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Reviews tagging 'Death'

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

374 reviews

carissacaitlin's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really quite enjoyed this book! I love the storyline of the sisters and the plot of a mysterious game that blurs the line between reality and fantasy. 

The plot twists were also very unexpected!! The way the author also describes the scenes had a very magical touch & I enjoyed this read very much! 

I started this series after reading the Once Upon a Broken Heart series; Caraval is the prequel to that series & i don’t think it matters which order you should read it in, but now im excited to find out more of the backstory of the characters in OUABH! 

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jennlikesreading's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I was very confused throughout the entire book. Tbh I didn’t know where we were going or why we were going there. The clues didn’t make much sense to my smooth brain. I’m sad because I loved the OUABH series so much and this book fell so flat for me. The plot twist felt so strange? I don’t know if I will continue the rest of the series, I have heard it does get better. 

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cherlin's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 ⋆⭒˚。⋆ 3/5 stars.
"He's never stared at her like this before. Sometimes he gazed at her as if he wanted to be her undoing, but just then it was as if he wanted her to undo him."

this was alright. super easy to read, difficult to put down but once it’s put down, it was equally as difficult to pick back up again 😪

───── ⑅ my pros ⑅ ─────
☾ liked the world most of the time. seemed beautiful and equally f*cked up in my head
☾ actually ate that romance the up even though at times it seemed so random
☾ julian. hey julian. wink.

───── ⑅ my cons ⑅ ─────
☾ father doesn’t get what he deserves.
☾ character deaths happen but there is no real shock. i didn’t care for anyone except one lol
☾ “Every touch created colors she had never seen. Colors as soft as velvet and as sharp as sparks that turned into stars.” huh. “He tasted like midnight and wind, and shades of rich brown and light blue. Colors that made her feel safe and guarded.” why are we referencing colors as metaphors every 5 seconds please we’re kissing not drawing
☾ scarlett was so dumb sorry
☾ the magic system is never properly explained at all. lazy. everything is explained away with the word "magic" but we don't know where this magic comes from or what price it has. how is magic this accessible when at the start, scarlett believes that it's all just a story? you get what i mean.

───── ⑅ the protagonists ⑅ ─────
Scarlett Dragna is our elsa. she wants to marry some random man because she wants safety. boom, she ends up in caraval because of her sister. the entire time she was so stupidly stubborn that i just didn’t know what to think because wtf? people would literally SPOON-FEED her good advice and she would completely ignore it because…because…my sister!!! where is my sister??? she's a hypocrite too because b*tch what do you mean "how could you fall in love with somebody after 5 days of knowing them???" after you just did the same exact thing AND you were about to marry a man you'd never seen before? ohhh but he seems nice in his letters! HAHA

Donatella Dragna is basically our anna. she wants adventure! to have fun! she wants to be free! she’s smarter than she lets on, though we don’t really see much of that because all we ever see is her acting all cool and ooo silly and ooo i'm having so much fun with men!!! i think i’ll like her point of view a lot more though. maybe. emphasis on maybe. tella was crazy for putting them through all of that and there were other ways to go about it lol

Julian Santos is our husband. what are his flaws? couldn’t tell you. i meannnn, look at him. look. my only gripe with is that we just don't know anything about him at all. i understand we're not really supposed to, but i feel like there's just not much going on with the character. i'd say that's why i just don't have anything bad to say about him.

all in all, caraval was a fun read. the world could have honestly been explored a little better, it's high fantasy with a magical carnival game. that is a difficult thing to write well, and it wasn't done very well here. we have a world, it has a map, but the entire world is never really described. everything we think is real is actually fake? i don't know, i just didn't really like that. i think this has the potential to get better assuming the author improves her writing and stops with those damn metaphors, but honestly i very nearly lost my damn mind. interesting premise, interesting enough world, bad execution. 

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aprilyang1's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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the_castle_library's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0


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_mnm_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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mj_86's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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annikenr's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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caseylovett's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0


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shafirareads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

It's so-so for me. Honestly, it felt like reading a child fairytale book with adult relationship inside or reading a very long wattpad story. It's entertaining, but just that. I'm a bit disappointed on how the conflict climax executed. But it is a good book. If not, I wouldn't bother reading it 'till the end. I love the plot and the concept. It's such a refreshing concept between the viral faeries concepts. I know my childhood would love and go crazy for this. Too bad I read it as an adult. I will read the sequels.

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