I am a Shotet. I am sharp as broken glass, and just as fragile. I tell lies better than I tell truths. I see all of the galaxy and never catch a glimpse of it.
Finally back with another book review that isn’t scheduled XD. As someone who enjoyed Divergent back when I read it, I decided to pick up one of Roth’s other novels that came out relatively recently. And welllllll….it was so meh.
This is a rant review so consider yourself warned LOL.
Also, there may actually be spoilers this time (and I know I literally say this everytime and there turns out to be no spoilers, but yeahhhhhhhhhh. Don’t take my word for it :P)
Title: Carve the Mark
Author: Veronica Roth
Series: Carve the Mark
Rating: ★★ (2 stars)
Re-readability: –
In a galaxy powered by the current, everyone has a gift.
Cyra is the sister of the brutal tyrant who rules the Shotet people. Cyra’s currentgift gives her pain and power—something her brother exploits, using her to torture his enemies. But Cyra is much more than just a blade in her brother’s hand: she is resilient, quick on her feet, and smarter than he knows.
Akos is the son of a farmer and an oracle from the frozen nation-planet of Thuvhe. Protected by his unusual currentgift, Akos is generous in spirit, and his loyalty to his family is limitless. Once Akos and his brother are captured by enemy Shotet soldiers, Akos is desperate to get his brother out alive—no matter what the cost.
Then Akos is thrust into Cyra’s world, and the enmity between their countries and families seems insurmountable. Will they help each other to survive, or will they destroy one another?
Thoughts:
So…I was reading this novel and the first half of it actually had me pretty hooked. The rest of it though was so meh. I have no idea if it was that I was tired so I couldn’t take in anymore words but I just couldn’t take it anymoreeeee. The pacing was a little slow, and I felt like everything was just. No. After Akos returned to his planet (I’m pretty sure we allll knew it was coming people, so it doesn’t really count as a spoiler; if you didn’t sorry about that (don’t know if it’s really that bad of a spoiler tho)), but anyways, from then on, the novel didn’t really hook me as much as it did in the beginning and I have no idea why, considering that a lot of action happened in the latter part of the book. Perhaps, I was enduring my boredom from the very beginning or something lol.
Good Parts:
I REALLY liked Akos’s and Cyra’s chemistry in the first part of the novel and their relationship development. The Shotet and the Thuvhe people (okay I’m pretty sure they aren’t called the Thuvhe people but FOR THE LIFE OF ME I CAN’T SPELL and I…forget exactly what it was besides the fact that it looked like that one elf’s name in Lord of the Rings, Thraunduil (okay I’m pretty sure I didn’t spell that right either but at least I can come back to this post someday and edit all of these side comments out lmao)). Anyways, before I got distracted cough cough, these two groups of people have been enemies for a pretty long time. Then, you throw Akos, a Thuvhe person together with Cyra, a Shotet person and the sizzles just start from there~ The two different perspectives of two drastically different people created a really good juxtaposition for seeing different types of people in the world. One lives with honor and kindness (if that’s what you want to call it), while the other one lives with survivalist, cold instincts. It was cool to see how both of them changed throughout the novel as they were hit with more and more obstacles throughout the story.
ALSO liked the planets universe setting which made for a pretty cool sci-fi novel, but it honestly didn’t feel like the characters were on different planets unless a spaceship (or whatever that was called) was mentioned. Oh, and a map. Putting the whole story in a different universe though gave me a cool vibe when spaceships were mentioned, but adding all the planets and universes in the story wasn’t really very crucial to the plot. In a lot of ways, this novel reminded me of Roth’s other novel, Divergent, in which people are separated into factions and act differently based on where they live. On different planets, people also acted differently and dressed differently (probably due to the fact that most planets were isolated (?) but still something to note about this book).
Just also gotta insert in here that the cover of the book I was reading off of was so shiny and pretty that I couldn’t stop staring at it for five minutes! (That’s probably an exaggeration but you gotta give me some props for that lol) Also the quotes on the back of the book were pretty good. Kudos to the cover of the book 🙂
Mehh:
I mean okay, this book was good until it lost me. I can’t articulate exactly where it lost me, but all I know is that I was so hype about this novel until the second part of the novel when Akos wakes up. (uhh did he have amnesia when he woke up because I forget) In any case, I just remember being really really aggravated when he woke up because it felt so cliche (don’t remember any specifics so if I happen to be right on that one, don’t bash me lolol). The book started out so cool, and even in another universe for heavens’s sake, but it just didn’t cut it for me in the end. The second part of the novel should really have been faster paced, considering that that was when the action really started cranking out, while the first part of the novel mainly focuses on the romance part subtly while setting up the world and the different powers in that world.
Also at first I honestly felt bad for the antagonist, because he was treated so horribly when he was little, but little did I know he would become such a stupid-evil-OP-boss-person-who-refuses-to-die. Reminds me of the antagonist in Defendant (a k-drama) when the freaking—
Oh.
Right.
Where was I?
Talking about Carve the Mark? RIGHT. MOVING ON.
Wrapping it UP-
The novel had a ton of potential- it was set in a whole different universe with literal planets and there was a lot of BLUE.
The Me who is Questioning to the Me who is Currently Typing: Are you sure the blue part is necessary to tell your readers why they should or shouldn’t read this book?
Typing me: No
Questioning Me: Then why-?
Typing me: BECAUSE BLUE IS ALL I REMEMBER.
Questioning Me: You clearly remember other stuff. And why didn’t you mention it earlier in your revie-
Typing me: DON’T DO IT.
TM: And YES THAT’S JUST ABOUT HOW MUCH I REMEMBER OF THIS BOOK.
QM: …
QM: Also where are your quotes in this review? You only have two quotes and all of them are in the previews of this post! Compared to the other novels, when you did at least more than that…
TM: …….
TM: NO ONE IS GOING TO NOTICE.
QM: I just did.
TM: OKAY SEE YOU NEXT WEEK EVERYONE. BYE.
QM: …You’re leaving your readers hanging without a proper goodbye and shameless promotional?
TM: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Yes. Wait wut?
QM: 🙄
TM: Look out for more book reviews next week everybody. THURSDAYS is the day when you should tune in. Also, let me know how I’m doing with these book reviews and check out more here! I am thinking about ranting about a recent drama that I watched (cough, skipped through) SHOUTOUT TO NEWBIENOONA FOR COMMENTING ON RENEGADES AND BEING MY FIRST COMMENTOR EVER ON BOOK REVIEWS.
QM: Are the caps really necessary?
TM: …
QM: Are you aware that we literally spammed this book review until it literally no longer became a book review?
TM: …
QM: Are you okay TM? You’re not saying anything.
TM: …
QM: Wellll before we close out, I would like to thank kaitoujeanne for her great recommendations in a comment on Warcross (that I haven’t had a chance to check out yet due to finals and tests that will probably be continuing until the first two weeks of May flails)
I would definitely recommend reading ready player one if you haven’t read it yet. If you like the dystopian sort, try the matched series. Immortal instruments is not that bad the author threw a lot of angst and plot twist in it.
I will feature more comments next week so definitely don’t forget to comment!
Thanks for reading, and see you next Thursday! 🙂
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