Thursday, June 7, 2018

Book Review: The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark #2) by Veronica Roth

Book Review: The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark #2) by Veronica Roth by freshfromthe.com.
The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth

Published: April 10, 2018

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy

Hardcover Pages: 450

Synopsis:  Fate brought them together. Now it will divide them.

The lives of Cyra Noavek and Akos Kereseth are ruled by their fates, spoken by the oracles at their births. The fates, once determined, are inescapable.

Akos is in love with Cyra, in spite of his fate: He will die in service to Cyra’s family. And when Cyra’s father, Lazmet Noavek—a soulless tyrant, thought to be dead—reclaims the Shotet throne, Akos believes his end is closer than ever.

As Lazmet ignites a barbaric war, Cyra and Akos are desperate to stop him at any cost. For Cyra, that could mean taking the life of the man who may—or may not—be her father. For Akos, it could mean giving his own. In a stunning twist, the two will discover how fate defines their lives in ways most unexpected.

With the addition of two powerful new voices, Veronica Roth's sequel to Carve the Mark is a chorus of hope, humor, faith, and resilience.

Thoughts: In doing a quick glance at some of the reviews on Goodreads to see if others were liking this sequel to Carve the Mark, I discovered that a lot of people really didn't like the first book in this duology. I was actually pretty surprised, as I quite liked the first one, so much so that I put it on my favorite books of 2017 list. Even more surprising: the people who didn't like the first one very much were also saying they enjoyed the second one more, whereas I, again, think the opposite.

That's not to say that I didn't like this book, because I did (indeed, I read it quicker than I have any other of my recent books!), just not quite as much as the first one. It does what a lot of stories do that I am quickly seeing that I find kind of annoying - it splits the characters up. In the first book, it was all about how Akos and Cyra were forced together and eventually came to care for each other, so I guess it makes sense that now they are "forced" back apart again, though the forced thing is really not true since they ultimately have the same goals.

The story also goes for a heavy twist a little over halfway through that certainly works for the story, but does also border on the rather implausible. I'm not going to say it because most of the story kind of hinges on this twist, but I will say I didn't really see it coming, so I guess that's good? What I did like, though, was that the story didn't go into too much war fighting. So many of these types of books end up heading into war stories, which I just... blah. Seen it a million times, and yes it may make sense, but I'm glad that here she found a way to have bits of it, but still keep it about the main characters' stories.

Speaking on the main characters, Roth also introduces some new first person perspectives into the mix. One is more limited, while the other plays a much larger role, and I'll be honest, I was just wanting to get back to Akos and Cyra whenever it was one of these new chapters. It was done, I'm sure, mostly to give a larger view of what was happening across the galaxy rather than solely focusing on Akos and Cyra, but I guess I just didn't like one of the characters very much. I won't say who as to not influence other opinions!

In saying all that, though, I did still enjoy the book. It was a satisfying conclusion in many ways, got to the action quickly, and was never boring.

Rating: 4/5

Buy on Amazon

What I'm Reading Next: Nemesis by Brendan Reichs

No comments:

Post a Comment