Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Caraval

It was good but Scarlett annoyed me, and her seeing emotions in colour, was very confusing as well as annoying too... but a very enjoyable story overall.

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crisandraw's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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rachrreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

This is told from the perspective of Scarlett Dragna, a 17 year old girl who has wanted to see Caraval in action her whole life. The week before she is to be married (to a man she’s only ever written letters to) her sister Donatella, with the help of a sailor, drags her off their island to Caraval!

Unfortunately the two get separated and Donatella is abducted by the Master Legend. Scarlett has to find clues that will lead her to her sister before the 5 nights are over. Remember— Caraval is just a game, don’t believe everything you see…

I can’t believe it took me this long to read this one! I had so much fun reading it and while it was missing some very pertinent information— like how in the world does Caraval even work? I believe this will get answered in books 2&3 though!

The ending was a whirlwind of emotions and each character seems to have a ton of secrets that I cannot wait to uncover.

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kfrogpath's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I read this quickly, it kept my attention, but... I don't think it was particularly well written or developed. The clues/solutions were chaotic, the things Scarlett achieved each night were hard to understand the point of and given it was supposed to be about a game I felt like I wanted that to have some kind of progression I could at least follow. The romance was cute tho.

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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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