Page Count: 468
Published on: January 17th, 2017
Published by: HarperCollins
Genre(s): YA science fiction/fantasy
Source: Print: Hardback / Personally purchased
Age Rating: YA
Trigger/Content Warning: self-harm, racism, and ableism - addressed in the discussion part of the blogpost
Where To Find It: Goodreads // Amazon
Book Depository: {click here}
Twitter: @VeronicaRoth
My Rating: 4 stars
Goodreads 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.
The 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.
~~~
Hey, guys!
I would like to start this
review by stating that there are some who consider this book to be very
controversial and problematic, and there are also those who do not see it that
way. As the whole point of literature is for entertainment and the stimulation
of the mind, I believe all literature to be open for interpretation. I am as
white as they come and I'm an able-bodied person who's been relatively healthy
for the majority of my life. As I've not had to deal with being a person who is
a part of the marginalized part of the population, I, of course, cannot and will
not speak for those communities. I will include the other reviews and
discussions that I consulted in order to form a well-rounded opinion as well as
using my own full opinion. I went into this book knowing of the issues that
were being discussed, but I went in with an open mind. Overall, I really
enjoyed this book. I thought that the discussion that came from this book just
made it even more interesting. My interpretation of the book was quite different
from the other more talked about reviews and discussions, so I will link those
below as well.
Review:
I honestly enjoyed this
book. The controversy behind this book just made me think even harder about the
aspects that were seen as problematic. This book is character-driven and I
thought it was done really well. I enjoyed the world-building that went into
this novel. Roth’s world-building skills are done well, in my opinion. I think
this whole new world was one of my favorite parts of this book. I enjoy it when
authors are able to create a completely new world and do it well. Even though this book had pretty good world-building, I would still like a bit more about
their oracles. The whole concept of fate is so interesting to me, and I’d love
for it to be explained more in the next book. Overall, the world-building was
done really well, but there are still parts that are a bit foggy to me.
Let’s talk about characters. I’m
not as connected to the characters as I would like, but I did love how strong
the main characters were. Both had a different way of being a strong
individual, but they fit so well together. Their overall character progression
was naturally done and I enjoyed that very much. Cyra was a bit of an enigma. At
first, I had a hard time connecting to her and fully understanding her
character. She’s so mysterious and she’s such a deep character. As I got to
know her, I started to enjoy her story and I started to root for her. The fact
that this book was in a dual perspective (and it was done really well!!!) sold these characters for me. I adore their stories
and the complexities behind their personalities.
The whole concept of their currentgifts and the whole idea of the current was really interesting to read
about. Currentgifts were basically the force mixed with super powers. They can
be really influential or they can destroy a person. Akos has the ability to
stop the current and cancel out gifts and Cyra has the ability to cause
pain/kill people. She’s also constantly in pain from her currentgift. That’s
where the ableism comes into the discussion. I’m not educated enough to comment
on that, though….so google it. At first, I was pretty confused about the whole
concept, but as the book progressed, it was explained very nicely. I’m
interested to see where Roth goes with this.
One of the points I want
to get across is that there isn’t a good guy or bad guy group. Everyone has
their negative points and everyone has their positive points. As the book
develops, the reader really gets a complex look at the politics behind the two
nations and the universe as a whole. It’s definitely a science fiction story,
but I also saw it as a high fantasy story.
If you enjoy high
fantasy/science fiction novels, then this is definitely for you. I would take
into consideration that this book has some controversy and some problematic
aspects to it, so if you don’t think you can handle anything that may be
triggering then I recommend that you forgo this book.
Discussion:
At the beginning of the
year, when this book first came out, there were many different conversations
that were taking place on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, BookTube, etc. Mainly
negative, many very upset by what they had read…Or rather, they were outraged by
the information that they were reading about. This outrage over problematic
content was first brought to light by the blogger and writer Justine Ireland in
her blog post about Carve the Mark and it's a harmful trope of "the dark-skinned aggressor". This, of course, caused a lot of backlash towards
Roth's newest book. Readers and activists in the BookTube community soon
swarmed to inform everyone of the problematic content.
