Caraval Rant review

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

2016

Young Adult Fantasy

Spoiler Alert!

Where do I begin with this one?

The premise itself is interesting. Main character Scarlett must journey through the mysterious, fantastical carnival setting of Caraval to save her sister from the even more mysterious Legend. 

Unfortunately, Caraval was not only predictable, but boring. 

The characters failed to draw me into their stories. Scarlett, other than being the main character, is completely unmemorable. If Caraval was told in the first-person, I suppose she might be purposefully bland so readers can insert themselves into the story. Except, this was third person narration, and Garber had many opportunities to show all the things readers are told about Scarlett. Scarlett’s decisions were frustrating to read because her characterization was so weak. I couldn’t understand why she made the decisions she did. 

Tella, Scarlett’s sister, is only present in the first and last couple chapters, yet the ghost of her haunts the story. By that, I mean Scarlett tells someone at least once a chapter that she’s playing in Caraval to save her sister, not because she wants to. Tella’s character showed a lot of potential, but by the end, she confused me the most. For example, the finale reveals that Tella wrote a letter to Legend because she knew how much her sister wanted to attend Caraval. The revelation came out of nowhere, and I wish I knew more about her to understand why she did this.

 

Julien is Scarlett’s love interest. His actions made me audibly groan multiple times. There was a sort of love triangle, but I don’t think I actually rooted for anybody. They just felt so forced and there was no chemistry. One of my main reasons for rating this novel so low is the full page and a half about how much Scarlett loves Julien licking blood from her finger.

Caraval is fantasy, but there were a number of plot and worldbuilding inconsistencies. The writing itself is mediocre at best. Some scenes were difficult to understand exactly what was going on, and a lot of telling is done without ever showing. We’re told multiple times that Caraval moves, and is the mastermind plan of Legend, but I don’t understand how it moves? I imagine there’s hundreds of actors, but you’re telling me Legend can plan for every single possibility within the carnival? While Legend is magical, what about the carnival workers? Do they possess some of his magic? While these questions might be answered in the next book in the series, I have no intention of continuing on.

Out of all of this, the worst explanation is how people die... and then can be brought back to life??? How powerful is Legend that he can kill people and bring them back on a whim. The implication is there are no limits to the magic in this world, which makes for a lackluster system to read about. Not everything is possible within life, which is normally reflected in magic systems as well to make them feel realistic. 

Rating 2/5: Overall, this book was a disappointment for me. I really can't recommend Caraval to anyone after the horrible reading experience I had.