Carve the Mark – Veronica Roth (2017)

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth, published in 2017, is the first novel in a duology that blends science fiction and fantasy, set in a politically divided galaxy where fate and power collide. Known for her Divergent series, Roth delivers another gripping tale exploring destiny, violence, and redemption, with layered world-building and rich character dynamics.

Plot Summary

In a galaxy braided together by the luminous thread of the current, two planets share a brittle peace. On Thuvhe, a land of snow and hushflowers, Akos Kereseth grows under the watchful eyes of his oracle mother and his gentle, fixing father. Akos’s world is built of warmth and ritual, of quiet days marked by the Blooming, where hushflowers unfold like rubies against the ice. But beneath the celebration, a darker truth stirs – the fated families, those whose futures are sealed from birth, wait for their destinies to rise, like tides they cannot halt.

Akos, the youngest Kereseth son, is bound to his older brother Eijeh by a quiet devotion. Eijeh, radiant and fated to become an oracle, is the one Akos orbits, his anchor and his light. But peace is fragile on Thuvhe. Across the feathergrass that stretches between worlds, the Shotet sharpen their blades, carving marks into their skin for each life taken, ruled by the brutal Noavek family. Ryzek, the sovereign of Shotet, hungers to reshape the stars, to seize the power denied his people. And his sister, Cyra, lives as both his shadow and his weapon.

Cyra’s currentgift is a torment written into her very body. Her touch inflicts searing pain, both on others and on herself, a constant punishment she endures with clenched teeth and silent screams. Ryzek binds her to his will, using her as a blade to cow enemies and traitors alike. Yet under the steel of her rage, Cyra longs for a freedom she has never tasted, and perhaps no longer dares to imagine.

The tides of fate rise when Ryzek sets his gaze on the Kereseth brothers. Akos and Eijeh are torn from their home, their parents left to bleed in the snow, and are dragged across the frozen plains to the heart of Shotet power. Akos, the boy who once wandered among hushflowers, now becomes a servant in a court of knives. But Ryzek’s true prize is Eijeh, the seer whose visions Ryzek craves to unravel the strands of his own grim fate.

In the Noavek palace, Akos finds himself bound to Cyra, a boy from the cold north and a girl forged in pain. At first, they circle each other warily, prisoner and jailer, both battered by the weight of their families. Yet there is an ache in Cyra that Akos begins to see, a tremor beneath her sharp edges that speaks of loneliness and buried sorrow. And within Akos, Cyra senses not only defiance but a quiet strength, a resilience born from loss and stubborn love.

As they navigate the treacherous court, where power flickers like flame and betrayal hides in every shadow, Akos learns to harness his own currentgift – the rare ability to interrupt the flow of the current itself, silencing Cyra’s pain with a touch. This becomes a fragile bridge between them, a momentary sanctuary from the storm that rages around them. Their alliance is forged not from trust, but from the raw need to survive, to carve a space of their own in a world that would swallow them whole.

But Ryzek is not a man to be outmaneuvered lightly. Obsessed with escaping his fate – to fall to the Benesit family of Thuvhe – he tortures Eijeh’s mind, unraveling his memories until brother turns stranger. Akos watches in helpless anguish as the brother he once knew slips away, consumed by Ryzek’s hunger for power. And Cyra, caught between loyalty to her blood and the slow, dawning truth of her own heart, begins to see Ryzek’s cruelty for what it is – a rot spreading through her people, a weight she can no longer bear.

The rebel Shotet stir beneath the surface, a restless faction whispering of revolution. Akos and Cyra, drawn into their orbit, find themselves poised on the edge of change. Akos longs to free Eijeh, to carry him home across the ice, but the brother who emerges from Ryzek’s grasp is no longer the boy who left Thuvhe. Eijeh, shattered by visions, walks a path Akos cannot follow, caught in the crosswinds of prophecy and madness.

As Cyra rises against her brother, she discovers a strength not in the violence he taught her, but in the fierce tenderness that grows between herself and Akos. Together, they become something Ryzek never expected – a blade turned against him, honed not by hatred, but by love and defiance. The court becomes a crucible of shifting alliances, where the cost of rebellion is etched in blood and scars.

