Carve the Mark Review
- Austin
- Jun 21, 2017
- 8 min read
Bonjour et bienvenue à Revivre le Livre ! Aujourd’hui, nous avons un nouveaux critique littérature pour vous tous ! (Hello and welcome back to Revivre le Livre! Today, we have a new book review for y’all!)
Today, I will be reviewing Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth. For those of you familiar with popular YA fiction, then that name might sound familiar to you. For those of you who might not be as familiar, Veronica Roth is the New York Times best-selling author responsible for the Divergent trilogy. Now if you are anything like me, you probably loved Divergent when it first came out, thought that Insurgent was okay, and then threw Allegiant across the room for being complete trash. So, naturally, I was a little apprehensive to pick up Carve the Mark, after Veronica disappointed myself and so many other fans by just throwing out the established rules of the Divergent series right out window in the final book of the series. After I finished this book, I can say, my apprehension was in fact valid. This was not her best work.
Now, all that being said I want to preface my review with the fact that Veronica Roth, does know how to write a good story. However, said novel was not necessary a good or even a great one, although the overall concept of this novel was great. It was simply because the execution was lacking. I also want to preface that I am biased to her writing now, because of how disappointed I was with her, so I will try and be as object with this review as I can.
So what is Carve the Mark all about? Well, Carve the Mark, is classified as science-fiction book, but it has strands of fantasy in it. Carve the Mark is set in some distant alternative space reality, where there are 9 planets that revolve around a sun and they are governed [individually (via their own jurisdiction) but also] by a council called the Assembly. Think Star Wars. Now, across space, on each planet and in every person / living thing, there is a force called the current that exists within and around all of them. The current is both visible and invisible and it grants every person a gift/skill. These gifts usually develop around puberty and are generally speaking a manifestation of their personality. Some example of these gifts are: being able to feel no pain, put people to ease, steal memories, and more. There are also a handful of beings that have the ability to see the future - they are the oracles. Each planet has three oracles, a rising one (one who just came into their ability), the current one, and then the falling one (one who is old and almost finished with their duties). Generally speaking, the words of the oracles are taken with a reverence, except for on a few planets. Now one interesting thing to note about the oracles is that while they see the future and its many possibilities they also see something called fates. Fates are when every oracle across the galaxy at the same time sees the exact same vision(s) happening out in every timeline…it is in a word, unavoidable. Usually, each planet has a least one family that is fate-favored. The planet that our main characters are on actually has three fate favored families, the Noaveks, the Kereseths, and the Benesits. Right off the bat you, can see how this book could be a unique combination of science-fiction and fantasy, but beyond that summery of how the universe works in Carve the Mark, the novel is quite dry. The worlds magic/power system is the only really developed concept and even then there is a lot we don’t know about it.
When it comes to characters, Carve the Mark follows two individuals from the planet, Thuvhe (the ice planet), Akos and Cyra. The two of them are from two different fate favored families, that are then inexplicably tied or rather shoved together via their intertwined fates. The Noaveks, to which Cyra belongs, are a group of people know as the Shotet. They are essentially wonders and not real citizens of the planet Thuvhe. Thus causing quite the upheaval and a brink of civil war. Akos Kerseths is on the other side of this, as he is a normal member of Thuvhe society…expect for the fact that his mother is the current oracle and that he is fate-favored. The novel continually shifts through their two points of view throughout and the novel in its entirety is broken down into four sections. The first section is about 30 pages or so only told from Akos’s point of view, and the second section is about 130+ just told from Cyra’s point of view. This really bothered me, because at this point in the story Akos and Cyra are interacting daily and we know Akos just went through a lot of crap/drama yet we don’t get to know really any of his thoughts until we hit part three. Part three was when we finally venture out into the universe, but we just happen to stay aboard a ship for about 75% of the time. Finally, part four is really where the action happens, but only accounts for about 150 pages. Section four is this books saving grace, because it applied action, and a sense of urgency to the novel. Whereas, sections two and three, put on a heck of masquerade; trying to make you think a lot is really going on when in reality there is hardly anything going on or it’s the same old thing over and over again. Also its worth mentioning that during section three, at the literal halfway point of the novel the typical YA love story really beings to unfold. Thus carjacking the plot and what little was left, or to begin with of the character’s wills, personalities and motivation.
