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spiringvenus's review against another edition
2.0
Booktok recommended.
Do you like Alice in Wonderland? You’ll probably like this book. It just wasn’t for me. I listened at 2x on audiobook to finish it.
Things I liked:
Do you like Alice in Wonderland? You’ll probably like this book. It just wasn’t for me. I listened at 2x on audiobook to finish it.
Things I liked:
- FMC has love for her sister and is willing to do anything for her. Well sometimes.
- Mystery surrounding Julian
- I was entertained between Clues 1-3.
Things I didn’t like:
- Scarlet’s dad is evil, but it seems weird that she’s afraid for her life. There is too little build up for his behavior.
A wish resurrection??? Multiple resurrections?? 🙄 - Half of the time I had no idea what was going on. Legend has rules but follows the rules but doesn’t follow the rules? What?!?
- Scarlet just forgives instantly?
Donatella is just a mastermind now? In the whole book she is the biggest ditz.
_daisyreadsbooks_'s review against another edition
2.0
Remind me not to pick up a book off the shelf and just going with it without knowing what I’m getting myself into, and how disappointed I’d be once my expectations let me down. If you’ve guessed my opinion of this book by now, congrats, you’re able to catch on faster than our main character here.
First thing I want to talk about is the writing. Things are described in colors, taste, and metaphors, and I wouldn’t have minded it as much if it wasn’t constantly like some sort of crutch to avoid actually describing things that make sense.
‘But something about him made her feel a perilous shade of black.’
‘The world tasted like lies and ashes when Scarlett woke.’
There’s more where that came from, but I didn’t want to type the whole book. Another thing that was kind of annoying is how everything is described and quickly judged instead of having the reader making these conclusions on their own. Because what ends up happening in this book is that Scarlett for example explains that she cares ‘so much’ about her sister, and reminds us of this constantly, but when it comes down to it, staring into Julian’s eyes make her completely forget her whole purpose of staying here.
The second example might just be me, but this world was described as some really fun magical adventure, but when they were in the world, it honestly wasn’t as fun of an adventure and a little boring than I thought it would be. My point is, there’s a lot of talk, but no show.
My second thing is the world itself. The author seemed to put more effort in the playlist of songs for this world than actually fleshing it out and making this whole magic system make sense. It seems like things are just happening, and the only explanation is, well, it’s magic. Like the whole dress changing on emotions thing, having things cost stuff your worst fear, two days of your life ext., the sucking fingers thing (I have so many questions about that. Like...why? Why did that have to be a thing?)dying and being resurrected thing. How? How does this world work? How does the magic work? Are these ideas just being pulled out of a hat without any explanation? Also, like I said before, I didn’t really feel like I was on a thrill ride with this world. It was kind of boring, and I’m not sure if Caraval was just overrated or if Scarlett was too busy wondering where Julian was and thinking about how dreamy he was to do anything fun in this world.
I change my mind, the characters were actually my second thing I didn’t like. Scarlett is a typical, boring, dumb damsel in distress who only wins Caraval by either randomly stumbling into the clues thanks to her convenient cheat sheet, or having everything told to her. She believes everything that’s told to her, and it was basically just her going over and over again,
“Oh Julian he’s amazing”
“Oh I don’t know if I can trust him”
“Of course I can trust him he’s Julian and he’s hot”
“He lied to me how can I ever trust him”
“I should’ve never doubted him he’s so amazing”
“He lied to me? How could he?”
You can’t convince me that she didn’t fall for Julian cuz he was hot, because she fell hard in love after like a couple days, and she has the nerve to tell Tella “You can’t love a guy you just met.”
Speaking of Julian, we know absolutely nothing about him throughout the 300+ pages I read, which is all I can really say about him.
Hey, Legend isn’t in this book at all? Are you serious?
In conclusion, I didn’t like this. If you do, cool. But it wasn’t for me.
First thing I want to talk about is the writing. Things are described in colors, taste, and metaphors, and I wouldn’t have minded it as much if it wasn’t constantly like some sort of crutch to avoid actually describing things that make sense.
‘But something about him made her feel a perilous shade of black.’
‘The world tasted like lies and ashes when Scarlett woke.’
There’s more where that came from, but I didn’t want to type the whole book. Another thing that was kind of annoying is how everything is described and quickly judged instead of having the reader making these conclusions on their own. Because what ends up happening in this book is that Scarlett for example explains that she cares ‘so much’ about her sister, and reminds us of this constantly, but when it comes down to it, staring into Julian’s eyes make her completely forget her whole purpose of staying here.
The second example might just be me, but this world was described as some really fun magical adventure, but when they were in the world, it honestly wasn’t as fun of an adventure and a little boring than I thought it would be. My point is, there’s a lot of talk, but no show.
My second thing is the world itself. The author seemed to put more effort in the playlist of songs for this world than actually fleshing it out and making this whole magic system make sense. It seems like things are just happening, and the only explanation is, well, it’s magic. Like the whole dress changing on emotions thing, having things cost stuff your worst fear, two days of your life ext., the sucking fingers thing (I have so many questions about that. Like...why? Why did that have to be a thing?)dying and being resurrected thing. How? How does this world work? How does the magic work? Are these ideas just being pulled out of a hat without any explanation? Also, like I said before, I didn’t really feel like I was on a thrill ride with this world. It was kind of boring, and I’m not sure if Caraval was just overrated or if Scarlett was too busy wondering where Julian was and thinking about how dreamy he was to do anything fun in this world.
