CARAVAL book review!

"Scarlett let herself imagine what it would be like to go to Legend's private isle, to play the game and win the wish. Freedom. Choices. Wonder. Magic.

A beautiful, ridiculous fantasy." 

 

How beautiful is this cover???

As promised on Instagram, here is my review for Caraval by Stephanie Garber! Like normal, I will do my best to give a spoiler-free review covering plot, character, and overall writing style. Each of these sections will be rated out of five stars.

I'm gonna be completely honest, y'all--

I'm pretty disappointed with this one.

So, please, follow along as I try to make sense of this book!

Here's the description from Goodreads:

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.

 

Sounds great, right?

Well...

Let's jump into plot.

Plot - ⭐⭐⭐

I had a hard time of getting into this book. Something about it didn't engage me. But what can I say? This plot was really creative once I got into it. Very clever, unlike anything I had ever read before. I liked how Garber blurred the lines between what was true and what was false--what was reality, and what was simply a part of the game. 

I found myself intrigued by the world of Caraval. I liked the idea that the currency was different on the island of Caraval--that, rather than paying for goods with money, you paid with some sort of abstract thing. The magic was interesting and dangerous. It was not really like any sort of magic system I had read before!

It was also fun to observe the main character, Scarlett, try to find her sister on this strange island with these kinda obscure clues. I liked the challenge that Legend, the game master, presented.

However, by the last hundred pages, my head was spinning from every turn Garber made. She would throw something in that made no sense, or a twist (like that ending?) that felt like it existed solely to confuse the reader. The end of the book felt kind of like a cop-out--like what we experienced in the book had no actual bearing anymore. (Gosh, I felt really bad for Scarlett--and myself--within the last hundred pages. Garber really put us through the wringer.) And every time I thought the book was over, it turned out it wasn't.

I left the book with a need to vent about it, though I don't think it was because I incredibly enjoyed the story--it was because I was so confused by every single event that I just witnessed, I had to explain it to my poor, sweet, blissfully unaware family.

It was absolutely necessary that I create this meme to show you exactly what it was like. ;D

The plot and the conclusion were maybe not as well-done as I had hoped. I think I got whiplash from every twist that was put in this book--so many twists, I actually forgot what was true and what wasn't. The ending didn't just feel like a cop-out, but it also confused me so much. Although I enjoyed many of the twists that Garber threw in, I was left not really knowing what actually happened. I think Garber blurred the lines between reality and fiction so much that even the reader--possibly even she-- didn't know what was real and what wasn't, which isn't a good thing.

But, overall, I was intrigued throughout the story, so it earned about 3/5 stars.

Characters - ⭐⭐⭐

The characters in this story were not bad, but not great. You know how earlier I said I had a hard time getting into the story? I think it was because of the characters.

I liked Scarlett pretty well. She had clear motives for everything she did. She was more reserved and cautious than Tella and desired to be safe. Once Tella is taken, she wants to find her sister because she loves her. After a certain gasp-inducing incident in the book, Scarlett wants to win Legend's wish.

However, Scarlett fell kind of flat. While I liked her overall, she was sort of weak. I think Scarlett maybe could've had a moment in there somewhere where it was just about her, not about Julian or Tella. She needed a really strong moment to sort of solidify her character, as well as the readers' investment in her.

I'm going to go on to Julian next, because Tella was hardly in this story, tbh.

Julian (the sailor from the description) was pretty good, and man, did Garber put me through emotional turmoil with him. I just--didn't expect any--literally any--of what Garber sent my way with Julian, and while at times I liked a twist in his character and motives, I ended up feeling let down when the story ended, just because after everything...I don't know, I guess I had expected more from his character. He started out as a skirt-chasing sailor, but he stuck with Scarlett even though he didn't have to. I think one of the biggest let-downs of his character is the fact that he did not really get any depth or "heart-of-gold" revelation, as it were, as authors often do with the sarcastic-and-unfriendly-exterior types. I was invested in him, hoping we would get to know him, but was let down with some disappointing, nonsensical revelations.

And Tella. We saw her the least, but she was alright. Again, she has solid motives and desires. She is Scarlett's younger, less cautious, more wild sister who doesn't care about being safe--she just wants to be free. Everything in her character actually felt pretty consistent. (So consistent that it shouldn't have been surprising to me what we find out in the end about Tella and the whole game.)

There's one more thing I need to talk about in this section.

