Caraval

I waited MONTHS for Caraval to come out, and I was not disappointed! I loved it! Caraval is a game where the audience plays too. Ever since she was young, Scarlett wanted to see Caraval in person with her sister Tella. When the opportunity presents itself to flee from their abusive father, Scarlett and Tella make their way to the island that hosts Caraval, but end up separated. Scarlett’s main goal is to find her sister and get back home in time for her arranged marriage, which she hops will give her a better life away from her father. Caraval rides the line between magic and reality and Scarlett is told again and again that Caraval is just a game, and warned not to get too swept away. That seems feasible…until Tells is kidnapped as part of the game. In order to win, she must find Tella with the help of handsome Julian, the sailor who brought her to the island in the first place. Who can she trust? What’s real and what’s not? Scarlett will soon find out… “Glittering mist swirled around vibrant green mountains – all covered in trees – that rose toward the sky as if they were massive emeralds.” Caraval was such a magical read. It was compared a lot to The Night Circus, which is one of my favorite books, so obviously I knew I needed to read it! I loved Caraval so much that it also made it’s way into my favorite list! It was really beautifully written, and I loved the characters. Scarlett can be naive, but has good intentions and a heart of gold. All she wants to do is protect her sister and create a better life for the two of them. I really loved Julian, and I loved him and Scarlett starting to develop feelings for each other. It was a slow simmering romance, as Scarlett is engaged to someone else (although she’s never met him) and she doesn’t necessarily trust Julian. The way they bantered and worked together was adorable! I just loved it! I still can’t believe that Caraval is more than 400 pages, because I flew though it! The pacing was perfect. Nothing felt slow, and everything I read compelled me to keep reading! If I hadn’t had to work in the morning, I would have finished it in one sitting. It was that good! Finishing the book felt like stepping out of a really pleasant dream, and I was torn between wanting to hug the book (I was emotional, OKAY?!) and start it over again and re-read the entire thing. I really felt swept away by the story and I loved that. I felt like I was at Caraval, and I pictured everything so clearly. Ms. Garber certainly has a way with words! I loved her fantastical imagery, and I really liked that Scarlett associated emotions with colors. I’ve heard that the book has already had rights picked up to be made into a movie, which is amazing. I think Caraval will be so beautiful on the big screen, and I can’t wait to see how that plays out! Overall, I really just can’t rave about the book enough! There was nothing I didn’t like. Every sentence, every twist and turn, every piece of magic was perfect to me, and I really can’t recommend Caraval enough. If you’re a fan of The Night Circus like I am, definitely pick this one up! If you’re looking for an escape from reality – a story you can get completely lost in, this is the book for you! I cannot wait for book two!

