A review by cgrant1
Caraval by Stephanie Garber

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

There were lots of parts of this book I liked, but overall found it stressful. It feels, most accurately, like a fever dream, when the main character enters a magical world with no rules, deception, and trickery at every turn. I appreciated the representation of having a main character who was anxious, but tbh as an anxious person reading her perspective (in a world where she had so little control over her surroundings) just made me feel more anxious. 

Overall this book was well written, but a few of Scarlett’s poor choices and wrong answers felt so avoidable, and the ending
when multiple main characters die but are simply brought back to life by different functions of the magic in the game felt too convenient. Especially after I thought the deaths were so well written and I grieved the losses and felt the emotions behind them, this plot twist felt a little cheap


Overall a good read, but I don’t know that I enjoyed it enough to continue with the rest of the series.
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