Welcome, welcome to Caraval--Stephanie Garber's sweeping tale of two sisters who escape their ruthless father when they enter the dangerous intrigue of a legendary game. Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved 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 far-away, 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....Read more
Oh boy, this book was such a mess.
The writing: Scarlett feels emotions in colour, but it has no relevancy to the plot and it feels like it's only added in as a vehicle for overly descriptive...
Read moreOh boy, this book was such a mess.
The writing: Scarlett feels emotions in colour, but it has no relevancy to the plot and it feels like it's only added in as a vehicle for overly descriptive writing: “a tingle of periwinkle curiosity prickled her senses”. Like, what is that shit?
The worldbuilding: It takes place in a fantasy world, which has islands, seasons and magic. That's essentially all the world building you get. Everything else is as vague as smoke.
The plot: Caraval is a travelling gameshow that makes absolutely no sense. The goal of the game is to decipher the clues and locate Scarlett's sister, Donatella, and the whole game revolves around these two characters, making it absolutely worthless for any other contestant who joined with the hope of winning.
Most of the clues don't even make any sense, and everything that happens feels completely random. Scarlett guesses her way through solutions, and is only right because the plot wants her to be.
The main character: Scarlett is supposed to be the cautious, sensible sister, and yet she jumps at every single infuriating chance to be gullible. She's told multiple times that the game is an illusion and to not trust anything, and yet she goes along with everything and accepts literally any deal without hesitation. Only afterwards does she go, "Oh no, I think I made a mistake". Multiple times.
The romance: Scarlett and Julian have known each other for 5 days (including two full days when Scarlett was drugged or magically knocked out). At first Scarlett finds Julian annoying and untrustworthy, and his only redeeming quality is his rock solid, perfectly sculpted abs. And then suddenly they're madly in love. That's the romance.
In my personal spreadsheet I gave this book a negative star rating, but since that's not possible, it gets a half.
Bye
Caraval was the narrative equivalent of an Old Spice advertisement!
Plot? Barely.
Character development? Zero.
YA tropes? Overflowing.
Internal logic? Forget it.
But still, I found myself oddly engrossed. Was Caraval good? No. Magic was constantly used...
Read moreCaraval was the narrative equivalent of an Old Spice advertisement!
Plot? Barely.
Character development? Zero.
YA tropes? Overflowing.
Internal logic? Forget it.
But still, I found myself oddly engrossed. Was Caraval good? No. Magic was constantly used as a plot crutch, and the narrative hinged almost entirely on outdated gender stereotypes and how attractive its characters were. But did I have fun reading it, regardless? Yes.
v2.
Rereading Caraval wasn't what I expected. I remember not loving, though not hating this book so I figured I'd enjoy a reread. I specifically wanted to revisit it to explore the descriptive language. It's funny, rereading my review...
Read morev2.
Rereading Caraval wasn't what I expected. I remember not loving, though not hating this book so I figured I'd enjoy a reread. I specifically wanted to revisit it to explore the descriptive language. It's funny, rereading my review now that I was unimpressed with that description. I didn't find it distracting this time or filling in a void for the story. With this read it supported the story and the worldbuilding.
I forgot how negative Scarlett is about everything, especially Julian. (show spoiler)[She decided he’s a scoundrel and from then on, whatever his actions or choices show about him, she refuses to let go of that judgement. I'm sure it made a difference that I remember the ending, at least a little. I didn't remember all of the climax, but I remembered that everything worked out well in the forest after. So her negativity really annoyed me.] It didn't help that she’s incredibly naive, maybe with good reason because she grew up trapped on the one island. But (show spoiler)[she doesn’t listen to or trust the people that have proved themselves helpful and she totally trusts complete strangers. She’s told again and again it’s a game but then ignores that every time. I really think this would be a better book if the point of view character wasn’t so negative, naive and mildly annoying. And in some ways I think that's supported by my feelings toward her the first time around.]
(show spoiler)[I still really like the scene where Julian saves her from the dress deal. In fact, knowing that didn't turn out so badly made the scenes leading up to it also more interesting. I think that's the turning point for Scarlet's character because even though she's occasionally negative after, it's less and the reader can see her trying to shift. The climax helps considerably when Scarlet hits her character arc because she likes Julian by then and plays it safe less.]
This time, Donatella didn't bother me. (show spoiler)[Maybe because I agreed with her from the beginning in the barrel room in wanting the girls off the island, away from their father. Since I rejected Scarlett's whole “keep everyone safe all the time” mentality, it was more natural to align with what Donatella was trying to do.]
I have to say I still don't love this book. The first two-thirds when Scarlett is, well Scarlett are a mix of annoying and interesting. But overall I liked it better the second time around.
v1.
I suspect the thing most people would say they like about Caraval is the world, the visual descriptions and the magic. And along with that the twists and turns in the story. I can't say I liked any of those things.
The world is definitely imaginative. But the descriptions were a bit too involved for me and pulled me out of the story more than they drew me in. In fact, for quite a while it felt like the book was more enthralled with its ability to describe fantastical things than an actual story. I don't think it actually got going until day 2 of Caraval.
The twists weren't that twisty. (show spoiler)[Granted, I didn't think Tella had actually died, but also didn't think Julian had died. I did think Dante was dead, which was disappointing. But overall I tended not to trust much of anything that was happening and see how it played out.]
I think I would have enjoyed the story more as easy amusement if I hadn't disliked Scarlett quite so much. I found her obstinate and controlling from the outset. Annoyingly so. She's naïve and foolish and yet her bad decisions end up paying off for her in a way that makes other characters act like she's smart.
Even more than that, I despised Donatella. She's not in the story much, but in those little appearances she is nothing more than a selfish, naïve, ridiculous girl. Which undercut Scarlett's whole motivation to save her ‘beloved’ sister because there was nothing beloved about her in any way. There was nothing to like, let alone grieve in her death. And throughout the whole book I had no reason to want Scarlett to save her (to be fair (show spoiler)[I didn't think there was anything to save her from since it was just a game - Scarlett could have sat around drinking tea the whole time and at the end I'd expect her sister would saunter in and they'd sit down to decide where to go next).]
The other characters really carried the story. I liked Julian and Dante and Aiko. I did like the rules of the world like the price of the dresses which created an interesting scene with Julian. I kept reading a bit from a sense of curiosity but more to see how it all played out with the other characters then how it played out for Scarlett and Tella.
