Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Caraval (Caraval, #1)

by Stephanie Garber

Welcome to Caraval, where nothing is quite what it seems...

'If you ever wondered how it would feel to step into a dream, here's your ticket' - Stacey Lee

Scarlett has never left the tiny isle of Trisda, pining from afar for the wonder of Caraval, a once-a-year week-long performance where the audience participates in the show.

Caraval is Magic. Mystery. Adventure. And for Scarlett and her beloved sister Tella it represents freedom and an escape from their ruthless, abusive father.

When the sisters' long-awaited invitations to Caraval finally arrive, it seems their dreams have come true. But no sooner have they arrived than Tella vanishes, kidnapped by the show's mastermind organiser, Legend.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But nonetheless she quickly becomes enmeshed in a dangerous game of love, magic and heartbreak. And real or not, she must find Tella before the game is over, and her sister disappears forever.

A mesmerising, magical and stunningly imaginative debut novel for anyone who loved The Night Circus.

Reviewed by limabean74 on

3 of 5 stars

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I am not sure what I expected when I started this book. The cover was gorgeous and it reminded me of a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Willy Wonka. I liked the flow of the story and the writing was very descriptive.

The story is told in Scarlett’s POV and I will be honest in the beginning I wasn’t really liking her very much. She played by the rules and wouldn’t allow herself to take risks. I wanted to shake her a few times and tell her to stop being so safe, it was driving me crazy.

The cast of characters in this book had me all kinds of confused, I wasn’t sure if I liked them, trusted them or found them annoying.

The game was confusing and the explanation at the end sort of confused me even more.

The descriptions of things were delightful (this does not include world build, that was missing). Like colors and foods are described in whimsical detail. 

Abusive father selling his girls to the highest bidder. It sort of seems like a common thing in these type of fairy tale books.

I wanted to know more, I felt like it left to much to your own thoughts. I have questions or what to know more details on things. The book has some vague backgrounds and it needed more of a world build. It has details but the world was a bit confusing.

The End totally confused me but I realize this is a series so I will have to see what happens next but it was still confusing

Overall this book was ok, I wasn’t blown away by it and it seemed to have a lot of hype when it first come out. I liked the characters to a point but I enjoyed the story more, even if at times I found it confusing or sort of all over the place. The amount of times it had to be explained what was going on made it even more confusing. At this point I really don’t know what was true and what wasn’t. I will for sure be checking out the next book in the series, I think the story has great potential and maybe it will be more present in the next book. I do recommend if you are looking for something different. This was an out of the box type of book.







Thanks for stopping by to check out my review.

Have a great day and Happy Reading!

This review was originally posted on Because reading is better than real life

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 21 October, 2017: Finished reading
  • 21 October, 2017: Reviewed