Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

77 reviews

emilywemily6's review against another edition

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

4.25

For a YA fantasy series, I really enjoyed it and wanted to continue the series asap! I loved how sinister and magical Caraval is, though I still have lots of questions about why. The ending gutted me and I really hated how everyone manipulated Scarlett and doesn’t see anything wrong with it. I wasn’t super convinced about the romance though. This book is a lot of vibes and pacing, not a fleshed out plot. But I am really intrigued for the next book, this book really sucked me in despite its flaws!

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carrotnyx's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I don’t know how to feel about this book… The beginning felt so slow and I honestly I was getting kinda bored. For the entire first half of the book I didn’t care about any of the characters. Literally none. Scarlett was kinda bleh, Donatella was annoying in all of her scenes and Julian seemed like a douchebag.

However, I know it felt a bit out blue but I enjoyed reading Scarlett’s and Julian’s relationship. I loved (past tense) their dynamic. And when the plot picked up I couldn’t stop reading. Then the plot twists went little overboard. Basically every other page had another twist and I started getting desensitized to it. I think that was the downfall of this book.
I wish it just had a sad ending where it ends after Tella dies.

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Julian became bland
because we find out he was acting this whole time aND HE DIDNT ACTUALLY GIVE UP HIS LIFE FOR HIS CRIMSON. HE STARTED CALLING HER “SCARLETT” (which absolutely broke me) AND HE DIDNT EVEN HAVE THE SAME SMILE. YOU’RE TELLING ME HE DIDNT HAVE A CUTE TWISTED GRIN THIS WHOLE TIME???? To me, the Julian Scarlett fell in love with is dead. Hah. Sorry got a bit heated there
. Their chemistry just vanished. Yet they still ended up together (-_-). 
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And omg Donatella.
I don’t even care if she ‘did what she had to do’. She still put her poor sister through SO MUCH TRAUMA.That is not “sisterly love”. She didn’t respect Scarlett’s choice and she came off selfish. ESPECIALLY when she expected Scarlett to pick her over Julian.

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Well the only character I actually enjoyed reading about was Julian before the plot twist and, surprisingly, Legend.
EXCEPT IT WASNT LEGEND IT WAS SOME GUY NAMED CASPER.
Reading about madness is so fun.
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I didn’t mean be so negative but I swear I enjoyed a good part of the book when the plot twist started kicking in

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annabananadel's review against another edition

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

3.5

“I think you’ve forgotten how to live, and your sister is trying to remind you.”

Good to be back to reading a fantasy book once again! I’ve gotten a copy of Once Upon A Broken Heart by the same author and was told that to get the full experience, I had to read this series again, so here I am. 

To be honest, I started this book thinking it was just pure fantasy so I was somewhat surprise to see a little bit of romance in it - although it was a little falling in love too fast in my opinion. The caraval story was done alright but the ending was sort of anti-climactic. I don’t really have much to say other than, I’m surprised to see that the next book is not Scarlett’s POV since I was already heavily invested on her now so it’s sad to have another character’s point of view. But I do love Tella and I really hope and am excited to see her story with Legend! 

Overall, it’s a good story but at the moment, not one I would immediately recommend to people. Maybe once I’ve read the next few books?

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laboromi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring 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? No

4.5


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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-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

5.0


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margaretwaltemath09's review against another edition

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

3.25


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ashboutiette's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? N/A

3.5


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booksandstardust's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.0


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jessthemess8112's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny 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

3.5

I found this book to be enjoyable right from the beginning. It makes you excited for the main characters to get away from their own island and experience the excitement that Caraval holds. The writing was a little juvenile, and it felt like the author made it her personal mission to ensure every color was mentioned somewhere in the book. The ending also left something to be desired and kind of felt like a cop out.  I know there are 2 more books that hopefully wrap things up. However, if I hadn't known this,  I would've been extremely let down with the way this book ended.  

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mysterious_and_spooky's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I feel like I can see what the vision was for this book, but it's pulled off in a very clunky sort of way. It was very much a story that was happening to the main character, not even that she had much say in what was happening. Which made for a frustrating read. Tbh it felt like published fan fiction for Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. But I did see what the vision was, but I don't think it was quite executed effectively. I'm not really interested in continuing. 3.5 stars DNF series. 

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