Carve the Mark (Carve the Mark Series, book 1)
By Veronica Roth
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?
Carve the Mark is Veronica Roth's stunning portrayal of the power of friendship—and love—in a galaxy filled with unexpected gifts.
Carve the Mark is a series by Veronica Roth and so far I’ve read the first book of the same name. I was already familiar with Roth’s writing style from reading her Divergent series. This meant that I had no concerns when beginning this book and enjoyed the style. She’s a descriptive author but I think something that I’ve picked on her is her use of her punctuation and repetition (the clever kind). Veronica makes good use of short sentences and long ones but also uses a vast range of punctuation techniques that just make the book really pleasent to read. I remember from Divergent as well as this series is that her books are filled with great quotes and a lot of her quotes show off her use of repetition. She’ll repeat one or a few words in a potential quote that just really emphasises what the character is saying. I’ve always be a fan of her writing.
Something different about this book compared to her others was having two perspectives. Cyra and Akos are the main characters and the chapters are split into their perspectives. Veronica Roth made this more clear by having Cyra in first person and Akos in third person. I found this concept weird to begin with but when I got further into the book I realised it’s usefulness at reminding you which perspective you’re reading from. So although I would quite like Akos to be in first person so I know more of his thoughts, it was probably for the best that he wasn’t. Afterall we still got his thoughts anyway.
The book is split into 4 parts. The first part is only 2 fairly long chapters in Akos perspective and it’s his kidnapping. Time then flashes forward in part 2 where it’s loads of chapters but only in Cyra’s perspective. Her chapters begin with 3 memories of when she was younger and it’s basically to explain her premature currentgift. Everyone gets a currentgift which is a unique power. Cyra’s is to cause pain to someone when they touch her but with the problem that she is constantly in pain herself. My only problem with the memory telling of her childhood was that Veronica Roth didn’t capture too well the speech of a child, she had the actions right but the talking was too mature in my eyes. Part 3 and 4 are alternating chapters of Cyra and Akos. I think I preferred part 3 and 4 because I liked how the story continued on but swapping perspectives. It wasn’t something happened to Cyra now see it happen to Akos. The storyline continually moved but swapping personas to view it from.
Something I disliked about this book was the confusing setting. When I looked into the book it was advertised as Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Odd genres to mix and that showed in the book. When there was talk of spaceships and technology it felt very sci-fi but then when people were talking or the currentgifts and potions made it feel Fantasy. It was hard to establish what this time period was, future or some alternative past. I think they should have either made it all fantasy and swapped the spaceships for regular ships. However it didn’t ruin my experience and I still enjoyed the book a lot so I’m not gonna complain too much about the confusions.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and found it really fast paced so it was hard to put down so it didn’t take me long to finish. I do look forward to reading the second one shortly.
*SPOILERS*
Akos’ mother is an oracle. This means she can see the future and see everyone’s fates. She knew that Akos and his siblings had set fates that they couldn’t avoid. Her name was Sifa and she was very manipulative to gain the future she desired. One of the ways she manipulated was by telling the renegades and Akos that Ori was in a prison cell. This was so that they would go there and Akos would be given the opportunity to kill Vas as revenge for the death of her husband. Sifa knew Akos hated killing but still made him out of selfishness. She was a very peculiar character and not the mother figure I expected. In part 1 of the book I thought she was a loving but stern mother but by the end I realised she thinks of only herself. It was interesting having more of her revealed and look forward to see what further manipulation she performs.
One thing that really confuses me about Sifa is that Ryzek and others would mention that the oracle has killed herself. I must have missed a bit or something because she’s definitely alive and Akos and others were well aware that she was. If someone could clear this up for me on which oracle was dead or if Sifa was just supposedly dead, I would greatly appreciate it.
The main characters were both given fates. Futures that couldn’t be avoided. Cyra’s was that she will cross the divide. Which hasn’t been completed yet but won’t be hard to achieve. Akos is fated to die in service to the Noavek family. Akos thought he would be betraying his people but he eventually falls for Cyra and since she is against her brother, he realises that he will be dying for her and is okay with it. A bunch of other characters also have fate and this book is basically about trying to avoid their fates or gaining their fates. It was a really interesting concept to a book. Not entirely new though as the Fitz books including The Tawny Man Series that you can check my reviews of also have a similar concept. In the Fitz books they have someone known as the White Prophet who is also known as The Fool in the books. His mission is to obtain the ideal future by employing someone to be known as his Catalyst whose job is to cause the change without telling him too much. So Carve the Mark fated are the same as the Catalyst in that series. Despite it being done before it’s still a fairly unique and enjoyable concept so I no qualms about it being similar.
