Genre: Sci-fi Age Range: YA Star Rating: 3 stars Series: yes - second book of duology
*SPOILER ALERT: contains SPOILERS for CARVE THE MARK*
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.
Synopsis taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
THE FATES DIVIDE was a book I pushed myself through. It just felt too scattered, like the plot didn’t have a driving focus.
About the 40% mark, the “big twist” about the fates comes in, and it was pretty disappointing. There had been such a heavy presence of Akos’ fate in the first book, and in the build up to the twist. When it came, it felt like such a cop-out. I wanted it to be something clever or devastating in the finale. Not something that felt like it brushed the concept under the rug. Maybe some people will like the “this is not determined by fate”, but I personally felt like it undermined all the build up of these fates by failing to deliver on their promise.
I was pretty confused by some of Akos’ actions. His fight with Cyra felt like a fight for drama’s sake, but it never came up again. They just… seemed OK together at the end. His actions in the big part 4 made no sense, and it was never explained WHY. I have a theory, but it’s unsatisfying, particularly as it’s never addressed.
There are two new POV in this book, which are also in different writing styles to the main two – and it was just so weird to have four different tenses and persons. Cisi is in first person present tense, and Eijeh is in first person plural present tense.
I’m not really sure what either add. Cisi feels like she’s there to provide the “meanwhile, back on the assembly ship” information. She drops out for long stretches, and never seems to have her own goals – her own motivations. What she does is on behalf of other people. It made it hard to connect to her, to like her, as there was so little of her in the few chapters she had. I liked her currentgift, how it limited her ability to say things, as it was quite a significant cost for her power.
Eijeh has about three chapters in the whole book. As such I really don’t know what the point was of including him. He has the prologue and epilogue and one other chapter – most of which are all visions. Basically interludes for “this is the cost of using this weapon” and then an epilogue of “happily ever after”. The first person plural was very odd. I understand why it was used, but it was jarring with so little time using it.
It’s a bit disappointing really, as my friend said she was struggling with this book but it was more politicky, so I might like it, but there wasn’t much politics that had any bite. The few political bits there were mostly constituted of people passively following in other’s wake.
This might be the end of me reading Veronica Roth’s books. I liked DIVERGENT years ago, but was increasingly disappointed by the sequels, and considering my reaction this year to the books I read, I think it’s time to call it quits.
Read my reviews of other books by Veronica Roth:
Young Adult:
Carve the Mark (this series):
- CARVE THE MARK (#1)
Adult:
Chosen Ones:
- CHOSEN ONES (#1)
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 