also really liked the plot which kept me on the edge of my seat.
However, I did have a few small problems (and a big one). First, the names. A couple odd names in a book is fine by me, but I had no idea how to pronounce all but two or three of the names in the book. This may not seem like a big deal, but when names like Cisi, Eijeh, Isae, and more are constantly coming up, it makes for a more frustrating read since my mind is stumbling over words in every paragraph, and it's hard to feel like you know a character when you can't even begin to say their name. Seriously, try saying all the names in this book out loud and you'll see what I mean. Another issue was that it was never directly mentioned in the book whether Cisi or Eijeh is older, but for some reason in trying to create the world in my head I assumed Eijeh was the oldest, which made for a very confusing storyline until halfway through I reread the intro and saw it was never directly stated. That is partly on me, because I didn't have any reason to believe he was oldest, but how hard would it have been to slide in a line like, " ____, the oldest child " or something like that? Also, while I liked that the story was told by both Akos and Cyra, I did not like that Akos was in third person and Cyra in first. I wish there had been more uniformity. And, there are a couple chapters in the beginning told by Akos, then a sold ten to fifteen chapter chunk that was all Cyra. While I really enjoyed Cyra's POV, I wish there had been a more balanced amount of the story told by each. One more problem was that the ending was very dissatisfying. Even though I know the book has a sequel, the ending wasn't fulfilling. The last statement, which usually has a profound impact because it's the last thing readers take away with them, wasn't that special and didn't seem to fit with the book. Even with a sequel, the last statement should be good.
Finally (and this one deserves a section of its own), there's the way race is portrayed in the story. Now, I am less of a visual thinker in that thinking in pictures does not come super naturally to me, so I often find it hard to visualize characters in a book whether good description is given or not. So, a lot of the race-based descriptions didn't stick with me because very few physical descriptions were mentioned enough for me to mold them to the idea I had in my mind of the character. (For example, I have no idea what Cyra's hair looks like. Is it brown or black? Curly, wavy or straight? Short or long? I have no idea. I know Akos and Cyra are tall, though. The word "tall" is used so much. It was starting to get on my nerves.) Anyway, even though not many physical descriptions stuck with me, I did notice that overall the Shotet people were supposed to be darker skinned than the Thuvhesit people, and other reviews have pointed that out as well. As the Shotet are painted as the more aggressive people and the Thuvhesit as the more peaceful people (although the book does a very good job of bringing to light both perspectives), pairing the race with the people like that is not a stereotype authors should be enforcing. However, since I have trouble with the visualization aspect of books, it seemed very subtle and was very hard to pick up on for me at least, so I can't really offer a complete opinion on that as someone who noticed those descriptions more might be able to do.
This may seem to paint a very negative picture of the book, but those negative factors weren't too large and frustrating to take much away from the book itself. While they bugged me, they were more nit-picky details than huge holes or problems in the story (excluding the last one). Overall, I really enjoyed it, especially the characters and the ideas within the world the story is set in and I'd like to read the next one!
However, I did have a few small problems (and a big one). First, the names. A couple odd names in a book is fine by me, but I had no idea how to pronounce all but two or three of the names in the book. This may not seem like a big deal, but when names like Cisi, Eijeh, Isae, and more are constantly coming up, it makes for a more frustrating read since my mind is stumbling over words in every paragraph, and it's hard to feel like you know a character when you can't even begin to say their name. Seriously, try saying all the names in this book out loud and you'll see what I mean. Another issue was that it was never directly mentioned in the book whether Cisi or Eijeh is older, but for some reason in trying to create the world in my head I assumed Eijeh was the oldest, which made for a very confusing storyline until halfway through I reread the intro and saw it was never directly stated. That is partly on me, because I didn't have any reason to believe he was oldest, but how hard would it have been to slide in a line like, " ____, the oldest child " or something like that? Also, while I liked that the story was told by both Akos and Cyra, I did not like that Akos was in third person and Cyra in first. I wish there had been more uniformity. And, there are a couple chapters in the beginning told by Akos, then a sold ten to fifteen chapter chunk that was all Cyra. While I really enjoyed Cyra's POV, I wish there had been a more balanced amount of the story told by each. One more problem was that the ending was very dissatisfying. Even though I know the book has a sequel, the ending wasn't fulfilling. The last statement, which usually has a profound impact because it's the last thing readers take away with them, wasn't that special and didn't seem to fit with the book. Even with a sequel, the last statement should be good.
Finally (and this one deserves a section of its own), there's the way race is portrayed in the story. Now, I am less of a visual thinker in that thinking in pictures does not come super naturally to me, so I often find it hard to visualize characters in a book whether good description is given or not. So, a lot of the race-based descriptions didn't stick with me because very few physical descriptions were mentioned enough for me to mold them to the idea I had in my mind of the character. (For example, I have no idea what Cyra's hair looks like. Is it brown or black? Curly, wavy or straight? Short or long? I have no idea. I know Akos and Cyra are tall, though. The word "tall" is used so much. It was starting to get on my nerves.) Anyway, even though not many physical descriptions stuck with me, I did notice that overall the Shotet people were supposed to be darker skinned than the Thuvhesit people, and other reviews have pointed that out as well. As the Shotet are painted as the more aggressive people and the Thuvhesit as the more peaceful people (although the book does a very good job of bringing to light both perspectives), pairing the race with the people like that is not a stereotype authors should be enforcing. However, since I have trouble with the visualization aspect of books, it seemed very subtle and was very hard to pick up on for me at least, so I can't really offer a complete opinion on that as someone who noticed those descriptions more might be able to do.
This may seem to paint a very negative picture of the book, but those negative factors weren't too large and frustrating to take much away from the book itself. While they bugged me, they were more nit-picky details than huge holes or problems in the story (excluding the last one). Overall, I really enjoyed it, especially the characters and the ideas within the world the story is set in and I'd like to read the next one!