Found on: Goodreads.
The Problem: A young adult author wrote a blog post basically claiming that Care the Mark was racist. This was all it took to start a with hunt on Twitter. The opinion of one person was enough to convince people (who hadn't even read the book) , that it was racist. Twitter has been filled with comments about how white people cant have an opinion on racism. Right...there is nothing racist about telling a whole race of people they are not allowed to have an opinion. Anyways, the whole situation surrounding this book is why I'm blogging again. A very politically correct attitude has developed among the young adult blogging community lately. If a ya author writes a book with all white characters they are racist, but it they include people of color they're culturally appropriating. So young adult authors are basically screwed no matter what they do. If is no wonder why so many authors now fear accusations of racism.
Shortly before the release of Carve the Mark, Veronica Roth participated in this harmless interview. People with nothing better to do decided that to label CTM as ablest. This is easily one of the dumbest accusations I have ever seen.
The review: Carve the Mark was surprisingly boring for a book with so much controversy surrounding it. It took me a very long time to get just half way through this book. I just felt like nothing much happens after the beginning. Akos just spends a lot of time hanging out with Cyra, Crya's brother pops in every now and then to do something evil, and this is all that happens for the first like 300 pages. I was expecting an adventurous science fiction novel, but it was more like a fantasy romance.
I also feel like Carve the Mark tried to be a a little too much like Star Wars. Instead of the whole "I'm your father" thing we got , "We don't have the same father." Also there is the whole force like power that people develop in their teens. Not very original!
I did enjoy the romantic relationship between Cyra and Akos, They don't fall in love instantly which is refreshing to see in a ya book. I really liked the two of them together. It gave me something to root for in this otherwise dull novel. I won't be reading the sequel just because I don't care enough to continue their story.
This is yet another problematic book, that doesn't deserve such a title. The entire time I was reading it I was like "where is the racism?" Crya comes from a very diverse culture, which is mentioned throughout the book. It is also revealed that Thuvhe i.e. the white people started the conflict. There is just no reason at all to call this book racist!
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