Reviews

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

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katherine_sharp's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

cookiehuggles's review against another edition

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4.5

scarlett and julian were chef's kiss but ngl tella was pissing me off for a moment there

abbyl819's review against another edition

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4.0

I am surprised that I ended up liking this book as much as I did. While I enjoyed reading it, I was not really sucked in and wanting to know what happened until the end, but I am now very excited for book 2. I was really annoyed by Scarlet for most of this book, as she was very naive and relatively useless in accomplishing anything on her own. She relied on Julian and other people to get much of anything done, but I think that she started to turn around near the end a little. I was a little disappointed that I had guessed the twists at the end, but I wanted that outcome to happen, so I’m not too upset. I really wish that in the next book Donatella and Scarlet would become Caraval performers with the other performers that they have met, and get to know both them and the game better. I know this isn’t happening due to the synopsis of Legendary, but I think it would have been a cool direction to go in. I am very excited to read more about Caraval in Legendary.

roannasylver's review against another edition

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4.0

I enjoyed this, particularly the synesthesia descriptions, my gosh we need more of that! And the escaping-from-abuse-trauma feels were pretty spot-on, even the MC’s less-logical reactions and decisions. Sometimes... abuse survivors act in ways that people looking on won’t understand. But if you know, you know. Ditto with the synesthesia, and I’m trying to not think that people who had issues with this are uh.. kind of being ableist even if they don’t know it. Yes, seeing colors/other sensory input as other senses is a real thing, and yes, it’s sometimes like that. I’d say “oh well, it’s not for everyone” but... well, that is how some peoples’ brains work, including mine, and it feels dismissive and gross to say someone’s neurodivergence isn’t your style. That’s all.

ANYWAY, the descriptions were lovely and I just generally really dug the writing style; I listened to the audiobook and it was super pleasant..

I did lose the plot a great deal in the last act... definitely lost track of revelations and twists, and peoples’ actual motivations, and what was real and what wasn’t (which, I mean, is a major theme), and I still don’t think I caught everything about the backstory, and the world aside from Caraval seemed pretty vague (are we even on Earth?There’s references to saints and apparently Christianity, but everything else feels like a fantasy) and trying to figure out what the hell was going on did keep me from getting too emotionally attached to anyone.

A. fun, weird adventure that could have benefitted from some more concrete worldbuilding and clarity (once the games are over lol).