“CARVE THE MARK had so much potential, but quite frankly lacked execution. It was lackluster and boring at best.”
~ Under the Covers
I was so excited to read this book. The author, the cover, the blurb… I was ready to be taken away to another galaxy and get involved in a new set of characters. After all, I’ve enjoyed Veronica Roth’s work in the past! Sadly, that’s not exactly what happened.
At first I found the premise intriguing and I wanted to know more. But I quickly found myself….utterly bored. The pacing of this book is slow. Dreadfully so. And when something actually happens, the plot and characters were a bit too immature and dare I say, too “young adult” for me. The focus of the story didn’t live up to what I expected from it when I started reading it. There could’ve been real danger, and so many political complications for our characters. Instead everything felt bland and left me uninterested.
This is one of those books that I really wish my OCD would’ve let me drop and DNF. I just couldn’t do it. I kept hoping that it would turn around and get better. The basis for a good story was all there! I think the author didn’t do a good enough job at exploring what she had created. The world building was completely absent. The bad guy had no real depth to him and I found the reasoning behind some of his actions (revealed in the end) was not enough to make me buy into it. And our heroine and hero, even that felt uninteresting as their connection didn’t really… connect… for me. So I can’t even say that the glimpse of romance could save this story.
CARVE THE MARK had so much potential, but quite frankly lacked execution. It was lackluster and boring at best and I won’t be reading the next one.
[about-author author=”Veronica Roth”]
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I liked it a little better than you did (3-3.5 stars). I didn’t really get bored so much as I got confused …all the weird names and some of them too similar to each other. Also, the various planets and all their unique governments and customs that we may or may not need to know about for later. I also think her actual writing was better in the past (some people are reviewing and saying that her writing has really improved–I disagree). Since it’s just a duology (it BETTER just be a duo), I’ll probably finish it. I just hope I can remember the first one, because I do NOT plan to reread it. And I don’t take notes either (I probably should). lol
Get back to me after you read the second and let me know how it ends LOL I’m not putting myself through it. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it a bit more than me and I agree about the writing. This is definitely NOT an improvement from DIVERGENT.
Thanks for the review, I don’t read much YA.
Sorry this didn’t work for you Francesca.
I admit, after reading reviews of the third in the Divergent series, I did not read it, but I was really looking forward to this. I will probably still give it a try. And you are right, that cover! Thanks for the review!
I did the same about the third Divergent book. Such a shame because I enjoyed the series and now I probably will never finish reading it. I hope you enjoy this one more than me! Others have really loved it.
I will probably try this but only after book 2 is released to see if it’s worth the investment
That’s good thinking!