Caraval
By Stephanie Garber (2016)
Fantasy Romance
★★★★☆ 4 Star Review
Description
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.
Thoughts & Review: Characters
Scarlett is an older sister first and a person second. At least that’s how she came across. But she also is resilient and distrusting, which made me like her more. I do wish it was first-person, I think I would have connected with her more as a character.
““For years her father tore her down. Over and over, she had let him. She’d allowed him to make her feel worthless and powerless. But she was neither of those things. She was done allowing her fear to make her weaker””
Donatella came across quite badly in this book in my opinion (at least for the majority of it). However, she has some delightful secrets and tricks up her sleeve.
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I am so so curious to see where the next book will pick up with her as the MFC. I am wondering/hoping we see a whole new side of Donatella. Even though Caraval was 3rd person POV, we really only got Scarlett's opinion/perspective of things.
Thoughts & Review: Plot and Writing Style
At no point did I predict what would happen next
This book truly embodied walking into one of those creepy but ornately spectacular rooms of mirrors at an old carnaval where you have no idea what is true and what is false.
Magical, dark, mysterious
The writing is EXTREMELY descriptive. Which definitely pays off in fantastical imaginings this book provokes. However… I do think that a huge chunk of the word count being dedicated to adjectives, rather than actions or dialogue, might be why I felt it moved a bit slow at first. This is truly the only thing that kept it from being a five star book for me.
Combination of romance, fantasy, and mystery
I did appreciate how multi-faceted the delivery of this book was, but I wish the first 75% of the book moved a little quicker. I also wish it played a little more into the carnival theme, it felt more like a magical village. Still very cool.
The romance was a cute slow-burn. Nothing to write home about but still added another intriging/complex element to the plot and character development.