At first, I wasn't even
really interested in reading this book, but then everyone was bouncing
different opinions and I genuinely became interested to form my own opinion
about this book. Everyone was so invested in banning this book and telling
people to not read this book, but I've talked to quite a few people who are
actually interested in reading this book now. Veronica Roth actually wrote up a blog post to address the false or misconstrued accusations made about the
racist aspects of this book. Let's just break it down a bit. I think Veronica
Roth's blog post puts this issue into better terms. She discusses the races of
her characters and the worlds she has created. Her blog post really sparked my
interest in the thought processes that went into her book.
Shotet
is not a culture of dark-skinned individuals. Thuvhe
is not a culture of light-skinned individuals. They share a history
(discussed on pages 124-129 of the book); they share bloodlines.
~Veronica
Roth~
I honestly think that the
racist accusations towards this book are false. However, I am white, so I might
just be mistaken. Before you think I’m being an asshole, please let me explain.
There are so many interesting factors that I feel are being ignored. Veronica
Roth put it very nicely in the quote above. While I was reading this book, I
didn’t see the Shotet or Thuvhian nations to be all white or all of a black
race. From what I gathered, and from what Veronica wrote in her blog post, her
universe and her whole world aren’t connected by their race, rather it is
connected by their bloodline. That is, I didn’t think the people really were
connected in a traditional sense. People just managed to gain the traits that
are more prominent in their person. So if someone has a darker father and a
white mother then they could end up being any color under the sun. The
characters are so diverse and different. I’m not sure if my explanation makes
any sense, but that’s how I saw it. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book.
Let’s just talk about how
people are assuming that the Shotet nation and Thuvhe nation are either black
or white. Uh….no. Okay let’s just look at some quotes that Veronica Roth
mentioned in her blog post. I had marked these in my book as well. I thought
these would be beneficial to this review…especially concerning the race issue.
~~~
Akos’s Thuvhesit Family:
Cisi: “Dark curly hair framed her face…” (p319)
“I could tell Cisi’s skin from Isae’s only by its darker shade.” (p385)
Akos: “He had fair skin, and a kind of wary tension in his body, like he was bracing himself.” (p60)
Eijeh: “Eijeh’s eyes were pale green. An unusual color, like iridescent insect wings…against his light brown skin, so like the milky earth of the planet Zold, they almost glowed.” (p64)
Cyra’s Shotet Family
Ryzek: “…his skin was so pale he looked almost like a corpse.” (p60)
Cyra and Ryzek compared: “I was tall, too, but that was where my physical similarities with my brother ended. It wasn’t uncommon for Shotet siblings to look dissimilar, given how blended our blood was, but we were more distinct than most.” (p61)
~~~
These quotes are taken
directly from the book, but Roth mentioned them in her blog post as well. I
think these are very important to mention, as they show how diverse and how
different the whole cast of characters was to each other. Even family members
had differing skin colors and their family wasn’t defined by their skin color
it was defined by their bloodline. Does this make any sense? This is one of the
fantastical elements that I loved about this book.
Veronica Roth also goes
into her thought and research process when it comes to the languages that her
characters use and what she based it off of and the different religious aspects
of the book and where her research led her. If you are concerned about those
parts, then I recommend you look into that.
Of course, there are
always other perspectives that have to be taken into consideration. Because literature is always open for
interpretation, there will always be those who are triggered by certain
behaviors in books. Everyone has their own triggers. Someone’s triggers are
someone else’s inspiration. Francina goes into depth about that in her Carve
The Mark & triggers videos. I recommend you take a few moments of your time
to watch them.
Other Videos/Reviews/Resources:
Francina Simone’s Carve
the Mark video: {click here}
I'm sure there are more reviews and discussions online and on YouTube, so if you'd like to start a conversation then don't hesitate to! I consulted more sources than these, but these were a few of my favorites.
Happy reading, all!
Olivia
~LivTheBookNerd~