Overall rating: 3.5/5 Spice: 0/5 Narrator: 4/5 Cliffhanger: 1/5 First off, I want to make it clear I’m an adult woman with teenagers of her own reviewing this book when the intended audience is clearly teenage girls. Once I wrapped my head around that, I enjoyed this series much more. But intended audience or not, good writing is good writing and I do think Stephanie Garder is a talented writer. Almost 17 year-old Scarlett, has spent seven years writing to Legend, the grandmaster of the magical Caraval, asking him to bring his game/performance to her home island. It isn’t until she tells him she is engaged (to a man she’s never met) that Legend sends her, her younger sister, Tella, and her fiancé tickets to Caraval. When she realizes the date is four days before her wedding (which is her and her sister’s only way to escape their abusive father) she decides she can’t go. Wild Tella then teams up with a handsome young sailor to get Scarlett to Caraval. Imagine a magical escape room that lasts five days and takes place in Venice during Carnival circa 1900 and you’ll have an idea of what Caraval is. The imagery is absolutely beautiful in this book. You absolutely feel pulled into these amazing settings. One of the best parts is a sentient dress that changes shapes based on Scarlett’s emotions and its own whims. Scarlett is a great character, completely lovable with great character development and a good role-model for the girls this book is intended for. The romance progresses quickly, but feels very true to a 16 year-old getting carried away. And the subsequent books do address the fact that they don’t know each other very well and work through their issues. My biggest issue with this book was the plot. It’s all about a mystery, which isn’t my favorite, but I was enjoying it until the last 20% or so when things started to be revealed. I thought it was going one way and it went a very different way and that way was far less interesting than the way I thought it was going to go. I was left feeling disappointed. I felt like all the really interesting clues we were given fizzled out or turned out to be red-herrings. Beyond the game and Legend having magic, there isn’t any world building or explanation of the magic system. This does change in the next two books and I enjoyed them far more. Cautions: If you are an adult reading this for yourself, just remember who this is for. For me, I would have preferred these characters be 18 and 19 instead of 15 and 16, but 18 and 19 is wildly old for a 13-year-old and this was written for them and not me. I had to remind myself of the unsupervised adventures and Percy Jackson and Harry Potter and that helped. If you are buying this for your child (or someone else’s), you should be aware that the girls do drink wine in this and there is talk of Tella (the 15 year-old) kissing many boys. Honestly, when I first listened to it, I thought she was sexually active, but that was just my jaded brain. It’s made clear in this and the subsequent books that all she does is kiss. This is definitely appropriate for high school girls, but if you are going to give it to a middle school girl, know your kid, you may need to have a conversation about some of the things Tella does (she is the main character in the next two books). I would absolutely recommend this book for girls 13-16 and down to 11-12 if they are mature. For the rest of us looking for Romantasy, I would still recommend it, but only because you need to read this before her other books and they get better with each book.

Caraval is hands down my favorite book of the year. The story is immersive, magical, and centered around a mysterious, high-stakes game where nothing is quite as it seems and reality and illusion blur together. I’ve loved it so much that I’ve gifted it to several people already. The entire series is fantastic, and the follow-up series is just as enjoyable. If you love imaginative, twisty stories with a bit of romance and mystery, this one is absolutely worth reading.

Wooow thos was so good!! I cant wait to read Legendary now!

Good quality and a must read book Caraval is an absolute masterpiece! Stephanie Garber's writing is beautifully immersive, pulling you into a world of magic, mystery, and high-stakes adventure. The story follows Scarlett Dragna, who has always dreamed of seeing Caraval—a legendary performance where the audience plays a role in the spectacle. But when she finally gets her chance, things take a dark and thrilling turn as her sister, Tella, is kidnapped, and Scarlett must navigate a dangerous game where nothing is as it seems. The world-building is breathtaking, full of lush descriptions that make you feel like you're walking through the streets of Caraval yourself. The plot is fast-paced and filled with twists that kept me turning the pages late into the night. I also loved the romance—subtle yet swoon-worthy! If you love books like The Night Circus or The Selection, you’ll absolutely adore Caraval. Highly recommend for fans of fantasy, mystery, and adventure! — A very happy reader

I really enjoyed this one! The world building in this book fully immersed me - it was enough to get a real feel for the magic of Caraval without being too descriptive that it became annoying which I often struggle with in fantasy based books. With this story I found it easy to visualise the setting, people and experience and became fully invested. Character wise I loved the storylines within the different relationships. The main characters were well written and intriguing. I enjoyed the sister aspect and the relationship involving how far you would go to protect those you love as a sister. I also enjoyed the relationship building between Scarlett and Julian - I was never quite sure if he was trustworthy and that added a great additional layer to the story. The performers although not main characters had me intrigued and wanting to know more about them! However I do wish the relationship between Scarlett and had father had maybe been explored more. The game aspect as a whole was extremely clever, being reminded that ‘it’s only a game’ still didn’t stop me getting drawn in and I was often questioning which parts are in fact the game and what might just be real. Can’t wait to read the next one!

