June: Carve the Mark Discussion Thread

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Here is our June Battle of the book discussion thread!

Jump in and discuss the book as you read along (or chat with others if you've already read it)

** Be sure to use spoilers tags so any new readers can enjoy the book!
(Spoiler Tag guidance and help is explained here)

The Voting thread is still in another spot so, if you read both, don't forget to vote!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

I read this one in May. I'm excited to see what everything thinks of it!
anyone planning to read it this month?

[Kikijanika]

I'd like to read this but don't know if I have time.

[Farren]

This book was pretty awful. The publisher paid people for 4-5 star reviews, which I think says a lot. The end wasn't so bad though.

[Matty]

I wanted to read this to see what everyone is talking about, but I couldn't even get through the first chapter lol

[Ashlyn]

I just finished this book. I really enjoyed it. I had the kindle and audio editions, and I really preferred listening to the book instead of reading about it. I thought the story was a lot better that way. I think I picked up the kindle book about 3 times, while I listened to the audio almost every day.

[Farren]

Ashlyn wrote: "I just finished this book. I really enjoyed it. I had the kindle and audio editions, and I really preferred listening to the book instead of reading about it. I thought the story was a lot better t..."

I didn't like either format, but I did listen to the last few hours because I knew I'd never finish it otherwise. It was easier to get through once I got used to the narrators' voices.

[Kristie]

I liked it. But it was no match for Divergent. NO match.

[Vicki]

Farren wrote: "This book was pretty awful. The publisher paid people for 4-5 star reviews, which I think says a lot. The end wasn't so bad though."

How did you find this out and verify its validity?

[Farren]

I've seen several reviewers and book tubers claim that the publisher sent them an ARC and asked them to submit their review in advance. If they didn't give it a high rating the publisher wouldn't use the review or compensate them.
I actually didn't realize before that controversy that some people were paid for reviews. I just always thought the free book in advance was the payment...
I didn't do a ton of looking into it, but I saw the disclaimer on almost every 4 star review I read after I finished the book that it was a paid or "sponsored" review.

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Yikes about the paid reviews!

I'm with others - I didn't enjoy this one as much as I'd hoped!

I kind of wish I'd tried the audio version though!

[Vicki]

Farren, I had no idea that occurred either. I thought books were the gift for a "free and honest" review. Wow!

I'm debating if I should bother reading this one now.

[Trinity]

Wow that's terrible! I'm still going to give this book a shot this month but I'm not setting my hopes high.

[Farren]

You never know until you give it a shot guys! Amazon offers free samples of all their ebooks if you aren't able to check it out from a library or something.

[Matty]

I'm going to have to get it on audio

[Tabetha]

Hey everyone, I just joined the group and I am eager to find out what you all think of Carve the Mark! I read it in March and absolutely loved it!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Matty wrote: "I'm going to have to get it on audio"

ooh! You'll have to tell us how the reader is!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Tabby wrote: "Hey everyone, I just joined the group and I am eager to find out what you all think of Carve the Mark! I read it in March and absolutely loved it!"

Welcome to the group, Tabby!

I think most of us struggled with this one....Did you read it or do the audio book? It seems like many who liked it enjoyed the audio book version

[(Liene)]

About those paid reviews, many books have paid reviews, as well as free in exchange for an honest review. If you watch video reviews, if it's paid, you will see at some point it mentioned somehow somewhere that this is a sponsored video, and then you know it's paid to say something nice. if that's not the case, and they just get an arc, the good rating isn't paid for, and it is usually an honest review, no one is pressuring anyone.
And usually I've noticed that when a person says it's a sponsored video, when they rate it on Goodreads, they don't mention anything about a free copy for an honest review. They might say they got a free Arc or something, but the wording tends to be different. So when it says for an honest review, then it does tend to be honest as far as the reviewer themselves feel they are willing to be.

[Farren]

Lieniitte (Liene) wrote: "About those paid reviews, many books have paid reviews, as well as free in exchange for an honest review. If you watch video reviews, if it's paid, you will see at some point it mentioned somehow s..."

If people can make money that way then good for them, I am pretty jealous lol
However, with this book in particular, readers were claiming that the publisher refused to compensate them if the review was bad. In which case, they are only paying for favorable reviews, not honest ones, and I haven't heard people talk about any other book the same way.
I have read some reviews that were totally negative but the rating was like 4 stars, so maybe it's the rating that matters more than the review itself.

[Alyson]

Farren wrote: "This book was pretty awful. The publisher paid people for 4-5 star reviews, which I think says a lot. The end wasn't so bad though."

I was very disappointed. I don't know what went wrong, but I thought the book was just poor quality.

[Farren]

I can't figure it out either, Alyson! The idea for the plot was great, but if it said "unnamed popular author" on the cover I definitely wouldn't have guessed Veronica Roth. I am not even a big fan of Divergent so I could imagine people who love that series being even more let down that I was.