Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Caraval

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

147 reviews

savvyrosereads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Rating: 4/5 stars

Scarlett and her sister Tella escape their abusive father and plunge into the magical game of Caraval…but when Tella goes missing, Scarlett soon learns everything is not as it seems.

This book took me AGES to read for reasons that are not remotely its fault, so the buddy read very much left me behind (and I can’t blame them). That said, I really enjoyed this one and had a great time discussing it once I was finally able to do so!

The world building here is particularly fun to me—the entire setting felt super trippy and made my brain hurt a bit, but in a good way. This is more complex (and a bit darker) than YA sometimes skews, but I enjoyed both of those things!

A lot of the folks in my buddy read were frustrated by the ending and/or by the character of Tella, but I actually loved both. I’m excited to see where this trilogy goes next (as of this posting I’ve already finished and really enjoyed Legendary but have Finale left to go)!

CW: Kidnapping; physical and emotional abuse; blood/violence/death; suicide

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hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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mysterymeenah's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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halierivers's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I was so excited for this! And I did enjoy it but also what the actual f*** was that ending? It almost makes me not want to read the next two.

It had so many cool elements but the freaking colors as emotions got repetitive SO fast. I also think this would be better a horror fantasy novel. Not a romantasy. Felt like A LOT was left unaddressed by the author.

I would be TRAUMATIZED if I was fully convinced my sister and crush died bc of me and we’re just skipping over how much that would fuck someone up???

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savanah's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

2.75

It’s kind of like if the author took the Original Peter Pan (the dark one where Peter kills the lost boys when they’re too old), Alice in wonderland, and just a touch of terror/horror genre, gaslighting, mixed in with with the most cliche YA tropes.

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meghanlamar's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This book has so much hype, but didn’t live up to expectations. I don’t know how so many people love Caraval. Third person is always difficult for me to follow. It didn’t get good until the last 90 pages or so.

The father has a weird sense of punishment. The two daughters have a strong bond, but go behind each others back to build a plan to escape. Scarlett through her journey in Caraval finds her voice and able to speak up for herself. Her fear of her father gets thrown out the window. She recognizes the toxicity and where the responsibility lies with the help of Julian, the sailor. The sub plot at the end is important and what drew me in.

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