Thanks to the Current, the Shotet girl Cyra has the unique power to cause limitless pain with the touch of her hand. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story-sort of: the novel’s two heroes come from opposite sides of “the Divide,” a boundary on the planet that divides the enemy nations.īinding the solar system together is the “Current,” an energy force that also gives each person a unique power. On the planet Thuvhe two mutually hostile peoples live in an uneasy balance: the Shotet scavengers and the agrarian Thuvhians. Roth sets her novel in an alien solar system, with planets inhabited by different cultures. This bloody sci-fi thriller, which will leave sensitive readers with a stomachache, lacks the substantial moral depth that might otherwise redeem so violent and disturbing a tale.

Nothing shows this like Veronica Roth’s Carve the Mark, the latest book after Roth’s smash-hit Divergent series.

Now, a raw emotivism exploiting violence and Eros seems to drive many of YA fiction’s bestselling novels. They’re tough, deadly, and usually emotionally tormented inside.īut (at the risk of dating ourselves) Rowling began writing twenty years ago-a full generation of readers ago. Although the books make sure to include the obligatory smoldering teen romances, our heroines and heroes spend much of their time giving and receiving beatings, and killing bad guys. In the last decade a violent portrait of teenagers has emerged-from The Hunger Games to the Divergent series-in which young people become vicious fighters and killers. We can see this particularly in the stories found in the genre of Young Adult fiction. The image of teenage life has grown dark and distorted in our modern, Western imagination.

Carve the mark by veronica roth