Isae and Ryzek are natural enemies due to their fates but a link I like that Roth had included was making their currentgifts similar. Both of their currentgifts involve memories. Isae can view a person's memory by touch and Ryzek can trade memories with someone by touch. Just seems very fitting for enemies.
Isae also is lesbian which was nice interesting twist. It came very predictable when her character was introduced to interactions with Cisi. Although their characters don’t seem to be a couple yet they are definitely interested in each other. It’s a nice little side romance.
The surprising thing about Akos is his naturally ability to speak Shotet. This meant he had Shotet blood in him somehow that his siblings do not. Or maybe he actually has two currentgifts, which is quite improbable. The book didn’t answer how this is possible so i’d imagine the next book will.
Some further unanswered questions is who is Cyra’s parents. Ryzek at the end of the book explains to Cyra that the reason she can’t unlock his doors is because she doesn’t have his genes, that his parents aren’t hers. I’d imagine the next book will explain her parentage. If the book ends up making Cyra and Akos siblings like The Mortal Instruments kind of did, I will not be happy. The thing that confuses me is Cyra being black. I’m not sure the colour of Ryzek’s skin but in online drawings he’s portrayed as white. Yet Cyra’s mother we know is black. We also know her father’s black. If Cyra was related to Akos surely he and his family would need to be black. I don’t know maybe there is a potential plot hole or it all adds up in the end. We’ll wait and see.
A character mentioned in the first two chapters of the book was Ori, a friend of Akos. When the kidnapping day had arrived Ori was taking away by her mother. Akos realised she was fated and that she must have been using a fake name. This caused me to be constantly guessing when she will make a repearence. When I found Ryzek’s fate was to be killed by a Benesit I just knew that’s what her real surname must be. However she wasn’t the one destined to kill him like I thought. It turned out she also had a twin sister called Isae who is meant to be chancellor and kill Ryzek. I feel like Veronica Roth dangled Ori in front of me to be suspicious of her to hide me from the real character: Isae. It was a really clever plot twist.
One of the scenes that made me realise I was gonna enjoy this book and first hooked me in was the scene where Akos father died. This took part in the second chapter and was very intense. The intensity is what made me want to read more and there was a lot of intense scenes.
The oracles say many times that fates can’t be changed and yet the characters still tried to do things against their fates or do things that was someone else's fate. This included Cyra trying to kill her brother Ryzek despite it being Isae’s fate. When Cyra was making her plan to kill Ryzek I was convinced it had to go wrong in some way. The plan went exactly as she had planned I just didn’t realise she wasn’t planning to kill him after all. Therefore the fates continued to be true. This book was a bit of a roller coaster at times.
I very much enjoyed the romance in this book despite it being a classic stockholm syndrome example. Akos and Cyra fell for each other but their relationship started of as a servant and master. Akos was also Cyra’s pain relief and the only person she could touch. However their personalities were so good together that I was really glad it happened. It was slightly ruined with the realisation that Akos’ mother and Cyra are similar in personality because then it touched on a bit of Opedix Complex. I’m gonna stop psychologically examining the book.
At the end of the book Ori is killed by Eijeh but as she dies she somehow knocks out Eijeh and when he wakes he is just staring blankly. It must have something to do with her currentgift. The only problem I had with the ending was the reveal of Cyra’s father Lazmet still being alive. There was no build up to this being revealed and doesn’t make any sense. I think it’s just a way to drag out the story and create a villain for the next book. In my opinion I think the book would be better as one book rather than a series. However I still plan to read the next one soon.
Overall I found it to be a great read and will happily reward it 4 stars. Minus a few parts of the plot that I didn’t particularly agree with, I ended up reallying enjoying the story. I also loved how it was written as she is one of my top authors for technique. I look forward to the next book, it should have a brilliant ending if it is to be anything like Divergent.
Quote:
'We knew how to hold the beauty of old things against the beauty of the new, losing nothing from either.'
- Cyra Noavek, Carve the Mark
Rating: 4 runes out of 5
Check out my review of book 2: The Fates Divide
written by Lauren
No comments:
Post a Comment