The Fates Divide

by Veronica Roth

Amazon Prices:

Paperback: $12.99

Hardcover: $21.99

Kindle: $12.99 (Not available on Kindle Unlimited)

Audible: $31.99 (Not available on Kindle Unlimited)

Before Reading Facts:

The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth was published in 2018 by Katherine Tegen Books.

Page Count: 480 pages (paperback) 464 (hardcover) 469 (Kindle)

Audiobook length: 13 hrs 49 mins

Chapters: 56

Languages: English (also available in the following translations: Catalan, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish)

Summary of Book:

“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.

With the addiction of two powerful new voices, Veronica Roth’s sequel to Carve the Mark is a chorus of hope, humor, faith, and resilience.” – Katherine Tegen Books

Author Biography:

“Veronica Roth is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, Four: A Divergent Collection, and Carve the Mark. Ms. Roth and her husband live in Chicago.

You can visit her online at www.veronicarothbooks.com.” -Katherine Tegen Books

Book Review:

Overall Book Rating: ★★★★★ / ★★★★★

My initial reaction: I don’t know what is happening. 

If I am being honest, I read this book at the wrong time. I began reading this book during a busy time and found myself putting it down for days before picking it back up again. I really wanted to enjoy it, but given that I did not pay much attention to the first book, I had a hard time figuring out what all was going on in this second part of the series. I do blame myself for my lack of attention while reading this book and admit that some of my confusion and lack of interest in it is partially on me. 

However, with that being said, the story progressed in a way that didn’t really draw me in. Again, due to putting the book down for days and not remembering what went down when I next picked it up, I found myself wanting to abandon the book altogether. I may simply have to re-read the series at a later point in time in order to really enjoy it. Though, I would like to comment that I did not find myself connecting to any of the characters in the story. When reading, I always like to find one character I want to follow and know more about, and I, honestly, did not find that character in this novel. I actually found myself confused with all the characters. I found myself forgetting who was who and which characters I was supposed to care about.

I would like to give this book another go in the future and have a much better and worthy review of it. But for now, I must simply state my thoughts when I read this book. My reading experience of it was not the same as with other books I have read. There are those stories that I read that go by so fast (the Shatter Me series) and end too soon (Girl in the Blue Coat and the Warcross duology) or those that I find myself completely invested in the lives of the characters (A Reaper at the Gate series); however this was not one of those books for me. I found myself asking when the chapter would end so I could take a break. The reading of it seemed to go by so slowly for me, that by the time I finished it, I was like, “about time.” It was definitely not an experience I wanted to have, given that I really enjoy Roth’s other series: Divergent. I will revisit this series and give it a second chance. I would like to think that the lower-than-usual review I am giving this book is partially my own fault. If that is the fact, I will be doing a more worthy review of the story when I revisit it. 

Audible Review:

Narration Rating: ★★★★★ / ★★★★★

Narration by Austin Butler, Emily Rankin, Erin Spencer, and MacLeod Andrews

Their narration was well done, and I did not have an issue with any of the narrators. Like with Carve the Mark, their narration at 1.0 speed was done really well and not so slow that I had to speed it up to be able to tolerate it as I have done with other audiobooks.  Their narration 1.25 speed was at what I would consider normal, conversation speed. The favorite listening speed for me was at 1.75 speed. The speed was just right for me. For those of us who like to multitask and listen on the go, I recommend listening at a 1.5 speed, so one does not miss anything. For those who are listening while reading the book and want to listen at a faster pace, I found 2.0 speed to be the best speeds. 2.5 speed was good too, but I liked 2.0 speed better and easier to follow. 3.0 was too fast for me, and I was missing a lot of what the narrator was saying and had to eventually slow down the narrator’s reading speed. However, it is manageable. If you’re used to speed listening, 3.0 speed should be manageable. 3.5 speed was definitely too fast for me.

Other works by this Author:

Carve the Mark Series

• Carve the Mark
• The Fates Divide

Divergent Series

• Divergent 
• Insurgent
• Allegiant 
• Four: A Divergent Collection