"Remember, it’s only a game…Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.
But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.
Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.
Welcome, welcome to Caraval…beware of getting swept too far away."
It is my curse to eternally pick up every book that is compared to The Night Circus, and that is what happened here.
Caraval is a fantasy without world-building or significant character development. It relies on its dreamy descriptions, purple prose, and a heavy helping of romance to make it dazzle.
It is about two sisters, Scarlett and Tella, who live on some random island in the middle of random world X with their abusive father who wants to marry Scarlett off to a count she's never met. Caraval is, as it sounds, a carnival-like game on another random island. People go there to play and if they win, they get a wish. The mysterious Caraval master is a man called Legend, who Scarlett has been writing to for years, but he has now finally replied - and sent three tickets for Scarlett, Tella and Scarlett's fiancé. Upon arrival at the island, Tella goes missing and it soon becomes apparent that finding her is all a part of the game. Scarlett must solve the clues and find her sister before Caraval is over.
Firstly, this book does not have a good setting.It lacks the strong descriptions that a setting needs. It doesn’t feel magical and above all, it’s not grounded.
Also this is a writing style that never appeals to me. For one thing, Scarlett, in order to remind us of her special snowflake status, sees emotion in colour. It is straight up annoying. So many metaphors and similes that I know are supposed to be evocative and exciting, but they're nonsensical. Phrases like this:
“It smelled like the middle of the night”
“He tasted like midnight and wind”
“Tella’s expression fell, like a doll Scarlett had dropped.”
I understand that some readers like this kind of mysterious, weird writing, but it just pulls me right out of the story. I'm sat there thinking "how the hell does something taste like midnight?" What does it even mean that Tella's expression fell like a doll that Scarlett dropped? Does it mean that Tella is like a doll being dropped (i.e. unhappy doll?) or is the author equating the downwards turn of her expression with the downwards fall of a doll?
Here, have some more:
“Something about him made her feel perilous shades of silky black.”
“The world tasted like lies and ashes when Scarlett woke.”
“Something acidic and moldy and burnt bubbled up through Scarlett’s throat - the taste of death.”
Let’s forget for a second that death now has a “taste” - is the author just listing random words that sound cool? Think about it. How can something taste acidic and moldy and burnt? I just don't believe that good writing is collecting as many exciting, descriptive words as possible and shoving them all together, regardless of whether they make any sense.
However that's just my taste in writing style. I personally thought the story was lacking too, unless you are seeking more romance and descriptions of male muscles than actual fantasy and mystery. From the very beginning, Scarlett goes on and on about the gorgeous men around her, Julian and Dante, often forgetting that her sister is missing because she is so caught up in her own romantic ambitions. Of course, when Julian is seen talking with another girl, said girl is described as "some tart in a bar"; in comparison to Scarlett who blushes every time Julian looks at her.
I found so much of this book unsatisfying, it did remain interesting enough for me to read to the end, but there's not much more than a flowery romance contained within these pages. The mysteries and reveals are not particularly exciting, and there's a poorly-executed end moment where a character reveals everything through a long speech, like a magician dropping character at the end and telling the audience how they did it.
Age Rating 13+. Silly Romance but suggestive.
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