“Welcome, welcome to Caraval! The grandest show on land or by sea. Inside you’ll experience more wonders than most people see in a lifetime. You can sip magic from a cup and buy dreams in a bottle. But before you fully enter into our world, you must remember it’s all a game.” This is the second time reading Caraval for me. It all started one year ago: I was watching a BookTuber talking about her favorite reads and she grabbed my attention when she mentioned The Night Circus. She talked so highly of that book I knew I needed to try it for myself. I immediately checked on Amazon - keep in mind that, at the time, I was still reading mainly in Italian, so I was pretty disappointed to find out that, for some reason I don't remember, I couldn't order the Italian edition of that book on Amazon. Pretty bummed I returned to the video I was originally watching. The girl proceeded to talk about Caraval, another book she really enjoyed and that she considered perfect for fans of The Night Circus. I hadn't read the latter yet, but I already considered myself a fan, so I returned on Amazon full of hope and I managed to order the Italian edition of Caraval. What happened next is history (for me lol): the book stole my heart in a blink, making me fall in love with every little detail, every description, every character, every plot twist... I was obsessed. As soon as I finished it, I discovered the sequel had already been published and I ordered it without even thinking about it. And that's when I made the mistake that led me to where I am right now: too excited about Legendary, I didn't notice that I was ordering a book in English. Yes, the sequel wasn't out in Italy yet, but Amazon had the original edition and that's what I bought. Legendary was my first English book! Looking back I'm so glad I made that mistake because it made me realize my English level was more than enough to allow me to read books that hadn't been published in Italy (as long as they were written in English of course). It's been almost a year since I finished Legendary and when Finale was announced I screamed! I couldn't wait to discover how everything was going to end. I still had to wait many months though, so I decided to sell my Italian edition of Caraval, order the English one and do a re-read of the series, in order to remember every little detail when I eventually started Finale. Even though this was my second time reading Caraval, it felt like the first. It didn't matter that I already knew how it was going to unravel, I enjoyed it so much - discovering how many things I forgot since last year. From the first pages, I felt the urge to keep reading because I needed to know what happened in the next chapter! In the book someone says that "Caraval is the closest you'll ever find yourself to magic in this world" and I honestly think he was talking about the book itself, not the game. This book is pure magic. Like Queen Garber would say, it's made of dreams come true. I won't go much into details because I'm honestly not able to analyze this book as I would normally do. It's too intense, too unique, too unexpected. Stephanie's writing style is one of the most beautiful I've ever come across. It made me dream on a whole new level! She uses lots of romantic metaphors and thanks to them you find yourself experiencing the story with all your senses, almost like you were the main character. “He tasted like midnight and wind, and shades of rich brown and light blue. Colors that made her feel safe and guarded.” Quotes like this one make you feel everything. Every single character is perfectly built and three-dimensional in a very unusual way. They're all actors and they're even more complex and faceted, at the point where you're constantly asking yourself if they're telling the truth or if they're just acting. Just like Scarlett - the MC - you're always wondering what's real and what's part of the game. Talking about Scarlett, I've heard many people saying how they didn't like her and how much Tella was better than her sister. Even though I more with Donatella as well, I must say that this re-read made me appreciate Scarlett a lot more: she's not boring as many people say, she's clever, she evaluates her options carefully, she thinks twice before taking any decision because she's analytical and precise. Maybe this makes us more similar than I realized when I first read the book. She doesn't want to waste her time, she's driven by her infinite love for Donatella and she only cares for her. She spends the entirety of the game thinking about Tella, looking for her and hoping she's okay. Her dedication is touching and admirable. The romance is a very strong part of the book, yet it never feels too much. It's a slow burn, always present but always on the side, never exaggerate to the point where it feels like the main point of the story. Knowing that you can't really tell reality from act makes it even more unique and interesting, to the point where you find yourself analyzing every little detail of it to understand what's really going on. The final plot twist didn't take me by surprise because I remembered it, but I also remember that it left me shook the first time I've read it, so I can say it's quite a good one. I know, this review is probably useless, it feels like I haven't written anything. I just think that Caraval is one of those books that need to be experienced without knowing too much about the plot, you need to dive in completely blind. Do it and I swear you're in for a marvelous, magical adventure!

El libro llego rápido y en buen estado, la historia es bastante interesante, la autora de verdad creó un lugar mágico y enigmático en la Isla