A review by mayaism_01
Caraval by Stephanie Garber

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

2.75

The most engaging part of this story is easily (and pretty unsurprisingly) the Caraval, the lush descriptions of a world that reads as a combination of Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby'-type party and Alice in Wonderland, I wish more of the book was just about enjoying how cool it would be to attend the Caraval. The game, and its constant reminders not to be deceived by Caraval's performers and performances, was a fun way to have you constantly second-guessing what to believe in this story and I truly think this plot had the potential to be a strong foundation for an amazing story. 

This leads me to this novel's biggest shortcoming - the characters. I did not care at all for a single character in this story, Scarlett is foolish (and fell in love in 4 days - oy vey) and Donetella is barely given time to be fleshed out (despite being the more interesting sister), the most compelling thing about either of them was their relationship as sisters but even that doesn't seem fully realized. Julian seems like a halfway-decent character because he's been given the most interesting motivations and backstory by far but everything else falls flat. The main villain began as something that could've been interesting only to end up being cartoonish. 

The ending has me intrigued though so I'm tempted to try the next one and hope for more improvement on Garber's end with the characters, considering it's seemingly following Donatella I feel like this could get very interesting.
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