Reviews with content warning for Violence - Caraval

I didn't pick this up at it's hype and maybe it's time has passed for me. The book's strength is definitely in it's imaginative setting which was evocative though often unclear. The plot, though a bit scrambled at times, was okay and did surprise me on some occasions so that does put if above similar "atmosphere" books like The Night Circus.

However, I found the characters, especially the protagonist and her love interest, extremely uninteresting. I rolled my eyes in multiple parts of dialogue and they were just not people I felt I could root for. Annoyingly the best character in the book

Tella

is the one who is absent for it's majority. I hope they feature more in the sequel.

A strong premise and setting but not much more substance for me. I might give the sequel a try to see if the weaker elements improve.

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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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bree_h_reads's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

2.25

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sleepybythelake's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

YOOOOO I COMPLETELY LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!
I think my biggest mistake, whether when I want to start a book that seems interesting or after I finish one I completely loved (like this one), is reading reviews. When I see more negative ones than positive I start to ask myself 'Did I really enjoy it?' I don’t know why I let other's opinions get to me like that ugh… maybe I should stop reading reviews and that's it lmaooo

Anyway, my first thought was 'Ohhh The Night Circus meets Alice in Wonderland' but it became a story of its own quickly. I read it in like 2 days and a half, couldn’t put it down. I’m dumb as f*ck so I didn’t expect lots of plot twists and was all shocked and/or giggly. For me it was a fun, engaging read.
I agree with people who say that

Scarlett and Julian

fell in love too quickly, but idk man, they were cute. Donatella gave me Lydia Bennett vibes at first

but she turned out to be smart as hell and I loved that!

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