Author: Stephanie Garber
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Series: Caraval # 1
Hardcover, 407 Pages
Publication: January 31, 2017 by Flatiron
Source: Personal Library.
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Remember, it’s only a game…
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.
I bought Caraval when it first released based off a preview of the first four chapter sample. I liked what I read and it didn’t hurt that it was carnival-themed and compared to The Night Circus, one of my favorite book. But then it ended up unread, on my shelf for two years. With the final novel of the trilogy releasing this year, I finally decided to pick it up. I was pumped to start the book again after reading all the amazing reviews the first two books received over the years. My sister and I like the same type of books and she attested to enjoying the novel so I thought for sure this was going to be a winner. Sadly, I was wrong. Caraval had no substance.
Caraval went downhill pretty quickly after the characters arrived gosh knows where to attend Caraval. The goal of Caraval was to play a game and win a wish. In Scarlett’s case, the game involved finding her missing sister, Tella in five days. Caraval suffered from lack of world building, character development, imagination and mediocre writing. The entire novel revolved around getting clues that pointed to the next clue and/or location in which Scarlett would find her sister Tella. That’s literally it. It was so simple and dull. I never felt the urgency of the game or that the stakes were high enough. Why? Because half the time Scarlett was swooning and daydreaming over Julian and Dante. She all but forgot that she was there to find her sister! The author tried to make it sounds like Scarlett always put her sister above herself but Scarlett’s action was a far cry from that.
The world building was nonexistent and forgettable. I already forgot the Island the sisters came from and where they headed. And I read the book less than 48 hours ago, nuff’ said. As far as fantasy goes, Caraval had little to no magic. The ONLY thing that had a speck of magic was a dress Scarlett received from Legend that changed colors, shapes and styles. I remember listening to a podcast where Garber said she wanted to write a novel that blurred the lines between reality and fantasy…whelps, she succeeded in that respect because I couldn’t tell that this was a fantasy novel. I felt like I was reading a book version of that boring board game, Clue. Another issue I had was the writing. The writing in my opinion was mediocre and absurd. For example, early on in the first couple of chapters, Scarlett said the night smelled like the moon and candle wax. Dear readers, do you know what the moon smells like? I would like to know what the moon smells like. Has the author smelled the moon? Doubtful. Garber was going for beautiful lyrical proses, but combining random nouns and adjectives that didn't equate was just pure sloppy writing and instead, made for a jarring narrative.
The characters, like the world building were one-dimensional and under-developed. I didn’t like our main leads Scarlett and Julian. Scarlett's priorities were all skewed. She was more worried about her pending nuptials and falling for a stranger than finding her sister. I would say a good 2/3rd of the book was dedicated to Scarlett contemplating Julian: how attractive he was, where he was or why they’re incompatible. Anything and everything Julian. It was overkill. As for Julian, he was a cookie-cutter male lead. I didn’t find him interesting nor did he do anything interesting. And oh how vexing it was every time Scarlett praised him for saving her he would tell her, “You give me too much credit, I’m not a good guy…” I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes when he made his depreciating speeches.
I managed to finish this book, how I’m not sure. I hoped, at the very least, the ending would redeem the novel in someway, somehow but like the entire book, it also was a let down. Caraval literally ended with Tella TELLING Scarlett how everything went down. A ridiculous, detailed, info-dumping play by play of her involvement in the game that took place prior to the sisters leaving home to the present moment. Talk about anticlimactic. I cannot recommend Caraval. If you’re looking for a fantasy novel, look elsewhere because this is not it. I always tell those reading my reviews to try a sampler before committing to a purchase, but lesson learned, it doesn’t always help. I feel duped. The book was falsely advertised. Caraval claimed to be a YA version of The Night Circus but I didn’t get anything remotely close to it. Not even close. Do yourself a favor is skip this book/series. The world building is a joke, the characters have as much personality as a card board box and the writing was poor and sloppy. One of the worst Young Adult novel I’ve ever read.
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