Caraval
Young Adult Fiction
Macmillan
January 31, 2017
Hardcover
416
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. 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. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.
WrensReads Review:
So this was a super magical read. I think I expected it to blow my mind a little too much, so I was a little let down, but I am totally on board to read the next book in the series.
The Sisters: Scarlett & Donatella Dragna
I felt like the whole “I have to go save my sister” thing was a little pushed. Tella didn’t seem to care at all about Scarlett. She was totally into whatever she needed and wanted to do. She didn’t care that Scarlett was worried about making it back to her wedding (so she could get Tella away from their abusive father Governor Marcello Dragna). She didn’t listen to Scarlett when was telling her exactly how her experience on the island was (even though she stayed to find her sister and went through absolute hell). Then she was the most selfish person at the very end, even if it wasn’t what I thought it was. That isn’t something that I took lightly.
Atmosphere, World Building and Such
This book’s whole thing is magical. Literally like a mix between Wonderland and Neverland. It is a WonderNeverLand book. Things are not always what they seem, or they are what they seem but you don’t believe that they are just that. I really felt like I was reading The Star-Touched Queen again with all the beautifully sewn together words. Garber really knows how to make you go “WOW” with her words.
The story itself felt a lot like The Night Circus, with the game and unpredictability. There are a lot of people competing for this one prize: A Wish. They have clues that they have to follow and whoever doesn’t let the who place get to their head (because it is, in fact, a game) and figures out the last clue first, gets the wish.
Sounds easy, but it’s not.
That Weird Love Trianglish Thing?
First Julian is making out with Donatella, then he is making moves on Scarlett who is engaged to The Count but she also kind of finds Dante as some dark and mysterious. Then there is Daniel who is actually, er, someone else but he is now strangely involved with one of the sisters as well and the other sister not engaged to him is furious about, er, something involving him and you see-
It was weird. I thought a lot of it was pushed and not really necessary and, I’m not sure, just not enjoyable for me.
Bascially what I did really love was the setting and the idea of the whole book. It was a beautiful read but the content of the story itself was something I could have done without and still enjoyed the whimsical read.
I am going to read the next book because this one kind of ended like the television show Lost. You know, how everyone was like “lol, jokes on you. None of that actually happened… or did it?”
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