A review by sabs_bookrecs
Caraval by Stephanie Garber

4.0

3.5. I enjoyed this book. I went in with low expectations and honestly that was key because I wasn’t disappointed. This is a book that is heavily hyped up on social media and I wouldn’t say it fully lived up to that hype but it was still good. After I finished it I read the reviews and the biggest critique people had was there wasn’t a ton of character development. And in a way yeah that is true, but I was still invested enough in the characters to care. The main focus of the story was on the mystery and intrigue of Caraval and trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Sprinkle in some romance and it easily kept my attention.

This was definitely YA, but the characters ages are never talked about so it was easy to picture the characters in their mid-early 20’s. I say it’s YA because there aren’t any adult themes aside from a few very quick and vague references. And the main character was pretty naïve at times and just the overall writing just feels very YA. Overall it was really unique, not really what I expected, but I will read the rest of the series for sure.

Also, do not look up fan art until after like book 2 unless you want stuff spoiled