Book Review: Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

Carve the Mark

by Veronica Roth

Source: Pre-ordered from Indigo

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy/Science Fiction

Synopsis:

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 this 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?

Review:

*SPOILER WARNING*

This book was one of my most highly anticipated releases for 2017 and actually pre-ordered it (something I very, very rarely do!). It just sounded really good, and plus I had already really enjoyed Veronica's Divergent series so I was excited to read something else of hers. I'll admit that I got kind of nervous about it just before its release, with all the crazy hype and bad reviews it was getting. But, in the end I decided that I would just go for it - read it for myself and make my own decision, and I'm glad I did.

So, this isn't a very in-depth review (TBH, none of my reviews are...), and, not to make excuses, but that's mostly because it's been months since I read the book, many other plot-lines and characters have been introduced to my mind since, so I honestly can't remember everything that happened, and I tend to write these reviews away from home and my books, so I can't even grab my copy to flip back through. I have just been reading books too quickly lately to be able to keep up with the reviews. Which, I guess, is a good problem to have!? Anyway...

 

It took me a few chapters to get into the story. Part of the issue for me was the pronunciation of the names, but the author had made some videos in which she explained how to pronounce some of the more frequently used names, so finding those helped me get into it a bit more.

I liked Cyra's character, but I think really Akos was my favourite. I really liked Cyra's intensity and sense of rightness & justice... but Akos' loyalty and kindness won me over. I hated Cyra's brother and the way he used her, but it was kind of necessary for her character to become what she was. I also really liked the world. I tend to have difficulty picturing fantasy worlds, and honestly this was no different, but what I was able to picture from the descriptions was fun and different and I liked it.

I quite enjoyed the story, I found it intriguing and captivating, and I honestly couldn't see what the fuss was all about - but please, don't try to enlighten me. I've read some of the reviews and their claims, and I just can't agree with them based on what I read, which is still ok, right? It's still ok for people to have differing opinions? Sometimes I wonder... The only thing I was really disappointed about was that it's not a standalone, and so I have to wait ages for the sequel. Not cool. There should be a warning on new books, stating that they are first in a series/trilogy/duology/whatever so that we can prepare ourselves!

Goodreads rating:

Progress Report - February 2017

A couple weeks ago I participated in the weekly meme called It's Monday! What are YOU reading? (read my post here) and mentioned that I would be publishing this post last week, but I didn't get around to it. Whoops! I am going to try to make a habit of posting updates every month to summarize my reading progress.

 

As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, I've set myself a Goodreads goal of 35, but am unofficially aiming to reach 40.

 

In January I read six books and had aimed, for February, to finish The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, a few OwlCrate books, and some of my more recent acquisitions. It wasn't noted, but understood, that I also intended to read Anne of Avonlea, for my online book club reading challenge. Partway through the month, OwlCrate introduced their first annual OwlCrate-a-Thon reading challenge, which was to help us get through some of our unread OwlCrate books, and I decided to participate. The requirements for the challenge were 1) to read at least three books, 2) read one fantasy and one contemporary, 3) the one you've had the longest. The challenge ran from March 11-25.

 

So, in February I ended up reading five books: Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth, The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George (finally!), This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab (OwlCrate 1: fantasy), P.S. I Like You by Kasie West (OwlCRate 2: contemporary), and The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry (OwlCrate 3: longest owned). I also listened to  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer. I didn't mention in my January post that I had also listened to The Woman Next Door by Barbara Delinsky.

 

I barely read any of Anne of Avonlea, which I felt pretty bad about, so in March I am hoping to burn through both that and Anne of the Island. I am currently reading Ever the Hunted, I would like to read Caraval and a few others, but I'm kind of leaving it open. There are always books I'd like to read, but then when it comes time to pick up a new book, I'm not in the mood for those. So, we shall see!


So, my total books read in 2017 at this point is 13 out of 35, which is 37% complete - 8 books ahead of schedule! At this rate, I could potentially read over 70 books by the end of the year. That would be awesome! Especially if I could come to terms with getting rid of the ones I didn't love out of those I've read... *wink, wink*