Caraval Spoiler-Free Review

Book: Caraval

Author: Stephanie Garber

Genre: YA Fantasy and Romance

My Rating (out of 5):

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.

Caraval- a seemingly exclusive and magical competition. A competition with high stakes and lots of risks. This book seems to have it all: magic, a circus, a dark and brooding love interest, a strong female character, sisterly bonds, and a dash of mystery!  While I will not deny that all of these promised aspects were there, Caraval still fell incredibly short for me. Don’t let anyone fool you, this book has nothing like the wonder and dark atmosphere of The Night Circus. To be honest, the comparisons that were made between the two books is what made me want to read Caraval. I knew not to expect them to be exactly the same, because that’s not fair, but I felt none of the joy or anticipation that I have come to relate so closely with The Night Circus, a feeling I was seeking desperately in my post-TNC slump. With that out of the way, there are some other things that I definitely need to talk about…

Let me say this, I hated Scarlett. She was always whining and complaining about how awful her life was and how all she loved was her sister, but when she has a chance to do something about it she couldn’t stop her “woe is me” act. I’m not sure a single page went by that she didn’t say, “But my sister…” We know your sister is missing! Everyone in a five mile radius knows she is missing! Her perspective was just terrible to read from. I almost dnf’ed this book around page 50 because I couldn’t stand her, but I held out for hope until the very end.

Now that I am really thinking about it, the premise of the Caraval “game” makes no sense. The story is told as if Scarlet is the only player when there were clearly other people around. What were they doing while she was running around being angsty? Did they get the same clues that she did or was she special because her sister was kidnapped? Honestly, it was more of a personal quest and the “extras” only popped in when a little bit of drama was needed.

Speaking of drama, the relationship between Scarlett and Julien is one of the most pathetic relationships I have ever read. The entire first half of the novel he is awful to her and she hates him, but then all of a sudden they are in love. I was so confused. The author tried to have the whole bad-boy brooding vibes around Julien, but it just didn’t work and from what we saw of Scarlett, I’m surprised she would have ever enjoyed being in his company. Plus, their “romance” scenes were overall pathetic and overshadowed by Scarlett’s inability to shut up about her sister.

The icing on the cake for me was the magic system. There was no real magic and things were clearly made up along the way. If you are going to market your book as a high fantasy novel, you need a little more world building and a few more regulations on magic than were present in this book. The world was not fleshed out at all, we only know about this mysterious collection of islands governed by various counts and rulers. There was vague mention of another continent, but there was no explanation given for the history or any of the politics mentioned in the novel. The magic was just as convoluted as the world was vague. Rules were made on the fly and they rather conveniently allowed for things to work out. “Oh, of course there’s another loophole out of this random rule,” I found myself saying over and over again. If she has to lose two days of time as punishment, she should lose the two days! And why are only certain people are allowed to die? Who made this up? It is so random and not enjoyable to read!

The only thing I enjoyed about this book was the relationship between Scarlett and her sister, Tella. They were so different, but still loved each other deeply and I really appreciate that. While Scarlett did whine a lot, she stayed loyal to Tella throughout. This is something that is so rare in YA books, so it made me happy to see. Now did that offset all of the other things? No, but it made reading the book slightly more bearable.

There were other things in this book that I noticed, but those were the main ones. I really wouldn’t recommend this book to many people, but maybe if you are new to the YA genre and want an easy starting place, this might be the book for you. I think other people would be let down by their own expectations for the book, much like I was. Overall I gave it 2/5 stars because while I had lots of problems, it was a quick read and a good palate cleanser. Has anyone else read Carval? Do you agree with what I said? Comment down below so we can chat about this book!