| Review | Caraval | Stephanie Garber

Hello book nerds!!
I know the time has passed for the hype of Caraval, but I completely forgot I had this review written since February...

Synopsis:

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval…beware of getting swept too far away.

Review:

‘’Remember it is only a game.’’’

Caraval gives a new dimension to the idea of a fair with circus and performers, Caraval is the spectacle of your life. Everything is a game, but everything is real and it’s on this twisted, touched by magic world, that our adventure unfolds.

Scarlet’s dream has been to take her sister, Tella, to Legend’s show since her grandma started telling them stories about the magic of Caraval. Finally, she’s got tickets, but there’s a problem, her wedding is in only a few days and running could mean ruining the only chance she and her sister have of escaping an abusive father.

Tella and Scarlet’s relationship is really well built, one of strongest points of this book for sure. As someone with a little sister, I am often annoyed on how that dynamic is portrayed, but Stephanie Garber grabbed (ha!) the essence of a sister-sister relationship extremely well and that, for me, made the book much more interesting.

The story itself, this legend built upon stories and magic and heartbreak is amazingly thought. I feel like author took every child’s vison when entering a circus for the first time and turned it into a plot line. Which is awesome guys! Do you remember the thrill of going to a show and be amazed by everything? By the magic and tricks and the costumes? If you put that into words, you have Caraval and Scarlet’s journey.

Still, there are some points on this books that bothered me.

One of them, and probably the main one, is how weakly the main character is. It’s not – unfortunately – one of those cases where a character starts in a low point but builds up and gets ‘’stronger’’; it’s rather that Scarlet is stuck on a vicious cycle of self-pity and self-doubt. It gets old pretty quickly; you’re always expecting her to take that next step, to grow up and make a stance but we never get there. GGGGrrrr *very angry noise*. For me.

Stephanie’s writing isn’t great, it is her debut novel so we have to keep that in mind, and I’m sure she will get better. She just need to cut those repetitions and insta-love down. So I honestly believe that if Scarlet had been a better protagonist Caraval would have been a 4-5 star read.

I’m still considering if I will pick Legendary up, since I was pretty disappointed with this one. Will see…

Rating: 3 stars.

Have you had the chance to pick this beauty up? What did you think? Should I give Legendary a chance?

Let me know in the comments!