Format: Hardcover, 468 pages
Release Date: January 17, 2017
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books
Source: Library
Genre: YA, Science Fiction
On a planet where violence and vengeance rule, in a galaxy where some are favored by fate, everyone develops a currentgift, a unique power meant to shape the future. While most benefit from their currentgifts, Akos and Cyra do not—their gifts make them vulnerable to others’ control. Can they reclaim their gifts, their fates, and their lives, and reset the balance of power in this world?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 from the peace-loving nation of Thuvhe, and his loyalty to his family is limitless. Though protected by his unusual currentgift, 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. When Akos is thrust into Cyra’s world, the enmity between their countries and families seems insurmountable. They must decide to help each other to survive—or to destroy one another.
Carve The Mark is the first installment in author Veronica Roth's new series by the same name. A series that features dual main characters in Akos and Cyra. Cyra's POV is in the first person, while Akos is in the third person. On the planet of Thuvhe, you have two separate races of people. Shotet, and Thuvhe. Cyra is a Shotet girl who has the ability to touch someone and pour pain into them. She is a tool that her older brother Ryzek has used to scare people into doing his bidding.
Akos, on the other hand, is Thuvhe who ends up being caught up in a world of intrigue, pain, suffering, and brutality. Akos' people sees Cyra's people as brutal savages, and have done their best to say away from them. Akos' own mother is an oracle who can see the future, but one has to question her actions overall. It is also a world where everyone has a future, but not everyone as a fate. Fate determines the movement of the worlds. It is a world where everyone has what's called currentgifts.
The current flows through everyone and gives them various powers. After the Assembly makes the choice to announce everyone's fates of the favored, Akos, and his brother Eljeh are kidnapped, their father killed, and the brothers are spirited away to serve Ryzek. This is where Akos and Cyra's worlds finally meet. This is where we get a better understanding of who both characters are. Cyra, even though she carries the moniker as Ryzek's Scourge, isn't all that bad when you cut through the layers that have been stacking up.
Her brother is pure evil. He has the ability to take a memory from someone, and replace it with one of his painful ones. What's interesting about Akos, is that he has the ability to take away Cyra's pain without suffering any affects. He also speaks fluent Shotet which is still a curiosity to me. One other plus for Akos is that he would do anything to save his older brother, even though, at times, his older brother is unworthy of anyone's respect.
There is more action towards the later part of this book, which honestly needed it to keep my attention focused on the book, and not life's little hiccups that made this the longest I have ever taken to read a book. I have also found myself curious as to the hoopla over this book, and the author. Guess I live in a bubble, since I have no clue what anyone is talking about. Again, I was having some real life issues and had my mother visiting at the time, so I probably skipped over the so called racism and ableism others are hollering about. This isn't a romance book by any means, but Akos and Cyra are good together once you get past the mistrust that have surrounding Cyra's family. I would have liked a bit more world building as well. Apparently there are 9 planets, and then an Assembly who oversees the 9 planets. Perhaps the sequel will be more cooperative.
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