And that is the main romance. 

I will not tell you who is involved, nor will I tell you the main details.

But if you have read this book, you will know who I am talking about.

The romance between the two, whom we will dub A and B, was terrible. It had really good bones--A and B could've been compatible--but it was really unfortunate that Garber didn't really focus on anything really emotional.

There was literally no emotional depth between these characters (at least not that I could see). It was too physical. 

And what exactly was that scene where A gives B a day of their life? That moment, and every time we revisited it afterwards, were, to me, just icky and creepy. The over-physicality between these two characters was a great disappointment. While I could expect some physical attraction between A and B, I was hoping for more of an emotional spark between them, rather than that kinda nasty (at least to me) scene.

Overall, this romance between A and B could've been solved with maybe a little more depth and emotion to it, rather than a focus on the physical. And scrap that weird scene that sorta felt like any... intimate scene between Edward and Bella from any of the Twilight movies.

Individually, the characters weren't all that bad. They just needed a little tweaking. This section really just lost points for the strange and forced romance between A and B. They really deserved a better romance than what they got.

So, characters? Three out of five stars.

Writing Skill and Style - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Alright, Garber, not bad, not bad at all. This book was written in third-person limited, from Scarlett's perspective. 

Garber's writing style was good. I liked the point-of-view in the story. It wasn't too complicated that it was unreadable. Overall, Garber's writing was satisfactory.

What knocked off that last star, you ask? Man, you're going to wish you hadn't. Well, Garber has this habit of sometimes (many times) describing things in unhelpful ways. She tended to stick to a sort of formula for many of her descriptions:

"The color/shade/sound/taste of"+ [tangible thing] + [abstract thing].

If I had a nickel for every time something was described this way (or like this), I would be a very, very rich woman. I'm not even exaggerating how many times she used this type of description, or oversimplifying her description. Here are some actual examples from the book:

"... the shade of dark bruises and power." - pg. 20

"...taste like sweetened milk and sugared dreams..." - pg. 300

"It smelled of laughter and boasts, laced with sweetened ale."- pg. 164

"A sour sound of nightmares and other foul things." - pg. 247

These are only a handful out of many from the book. While these aren't bad a few times, when you come across one of these fanciful, flowery, and thoroughly unhelpful descriptions (what does a sugared dream taste like? what does a boast smell like?) every few pages, you're bound to be like me, who wanted to throw the book against the wall the fourth time I saw a "the color of..." phrase. (There are also some instances of description that doesn't follow this exact model, but have the same cringe effect.) There are so, so many instances of this or something like this throughout the book, which gets really old, really fast.

She also tended to describe emotions and events in terms of color. She did this so much I began to wonder if I had missed that Scarlett was a synesthete. (Spoiler alert: she's not, it's just Garber's description.)

While there was nothing inherently wrong with Garber's writing, she overdid the flowery, abstract descriptions to the point of my frustration. (There's noting wrong with a nice flowery description every now and then, but there is also nothing wrong with some nice tangible descriptions! A balance would be nice.)

Although I did not like those descriptions, sometimes Garber would hit me with a line like this:

"Tella loved danger the same way candlewicks loved to burn. It never seemed to scare her that some of the things she lusted for might consume her like a flame."

Wow. More of that, please.

Garber's overall style earns her four stars out of five--the redeeming factor being the overall good writing, with those bits of exceptional prose.

Overall - ⭐⭐⭐

Caraval earned 3.33 stars. A great disappointment, to be frank. I was really sad that I didn't enjoy this one more. 

In my opinion, what could've earned Caraval a higher score?

Well, lots of things. A more cohesive plot, rather than the endless twists. More endearing and solid characters. Nix the awkward icky scene. Less of those irritatingly pretentious descriptions.

Bottom line?

I wish I hadn't wasted my time on this one. I was really, really convinced this one was going to be good. The description (as well as the beautiful cover design) reeled me in only to let me down :(((

But maybe you are more open-minded than me. Maybe you will just LOVE Caraval. If you like a twisty, magical ride, then you might like it, after all!

What do you guys think? If you have read this book, did I hit the nail on the head? Or did you really like this book?

If you haven't read this book, did I make you want to read it to see if it was just like I described, or did I convince you to not read it? If you did like this book, feel free to correct me on anything you like :D Let me know what you think about this book or this post, or drop questions about anything I didn't cover here either here or on Instagram @/witandlitblog. 

Until next time!