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Caraval by Stephanie Garber Book Review

 By: Grace To

Caraval, by Stephanie Garber follows Scarlett and her sister, Tella, embark on a long-dreamt adventure as an escape from their abusive, controlling father with the help of a mysterious sailor. They go to Caraval, a show happening only once each year and anticipated by many, where the audience participates with the performance. Upon their arrival, Tella is swept away and kidnapped by Legend. The show this time happens to be centered on rescuing Tella. As Scarlett tries to save her sister, reality starts blurring with magic and the preformance and she becomes entangled in love, heartbreak, and magic. 

I found the plot and storyline captivating. It made me want to read more and figure out what happened next as she started to figure out how the show worked but got progressively more confused as to what was real and what was part of the "show". I continued to read the next book in trilogy but I never finished the last one. 

I think Scarlett as a character was boring. She was described as beautiful, adventurous, clever, but she was a bit naive and stupid. She always took a long time to understand the small riddles and clues that she had to follow in order to win and save Tella. Scarlett was also always anxious and nervous which could be seen in the narration, and it was sometimes annoying. Tella was okay, but she kind of ended up kind of fitting into just that character and falling flat. 

Overall, the book was interesting and although it was a bit confusing, it was hard to put the book down as I was reading and kept me reading until the end of the second book. 

Comments

  1. Evan W.November 13, 2020 at 12:59 PM

    Great review! Your summary revealed just enough to get an idea of what the book is about while leaving more to be discovered by reading.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anna WilliamsNovember 13, 2020 at 2:21 PM

    I think I started this book once, but never finished it. After reading this, I am definitely interested in picking it back up! I like that you critiqued the characters, I don't often see that in a review. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  3. HarshNovember 28, 2020 at 5:44 PM

    Nice review! I think that I might check this book out because of the brief summary that you gave. I'm pretty interested into how the riddles work and their contribution to the plot. Also, I think the part where you critique the characters also give us an insight on how the book is.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnnieJanuary 9, 2021 at 6:51 PM

    I have also read the first and second book and agree that the story line is really good. Having read the book, I also think you synopsis is pretty accurate. In addition, I like how you focused on some of the characters and their traits. Overall really good review!

    ReplyDelete

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