Caraval

A legendary competition.
A mesmerizing romance.
An unbreakable bond
between two sisters.

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.

First let me just address that yes, I did start another series despite having a goal of making my way through my existing series…but hear me out…whoops, I started another one.

I am a huge fan of Stephanie Garber! I am in love with the Once Upon a Broken Heart series and during my wait for the third book in that series, I decided to pick up the original Caraval series. I buddy read this book and we all enjoyed it so much that we’re buddy reading the whole trilogy, what a sign of a great series!

I absolutely love the world of Caraval. The majority of the book took place inside a game called Caraval. This was a magical and fantastical world where nothing felt real. I loved this and my love of this author’s world building was part of the reasons that made me want to read this series.

I enjoyed the characters so much in this book. Scarlett’s strength and her protective nature towards her sister was so beautiful. She was very much the big sister. Her number one goal was to protect her sister Tella. Tella was a little wilder, unpredictable and impulsive. Their dynamic felt relatable as siblings.

There were two sort of love interests- Julian and Dante. They sounded dishy and dreamy and I loved seeing Scarlett loosen up and start to think about what she wanted for herself. What she wanted for her future.

In this world, it was made very clear that you couldn’t trust everyone. So I trusted nobody! I felt so tense just waiting for something to go wrong and for somebody to get hurt. I enjoyed knowing that things were not what they seemed.

I did find part of this book to be a bit difficult to read. There was a scene that involved a sacrifice which was similar to The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode The Gift. When I first watched that episode, my sister turned to me and told me that she would do that for me. If ever I were a key to unlock a hellmouth, good to know! This year marks the ten year anniversary of my sister’s death so this part of the book affected me quite greatly. I still loved book though, I just also think my sister would have loved it too.

I laughed, I swooned, I cried. I loved this book and I’m so excited to read the next two books in this series and see where it takes me! I want good things for Scarlett and Tella!