Caraval
Summary:
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. (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)
Review:
Ugh – I heard nothing but rave reviews about this one, but it just did. not. hit it for me. There first issue was a series of events that happened with no explanation or discernable purpose, which ultimately end up with a ‘grand reveal’ at the end. The problem is that the grand reveal does not justify the randomness of certain things or even convince me that this was indeed a grand symphony with a conductor right around the corner. The next major issue was that the characters kept saying they felt one way (example: love for [fill in the blank]) yet their behavior did not match the so-called motivations. Instead, I felt like we got a series of infodumps, and we were lurching from infodump to infodump.
As I continue to reflect, I must call out the world-building as well. This had the potential to be a dreamy, beautiful world with endless possibilities yet instead it was very confusing. I never felt I had a firm grasp of what was going on (yes, likely partially “intentional” I know) and it turned out that it had changed because it’s not real. This meant that the world / magic system was distractingly unclear and did not seem to follow inconsistent rules. The only redeeming factor was a bit of pizazz that reminds of “The Night Circus” (and which I may now reread), but I had to slog through to finish.
Warning: Contains violence.
Rating: 2 stars!
Who should read it? Folks keen to know what all the hype has been about.
Want to read the whole series?
Legendary (Caraval #2)
Finale (Caraval #3)