The climax is brutal and intimate. Cyra stands before Ryzek not as his instrument, but as his reckoning. In a moment laced with pain and release, she claims the power he tried to steal, no longer his shadow but his equal, perhaps even his undoing. Akos, battered and bleeding, finds the strength to let go of the brother he cannot save, and the courage to choose his own fate, even in the face of loss.

When the dust settles, the world has not been remade, but something has shifted. The current still hums through the skies, the hushflowers still bloom on frozen hills, and amid the broken pieces of their old lives, Akos and Cyra carve a fragile hope. They are marked by what they have lost and found, by the scars they carry and the love that lingers in their hands. And though the future remains unwritten, they stand ready to face it – together.

Main Characters

• Cyra Noavek: Cyra is the fierce, conflicted sister of the brutal ruler Ryzek. Gifted with a “currentgift” that inflicts pain upon touch, she’s been shaped by trauma and manipulation. Throughout the novel, Cyra wrestles with guilt, rebellion, and the possibility of reclaiming her humanity as she learns to wield her power on her own terms. Her relationship with Akos becomes the core of her emotional transformation.

• Akos Kereseth: Akos, a boy from the peaceful nation of Thuvhe, is captured along with his brother and plunged into the violent Shotet world. Kind-hearted but determined, Akos resists the fate dictated to him and struggles with questions of loyalty, identity, and revenge. His growing bond with Cyra challenges his assumptions and fuels his resilience.

• Ryzek Noavek: Ryzek, Cyra’s brother and the sadistic ruler of the Shotet, is obsessed with controlling fate and maintaining power. Driven by paranoia and cruelty, he exploits Cyra’s abilities and orchestrates brutal conquests, embodying tyranny and fear. Ryzek’s complex relationship with Cyra oscillates between domination and dependency.

• Eijeh Kereseth: Eijeh, Akos’s brother, is a seer gifted with visions of fate. His capture and transformation under Ryzek’s influence represent the novel’s exploration of identity erosion and moral corruption, becoming a symbol of what Akos fights to save or perhaps mourn.

• Sifa Kereseth: Sifa, Akos and Eijeh’s mother, is an oracle whose enigmatic prophecies shape much of the political intrigue. Wise and mysterious, she represents the tension between destiny and free will, and her ambiguous role challenges her children’s understanding of choice.

Theme

• Fate and Free Will: The novel hinges on the tension between preordained fates and human agency. While characters are born into destinies they cannot escape, their choices — especially Akos and Cyra’s defiance — challenge whether fate truly holds absolute power.

• Pain and Healing: Physical and emotional pain permeate the story, especially through Cyra’s currentgift. Roth explores how pain isolates and dehumanizes but also how it can be reshaped into strength and empathy when met with compassion and trust.

• Power and Corruption: Through Ryzek’s brutal regime and the Shotet’s rituals of violence, the novel examines how power both corrupts and enslaves. Cyra’s journey of reclaiming her power for protection instead of harm reflects this larger theme of ethical awakening.

• Identity and Transformation: The characters wrestle with the identities imposed on them — Akos as a prisoner, Cyra as a weapon, Eijeh as a seer. Their struggles reveal how trauma and relationships can either destroy or reshape who we are, carving new marks upon the self.

Writing Style and Tone

Veronica Roth’s writing in Carve the Mark is atmospheric and introspective, weaving together dual points of view with sharp emotional depth. Her prose moves between brutal, visceral descriptions of violence and intimate, vulnerable reflections, especially as Cyra and Akos confront their inner scars. Roth’s use of vivid sensory detail — from the sting of hushflower to the glow of the currentstream — brings the alien world to life with a cinematic quality.

The tone is dark and often brutal, mirroring the harshness of the world she builds, yet it pulses with a tender undercurrent of hope. Roth balances tension with moments of quiet humanity, allowing love, loyalty, and resistance to bloom amid oppression. This tonal complexity gives the novel its emotional resonance, avoiding a one-dimensional dystopian grimness by offering glimpses of beauty, humor, and resilience.