Dear Blog,

For my 6th letter essay I chose the book Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth, a 481 page fantasy novel about a world where peace, kindness, and a current gift of healing is the way to fame, popularity, and trust on one side of a planet, Thuvhe, but fighting and vengeance is the key in the lock on the other side, Shotet. The people of Shotet and Thuvhe are as different as they could possibly be, and two fate-favored teens of importance meet from opposite sides of their world and discover they have more similarities than they think.

I chose this book because I was looking at old books that I had bought from the bookstore years ago and reading the first couple pages and summary. This book caught my attention. The way the book begins is almost too peaceful and sweet that it makes you feel that there is something dark coming. That grabbed my attention and made me want to keep reading the book.

In the book Carve the Mark, both Cyra and Akos don’t like the fact that they have killed and carved the marks on their arms, marks that the rest of the Shotet community consider to be an honor. Akos does not like killing because he grew up in the more peaceful side of the planet, Thuvhe, where violence shamed upon. Cyra, on the other hand, is Shotet but has been manipulated into hurting so many people against her will by her brother that she has recorded pain instead of kills, torture instead of death, what she thinks to be the blessing from the pain. When Cyra’s family kidnaps Akos and Eijeh, Cyra starts out only using Akos for his current gift, but Cyra and Akos learn to love each other. They come together to fight Ryzek, Cyra’s evil brother and the leader of Shotet, and they try to release Akos’ brother who was kidnapped and brainwashed to work for Ryzek.

The Noaveks, the Benesits, and the Kereseths, the three fated families of the Shotet and Thuvhe nations, lived as prisoners to their fates if they were unlucky. Ryzek had the annoying and unfortunate fate of falling to one of the Benesit sisters, a fate he tried to change using Eijeh, Akos’ brother. Ryzek tried to manipulate the future. In an attempt to manipulate the future to overcome his fate, Ryzek had Eijeh, the rising oracle of Thuvhe, kidnapped. Ryzek planned to use Eijeh’s ability to see the future to change his fate. During the kidnapping, Ryzek’s men also took Akos, Eijeh’s younger brother, who was fated to die in service to the Noavek family.

Meanwhile, Cyra was getting annoyed of her brother using her as a torture device. Cyra’s currentgift, like a superpower, caused black streaks to run under her skin, and when she touched someone, it was a source of horrible pain. No one could touch her without being in desperate pain. Her brother took advantage of it. Cyra was almost being tortured herself because she painful streaks were also a constant source of pain for her, though it was not as bad. She could find no pain medication to ease her pain without side effects. Hoping to make his sister feel indebted to him, Ryzek uses Akos, whose currentgift is stopping the current so he can touch her, to take away her pain and not be filled with the constant streaks of torture. Ryzek’s plan doesn’t go well when Cyra falls in love with Akos and ends up turning on her brother and helping Akos try and save Eijeh.

I don’t want to spoil what happens to Eijeh and Ryzek but it is a great book and I can’t wait to read the second one.

The passage that I chose are the last words in the book when Cyra and Akos have captured Ryzek and are keeping him hostage. Cyra is talking to Ryzek, and Ryzek has just told her that she is not a Noavek, which is why her blood doesn’t work on any of the blood locks. He is also talking about maybe-but-could-not-be-their father who was presumed dead and the body was found.

“But I could still hear him as he said, “Our father….” He paused and corrected himself. “Lazmet Noavek is still alive.” pg. 463

This is barely a passage, it is more of a quote, but I think that it is the most powerful part in the entire book. The entire time, Cyra has been doing these things because of her brother and he father being able to hold her mother’s death over her. I think Cyra’s whole world has just been turned upside down. She has been stripped of her title, she might not be a Noavek, and her maybe-maybe-not father could still be alive.

It interested me how the author wrote this passage and the way she wrote the part before it. Previously in the book, the author always makes Cyra point out how no one should ever believe Ryzek and how double crosses are his style, but in the paragraph before, Cyra is giving him a chance to speak the truth. It says she is “searching his face” for any sign of things like deception and lies but she actually starts to believe him.

I liked how the author ended the book with such a cliffhanger, making it absolutely necessary to read the second book. When I found this book I didn’t originally think that it was part of a series but the cliffhanger at the end was a dead giveaway. I have so many questions about the book. What will they do with Ryzek? What will happen to Eijeh? Is their father still alive?

I would rate this book a 5 out of 10 because it was a really good book that was well written with a lot of imagination. I look forward to reading the next book into the series.

Sincerely,

Allie Schuldt