A review by mahra
Caraval by Stephanie Garber

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

1.5


Welcome, welcome to Caraval! The grandest show on land or by sea. Inside you’ll experience more wonders than most people see in a lifetime. You can sip magic from a cup and buy dreams in a bottle. But before you fully enter into our world, you must remember it’s all a game.

I did not like this. The main issue that I have is that this book does not deliver on its promises.

Scarlett and Donatella (Tella) Dragna live with their abusive father, the Governor of the Isle of Trisda. As a child, Scarlett dreamt of participating in the game of Caraval led by a mysterious magical being called Master Legend, and winning the reward: a wish. She sent Legend many letters in the hope of receiving the very coveted tickets, but never received an answered. Years passed, and she gave up on her dream.
This year, however, she finally received a letter and three tickets: for her, Tella, and her fiancé. The Governor has arranged a marriage for Scarlett to a count that she's never met, but with whom she has exchanged letters. An engagement that she now sees as an exit route. Tella, however, wants to participate and win in Caraval in order to escape their father.
Against her will, Scarlett ends up having to participate in the game, and very quickly realizes that Tella was kidnapped by Master Legend and that she is at the center of the game. If she fails to find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, Tella will be gone forever...

There are good elements. The premise of the story is quite interesting (which is why I am so disappointed with the way it unfolds). I really enjoyed this dark carnival setting with some latine influences. I liked that the romance between the main character, Scarlett, and her love interest, Julian, was slowly built. It is believable.

However, I had many issues with the prose. I do not think that the author is a bad writer. I have read a lot worse, but the prose in this one feels overly colorful (*wink*). The superfluous descriptions started to interfere with the pacing. The author also uses color adjectives to describe smells, tastes, and emotions and ends up creating sentences that do not make any sense.
(I know it is because of Scarlett’s ability to see emotions as colors, but it was very distracting)
For example: "Shades of the rich ruby love she'd felt during the game mixed with hues of deep-indigo hurt" or "Something about him made her feel perilous shades of silky black". And since she described Scarlett’s emotions that way, it made it difficult to understand and connect with her. I really did not learn much about her outside of what was written verbatim, so I did not have any reason to care about her. She is also quite unlikable because of how foolish she is. I understand that this is supposed to be a story about much she learns during the game, but she very annoying at times.

I did not find any of the characters likeable or enjoyable. Even, Legend, as a villain felt… strangely boring (?). I also found them quite stereotypical and "one note" (opposite sisters, cold and cunning love interest
who is a double agent
, mysterious villain who is manipulating everyone…), which is not always an issue, but in this case it did not help. The father felt like a moustache-twirling villain, and I find those very difficult to do well… The author also used a trope that I hate:
the very old man who does not age (Julian) who ends up with the very young and naive main character and manipulates her before he falls in love with her.


The story was also somewhat predictable. I consume a lot of fantasy, so it is quite difficult to surprise me. It does not always bother me, but in this case, I guessed most of it pretty quickly (and what I did not guess was not well introduced to the story, it came out of nowhere).

I was expecting a harrowing story full of twists,
but ultimately they are all rendered pointless by that final twist. Donatella, the sister, was behind all of it. Everything was a lie. It is comparable to an "it was all a dream" ending, in my opinion. What was the point of all of this? Escaping their father and Scarlett’s fiancé? Was all of this necessary to achieve that? None of it makes sense. The other books may answer that question, but if that is the case, this one does not lead me to believe that. Scarlett simply accepts  everything, and very easily forgives her sister. Which brings me to my next point: the book does not accurately describe how horrible of a sister she truly is. She put Scarlet through all of this — unnecessarily in my opinion — and she was completely unapologetic about it. Again. Why?



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