You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
hdunaway 's review for:
Carve the Mark
by Veronica Roth
DID NOT FINISH
So I've only read the first 3 chapters of this book, and yet I'm writing a review. This isn't something I do very often because I always want to give books and authors the chance to finish the story, to finish what they're saying if you will. However, it has taken me over a week to read less than 40 pages, and I'm already frustrated with this story.
After 3-4 days trying to get into the first 3 pages of the book, I finally bit the bullet and pushed through the initial 2 chapters in Akos POV. Throughout the entirety of Part 1 (literally just those 2 chapters), I never developed any personal connection or reasons to care about any of the characters introduced. The young characters seemed inconsistently developed for their ages and the family dynamic was awkward. The societal development seems to have enough holes in it that I have no desire to see if Roth fills them in or not. THEN, I got to the third chapter, and not only does the point of view change, BUT SHE ALSO SWITCHES FROM THIRD PERSON TO FIRST. I continued to flip through the chapters and EVERY chapter in Akos' POV is in third person, and EVERY chapter in Cyra's POV is in first. Perhaps an author could have gotten away with that kind of purposeful inconsistency for the purpose of character development and mood, but this book does not seem to be written well enough to merit that kind of literary license. I was already underwhelmed and a bit critical of her phrasings, figurative language, and syntax in general, but these larger aspects of poorly executed literary devices were too much for me.
Because of the sheer difficulty I was having getting into this novel, I went online to look up some reviews in the hopes that it gets better. Unfortunately, the people reviewing didn't even have time to criticize the technical aspects of this piece because it seems that the meat of the actual story gets worse too. From blatant racism to white-supremacy to self harm and beyond, I can't see why I would want to finish this novel. NOTE THAT I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY OF THOSE THINGS FOR MYSELF AND THIS PARAGRAPH IS BASED ENTIRELY ON THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS. However, I'm not impressed enough with this story to explore those claims for myself.
I was so excited for the premise of current gifts and the pated families in this story, and I feel like it had potential. Unfortunately I do not feel the motivation to finish this book at this time. Perhaps in the future I will come back to it, but for now it shall sit on my DNF shelf until further notice.
After 3-4 days trying to get into the first 3 pages of the book, I finally bit the bullet and pushed through the initial 2 chapters in Akos POV. Throughout the entirety of Part 1 (literally just those 2 chapters), I never developed any personal connection or reasons to care about any of the characters introduced. The young characters seemed inconsistently developed for their ages and the family dynamic was awkward. The societal development seems to have enough holes in it that I have no desire to see if Roth fills them in or not. THEN, I got to the third chapter, and not only does the point of view change, BUT SHE ALSO SWITCHES FROM THIRD PERSON TO FIRST. I continued to flip through the chapters and EVERY chapter in Akos' POV is in third person, and EVERY chapter in Cyra's POV is in first. Perhaps an author could have gotten away with that kind of purposeful inconsistency for the purpose of character development and mood, but this book does not seem to be written well enough to merit that kind of literary license. I was already underwhelmed and a bit critical of her phrasings, figurative language, and syntax in general, but these larger aspects of poorly executed literary devices were too much for me.
Because of the sheer difficulty I was having getting into this novel, I went online to look up some reviews in the hopes that it gets better. Unfortunately, the people reviewing didn't even have time to criticize the technical aspects of this piece because it seems that the meat of the actual story gets worse too. From blatant racism to white-supremacy to self harm and beyond, I can't see why I would want to finish this novel. NOTE THAT I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY OF THOSE THINGS FOR MYSELF AND THIS PARAGRAPH IS BASED ENTIRELY ON THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS. However, I'm not impressed enough with this story to explore those claims for myself.
I was so excited for the premise of current gifts and the pated families in this story, and I feel like it had potential. Unfortunately I do not feel the motivation to finish this book at this time. Perhaps in the future I will come back to it, but for now it shall sit on my DNF shelf until further notice.