Carve the Mark

By Veronica Roth

Good, but I expected more from the author of the Divergent series.

Carve the Mark is centred around two main characters, Cyra and Akos.  Cyra's brother, Ryzek, is a tyrant who rules the country of Shotet, and uses her to torture his enemies because of her currentgift.  Akos is the son of an oracle, and when he and his brother are kidnapped by Shotet soldiers, he vows to do anything to get them both out alive.  He is forced to step in to help Cyra, who is having trouble controlling her currentgift, and if you've read any other YA novels where two characters from opposing sides are forced together, you can probably already tell what happens next. 

One thing I can't deny that Veronica Roth is excellent at is world-building.  The world she created in the Divergent series was very well thought out and the world in Carve the Mark is just as good.  I didn't like the setting however, but I think that this was just because of the type of book that this is.  I admit that I didn't know anything about this book before I started to read it - I just saw that it was written by Veronica Roth so I immediately bought it.  If I'd read the blurb I probably wouldn't have been in such a rush to read it.  

The characters in Carve the Mark were all quite well thought out, I thought.  Cyra and Akos were both interesting protagonists coming to terms with their newly developed currentgifts.  Ryzek was a good villain - I liked how his backstory was explored, and that him and Cyra used to be close when they were younger, but he was corrupted by his father so he could rule Shotet.  On the other hand, I just thought that there were too many characters in the book to keep track of, and I had to keep checking back to see who was who.  

Although I did enjoy this, the book is riddled with problems.  I thought there was an important plot hole surrounding the oracles, but if I try to explain it I think I might spoil too much of the story.  There is also the issue of racism which is quite prominent in Carve the Mark - if you google this then you'll get a much better explanation than I can probably give.

I don't think I'll rush to by the sequel when it comes out.  It was good, but nowhere near as good as Divergent.  It took me a week to read it, and if I had enjoyed it a bit more then I would have flown through it a lot quicker.

Rating: 5/10
Date read: April 2017.