Book Review: Caraval // Stephanie Garber

Author: Stephanie Garber

Type: Series - Caraval #1

Format: Physical | Own

Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy

Publication Date: 29 September 2016

Synopsis: 

A legendary competition.

A mesmerizing romance.

An unbreakable bond

between two sisters.

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . beware of getting swept too far away.

Rate: 3 / 5 ⭐

❝Welcome, welcome to Caraval! The grandest show on land or by sea. Inside you’ll experience more wonders than most people see in a lifetime. You can sip magic from a cup and buy dreams in a bottle. But before you fully enter into our world, you must remember it’s all a game.❞

Review: 

I went into this book hoping for the dreamiest, most magical story with a whimsical setting. Instead I got a barely built world with somewhat lackluster characters and an insta-love.  

The story started off great with Scarlett and her sister's introduction, their family background and how they get involved with Legend's elaborate game. But it becomes very apparent that, as the story progresses, that the plot wasn't executed very well. Scarlett feels very stupid at times and her whole persona is set on being this amazing and proper older sister who loves her little sister very much. And there is nothing wrong with that if that is how she was written. But the entire time, whenever Julian (the love interest) looks at her with his light brown eyes the 'colour of caramel', she forgets about Tella (her younger sister). Like why are you hesitating when the other person is someone you barely know. Julian is literally introduced as a new character in her life and when they go to Caraval, they know each other for like what, less than 24 hours?!! We don't even get to know much about Julian at the end of it. There's barely any character development for him apart from a somewhat tragic backstory (am now unsure if it really is even tragic).

This brings me to one of my most hated tropes, the insta-love. I get being attracted to someone based purely on the physical attribute, but to claim you love this person, enough to willingly put the chance of saving your sister at risk is so arghh, i don't even have enough words to explain this.

Moving on to the setting and worldbuilding. I loved the setting of Caraval, obviously. It's this magical world where a game is played and you can win a grand prize; any one wish will be granted by Legend, the master of the games. The whole setup is very whimsical and I loved it but there wasn't much thought put into how this place came to be. Like I get it, Legend is mysterious and no one really knows how he does it and even who he is but I feel like some aspects of this world could have been explained. Because for everything, the explanation was basically "it's magic".

The writing wasn't too bad, certain phrases seemed too strange for my liking but still readable. honestly if i hadn't had the second book I probably would not have been interested in continuing the series but since I have it, i might as well read it and see if it gets any better.

In conclusion, if you are new to fantasy or would simply like to read a book with some whimsy without really solving anything, I would suggest this one ✨️

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

p.s. This was a bit of a yap and not really a review I guess. Give me time to get used to writing reviews again.