I change my mind, the characters were actually my second thing I didn’t like. Scarlett is a typical, boring, dumb damsel in distress who only wins Caraval by either randomly stumbling into the clues thanks to her convenient cheat sheet, or having everything told to her. She believes everything that’s told to her, and it was basically just her going over and over again,
“Oh Julian he’s amazing”
“Oh I don’t know if I can trust him”
“Of course I can trust him he’s Julian and he’s hot”
“He lied to me how can I ever trust him”
“I should’ve never doubted him he’s so amazing”
“He lied to me? How could he?”
You can’t convince me that she didn’t fall for Julian cuz he was hot, because she fell hard in love after like a couple days, and she has the nerve to tell Tella “You can’t love a guy you just met.”
Speaking of Julian, we know absolutely nothing about him throughout the 300+ pages I read, which is all I can really say about him.
Hey, Legend isn’t in this book at all? Are you serious?
In conclusion, I didn’t like this. If you do, cool. But it wasn’t for me.
khwahishx's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
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? No
3.5
overall a solid book, just some things didn’t sit right with me.
things i loved:
things i loved:
- the setting of the book
- the bond between the sisters
- the riddles of the caraval
- julian santos
yeah, i mainly didn't vibe with scarlett. almost every scene made me roll my eyes at her. (prolly could have been a me problem idk)
a lot of "plot twists "(yes it had multiple ) weren’t explained very well because the mc simply chose not to care about it. frankly, i found this very lazy.
other than that i do look forward to the world of caraval and tella's story.
a lot of "plot twists "(yes it had multiple ) weren’t explained very well because the mc simply chose not to care about it. frankly, i found this very lazy.
other than that i do look forward to the world of caraval and tella's story.
sashaalexis's review against another edition
2.0
I really want to read the once upon a broken heart series and I heard you have to read caraval first.
I hated this book. There was no character development. You don’t get to know the characters at all. Somehow I still have to read 2 more from this series.
I hated this book. There was no character development. You don’t get to know the characters at all. Somehow I still have to read 2 more from this series.
mbarber's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
fast-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
4.5
Really good! Almost 5 stars!
kaleyamo's review against another edition
5.0
I’m way late to the Caraval series, I know. I used to see it EVERYWHERE a few years ago, but I just never picked it up . . . Until my sister harassed me into reading the Once Upon a Broken Heart series and I decided I wanted to go back to this one to get even more backstory.
✨✨✨
Scarlett Dragna has been dreaming of Caraval ever since she was a little girl, inspired by stories her grandmother told. After writing to Caraval Master Legend for years, Scarlett, her sister Donatella “Tella,” and Scarlett’s unnamed fiancé — who she has never met, and does not even know the name of, since her abusive father who arranged the match always tears off any personal details included in his letters — secure invites. Scarlett is hesitant, knowing what her father will do if they leave home, but Tella … uh … “convinces” her to go anyway.
But when Scarlett arrives, Tella is nowhere to be found, and eventually Scarlett learns that this year’s Caraval game is all about finding Tella. But nothing you see or hear within Caraval can be trusted. It’s all a game. And Scarlett will have to find her sister without going mad first.
✨✨✨
I really liked the first book in this series! For this being the author’s debut, it’s really spectacular. I’m so impressed by the world-building and the characters — and by how even I was tricked by the mind games played during Caraval. I just started the second book, Legendary, and I’m still learning things I thought were true in Caraval were not!
✨✨✨
Scarlett Dragna has been dreaming of Caraval ever since she was a little girl, inspired by stories her grandmother told. After writing to Caraval Master Legend for years, Scarlett, her sister Donatella “Tella,” and Scarlett’s unnamed fiancé — who she has never met, and does not even know the name of, since her abusive father who arranged the match always tears off any personal details included in his letters — secure invites. Scarlett is hesitant, knowing what her father will do if they leave home, but Tella … uh … “convinces” her to go anyway.
But when Scarlett arrives, Tella is nowhere to be found, and eventually Scarlett learns that this year’s Caraval game is all about finding Tella. But nothing you see or hear within Caraval can be trusted. It’s all a game. And Scarlett will have to find her sister without going mad first.
✨✨✨
I really liked the first book in this series! For this being the author’s debut, it’s really spectacular. I’m so impressed by the world-building and the characters — and by how even I was tricked by the mind games played during Caraval. I just started the second book, Legendary, and I’m still learning things I thought were true in Caraval were not!
parvaneh's review against another edition
3.0
i don't know if it's just because i read it over the span of like a week, but it started of stronger than it ended in my opinion ngl – aka i was more into it in the beginning; i also found the writing to be underwhelming for the setting?
coopertm's review against another edition
4.0
It definitely kept me guessing what was going on and who Legend really is. It left me a little confused on what was real and what was fake, but that might also be the goal of the book.