ARC Review: Caraval

Posted January 12, 2017 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

I received this book for free (hey, thanks!) in exchange for an honest review. I promise that this does NOT affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. For real.

ARC Review: CaravalCaraval by Stephanie Garber
Series: Caraval #1
on January 31st 2017
Also by this author: Legendary , Finale , Once Upon a Broken Heart , The Ballad of Never After , A Curse for True Love, Spectacular
(416 pages) • GoodreadsAmazon Barnes & Noble
five-stars

Before you enter the world of Caraval, you must remember that it’s all a game . . .

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their ruthless father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the legendary, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

Then, Scarlett’s long-dreamt of invitation to Caraval finally arrives. So, Tella enlists a mysterious sailor’s help to whisk Scarlett away to this year’s show. But as soon as the trio arrives, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nonetheless soon becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with her sister, with Legend, and 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.

my thoughts pinkThis book was insanely cool. Completely lived up to the hype for me. I went in expecting an atmospheric, magical story, and that’s exactly what I got! I absolutely loved it. There were a few things that bugged me a little that prevent it from getting a full five stars, but I would still count this among my favorites.

The plot, in a few words: Scarlett, our main character, had been writing to the creator of Caraval, an insane traveling circus (to put it mildly), for years, in order to try to get him to come perform. Her grandma had gone years ago and told her and her sister, Donatella, all about it. The girls finally receive invitations, plus one for her fiance, and decide to sneak away from her father before her wedding. A sailor named Julian comes along with them for the final ticket because Scarlett hasn’t actually met her fiance. Her sister essentially gets kidnapped when they arrive and the mission of this year’s game is to find her.

Loved It

Magical Setting and Atmosphere

The setting was easily the best part of this story. I loved learning about Caraval and trying to understand how it all worked. They warn you that it often feels real – and it partly is – but it’s mostly a game. It was amazing to follow Scarlett along as she tried to figure out what in the fresh hell was going on up in there. The atmosphere and magic of the story was just unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Truly.

Romance!

I shipped it right from the start. It definitely had some hate-to-love vibes going on, which is my JAM. I was really hoping they’d end up together, even though there were definitely some twists and turns throughout the relationship. I don’t like spoiling romance so I won’t say who it is (although perhaps it’s obvious) or what happens.

Sibling Relationship

The whole story involves Scarlett going through the days of Caraval to find her sister and win the game. The winner of the game gets one wish granted, but obviously that’s not what she’s looking for. It’s interesting to watch because so many people are also looking for her sister, but with different motivations. The sibling bond feels, to me, like the point of the book, more so than the romance. It had a lot of family feels in general, although lots of them were kind of the negative side. Their father was an asshole basically so fuck him. These girls were the shit and loved each other so much.

Twists and Turns Galore

Every time I kind of felt like I had something figured out, everything changed. I couldn’t believe it. I obviously won’t get into what those twists were, but just know they were major and awesome. The end of the book was incredibly satisfying in a lot of ways, but also kind of cruel cliffhanger! I absolutely NEED the next installment and can’t believe I’ll have to likely wait until 2018. Like, how?????

Not as great

Characters (Sometimes!)

As much as I loved the relationship between the sisters, Scarlett was frequently very frustrating. She was stubborn and insistent on finding her sister, which was obviously a good thing, but it was kind of irritating. No matter what anyone said, she always second-guessed herself and their relationship. She was so motivated by this that she didn’t really have the ability to think outside of the box to solve the game.

feels from friends pinkrating breakdown pink

Plot & Premise
five-stars
Characters
four-stars
Writing Style
five-stars
Pacing & Flow
five-stars
Feels or Swoons
four-half-stars
Addiction Level
five-stars
Overall: 4.8

sum up icons

7 responses to “ARC Review: Caraval

  1. I’m SO excited for this one! It seems like I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about it. I love atmospheric settings and books that throw you for a loop, so this sounds right up my alley. Awesome review, Lauren!

  2. I felt very similarly about this one. I loved the atmosphere and the twists, but didn’t care for the characters all that much. I think it was a little overhyped for me so I went in with high expectations. I’m still looking forward to reading the sequel though!

    • Yeah, that’s the hard part! I read it when the early excitement was happening but no one had actually READ it yet. I was able to make my opinions without actually seeing other people’s real opinions I guess? haha. I can totally see how quickly this got overhpyed.

  3. I 100% agree about Scarlett! She definitely frustrated me at a lot of turns, and even though I could understand, I totally found that she got on my nerves a few times. Still, CARAVAL was incredible and I’m so glad you loved it as much as I did!

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.