Now, without going into too much plot detail, lets discuses why, I did not really like this novel. Well, for starters, for a science fiction novel set in the vastness of space – everything seemed quite primitive. (Or frankly ripped of from other fandoms.) Not to mention we hardly get a glimpse at the other planets / universe. When we do see or hear about these other planets its stereotypical; we get a water planet, a desert planet etc and then we see either opulence or ruin for the dichotomies of the people. Nothing in-between. Character wise, its all too convenient that almost every single character we meet has a counterpart when applied to their currentgift. One person can inflect pain on everyone by touching them, another person never feels pain, one person steals memories, another makes them remember, etc. etc. etc. Not to mention that the main characters really had no real depth to them. Akos is just driven by a single thought the entire time – that is to save his brother. Whereas, at least Cyra, has some actual brain activity but once the end of the novel kicks in it’s the typical “I’ll do anything for the one I love” story. This novel is the epitome of YA predictability. If you’ve read a lot of YA novels, then more than likely you would have seen 95% of what happened before it happened. YA isn’t an inherently a bad genre, many a great series have stemmed from it but that doesn’t mean you can just knock off other stories, or not really try. Its also worth mentioning that any big twist came at the very end during the last 50 pages or so. Thus setting this novel up for a sequel. Writing wise, it tends to be very choppy at times. Confusing the reader to what’s going on or what just happened. The dialogue is not bad, but its just typical. For Akos and Cyra, the only reason they start having a relationship is because of the whole, we’re victims of circumstance. We have to spend every waking moment together and that means we have to develop feelings for each other. Frankly its annoying. Never in a million years would Akos and Cyra fall in love with each other, under normal circumstances, but because they are always together and because the nature of their gifts, of course feelings just start to pop up. Writing in romance, for a plot device is not always the best move. Not every story needs romance in order to create motivation for your characters. This story would have been fine, and probably better without it.
Overall, I would have to give this novel a 3 out of 5 stars because it does have a great concept. On top of that, for someone that doesn’t read a lot of books in general, someone who want to get into YA books, and or wants something “different” then this isn’t a bad fit for them. But if you’re someone like me, who reads a plethora of fantasy and science-fiction novels this story is quite plain. It features dry characters, and predictable civil war/ family conflict. Its saving grace was the right now in YA the current trend is retailing classic fairytales not dystopian fiction, or science-fiction space novels.
Finally, the last thing, I want to address about this book is the controversies that surround it. For those of you unfamiliar with it, let me explain. The first, but not the greatest one is the unfair reviews from popular bloggers/ YouTubers. The vast majority of them all within the same day, gave this book 4 stars, with very generic, and similar reviews harking how diverse this book is. Whereas, within the second and more prevalent controversy is that many people saw this book as racist. While I am not an African-American individual, I never once perceived this book as having racist undertones. Yes, one group of people is described as having darker skin tones, and curlier hair and yes that group of people also happens to be “poorer.” But I don’t think Veronica Roth wrote this book with racist intentions. Tanned skin does not necessarily equate to black skin. Not to mention the poorness of these people is based on factors such as they are wonderers, following the current before the present time this novel and for some of the people certain technological advances are forgone because of religious convictions. Also, Ryzek, the head of the Shotet, and Cyra’s brother is known for hoarding food and medical supplies for himself and other upper echelon members. Not to mention, I have never heard of Veronica Roth being racist. I do not support racism. It is inherently wrong – however we must remember that some books are written in such a style to depict a time period such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness or even Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Compound that with issues prevalent in todays society – if Veronica decided to make race a factor in her story, have we stopped to consider it is to spark a conversation? Sometimes we need books to be bigoted in a fictitious sense in order to spread a message of tolerance. That all being said – as someone who is enamored by literature, and pours over this book and others -- as someone who pays attention to many a detail in all works, I do not think Veronica Roth was being racist. Merely that racist undertones were perceived.
So there you have it, that concludes my review of Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth! Please let me know in the comments or on twitter, your thoughts about this book! Thank you so much for reading! Until next time!
À bientôt! ! (See you soon!)
~Austin
*If you have a book you would like me to review or talk about send me an email or message me on social media @RevivreLeLivre!*
Comments