book review on Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all having a wonderful day, I had finished reading a new novel yesterday and was very excited to share my thoughts on it. the novel is titled Caraval and it was written by Stephanie Garber.

But first, let me express how wonderful and imaginative I found this book to be. Never before have I  read such an intriguing and unique way of writing prose. there was an abundant use of adjectives ( and it might feel overwhelming for some ), which made the story feel very immersive and magical.

I felt as if I were transported to another world, it was like watching the Harry Potter movies for the first time as a wide eyed child. even through the grim starting of the book, we see just how intimately the protagonist, Scarlett Dragna observes and perceives the world. She is able to see emotions in different colors ( personally, I found this to be quite creative )

 It was a sharp contrast with the thoughts she had. She believed that she no longer imagined herself to be the naive and unsuspecting caraval-obsessed child and only focused on surviving their cruel father by marrying into another family. She regarded her sister Donatella Dragna more precious than her own life and had the conviction that it was her duty to protect her; not even trusting Donatella herself to do it.

through these instances we uncover the overly protective and insecure nature of scarlett. her actions reflect finesse and a well bred attitude but at the same time she is too caught up in fear and overthinking to actually take risks for the things she swore to fight for in the first place. but this can be explained by the fact that growing up, she had not received any kind of parental love which forced her to mature beyond her years and protect her younger sister, naturally it would also result in a subconscious tendency to overanalyze the possible consequences and always choose the 'safer' and 'the most stable' option.

even so, the extraordinary tales of caraval and its master 'legend' narrated by her nana never fully escaped scarlett. The few glimpses of her desire to experience caraval while being acutely aware that she had to leave and shouldn't even be enjoying it leaves her with a great internal conflict which ensues throughout most of the tale.

Donatella, called Tella in the story is another story altogether, she has a happy-to-go, an overly optimistic, if not a bit reckless nature towards most things in life. Growing up under her sister's protection, she did not let fear control her the way it did Scarlett and harbored an adventurous attitude despite the fact that the sisters had never ventured outside their island isle Trisda.

during their time in the caraval, Tella's disappearance is the sole logical reason why scarlett stays in the game, she hopes to find her sister but the path was not easy.

there were many twists and revelations in the story, some big some small, but personally, I found the book to be the most enjoyable in the latter part of the book, the pacing was perfect and the settings were magnificent.

the whimsical and creative worldbuilding especially the Isla de los Sueños left me speechless and flew all my expectations out of the water. I was especially a fan of the Castillo Maldito episode and the structures I fancied the most were the carousel of roses ( it held a significant part in the story ) and the Casbian's clock shop we were introduced to fairly early in the book.

as for the male love interest, Julian, he too was well written, but I feel like the author pushed him a bit too much to appeal to the female audience. The constant reminder of his amber eyes and dark hair was not really welcome in my opinion. they had good chemistry, he was a good man but his character was inconsistent. at first, he was supposed to be the wolfish, carefree , scoundrel who was annoyingly good looking, then he suddenly became chivalrous and then a full on a romantic play male lead who was willing to get tortured and killed for his love. it just didn't sit quite right with me, maybe the transition could have been smoother, idk.

but I have to admit, it was a really good story, which is left on a bit of a cliffhanger btw ( i think maybe it will connect to the next book? ), i just cant wait to read the next book.( also a small spoiler : we still don't know the real identity of legend, only that he's Julian's brother )

anyway, All in all, i enjoyed the novel very much, many people seem to disagree with me ( I read the reviews on goodreads ) but I really think this novel is worth reading.

thank you for reading this book review

Danika

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