Book Review: The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth

Image copyright of Katherine Tegen Books

I did it! I FINALLY sat down and finished The Fates Divide! So without further ado, here is my review!

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I don’t know what it is exactly, but for some reason with Veronica Roth’s books, it takes me about a hundred or so pages before I really get into the story. This book was no different. I initially started it not too long after it came out and it took me three days to read twenty pages. So I set it down to come back to. Over two months later I decided I was going to try it again. I read 200 pages in two days. This is a lot for me, considering I work three jobs. Once the stories get going, they were good. It’s the beginning and end that are rough.

I started off really liking Akos and Cyra and how much opportunity for character development there was for them at the start but, by the end I really didn’t like either of them and felt like their characters had regressed. I also feel like their relationship got stale and when the two are eventually reunited, they kind of brush everything under the rug and kiss and make up like nothing happened. Both just started doing things and making decisions that seemed very out of character. At the end they just annoyed me. However, I did like the friendship between Cyra and Teka that was developing.

I wish the current gifts were delved into a little more and that there was more of a resolution fir Cyra’s. Cisi’s gift was very strange and didn’t really seem to serve any real purpose. Eijeh/Ryzek was pretty insignificant as well.

I should have seen one of the major plot twist coming as it was heavily foreshadowed in both books but, it still blew my mind. The other plot twist I suspected in the first book and was really excited for how this could challenge the characters and add to the story. However, I found this aspect fell flat. I also feel like there were things thrown in to make this book seem edgier and gritty but, in actuality it was just disturbing. On the other hand I really liked how you never could truly tell who was on which side and everyone was a little (if not a lot) morally grey. 

I enjoyed the fast pace of the story in the middle of the book but, struggled with the first and last hundred pages. The beginning seemed very slow to pick up, which was the case with Carve the Mark. The end also seemed a bit drawn out but, left me feeling like so much information was just glossed over or not even mentioned. It was a very jarring read and when I finished, I was rather disappointed. I feel like this one had so much potential but was not executed properly. I also feel like Veronica Roth may not be the author for me, as I didn’t particularly enjoy the Divergent series either.

Rating: 3 stars