“Remember, It’s Only a Game…”

Caraval

        by Stephanie Garber

Book Description:

“Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved 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 far-away, 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. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.”

-From GoodReads.com

My Review:

For some reason I feel like I was brainwashed to read this book…

Okay, so Caraval is the story of two sisters, kind of like Frozen, now that I think about it. lol (not really)

I really, really wanted to read it and I had no idea why. The story felt interesting at first but then I read a review of the book that made me feel like someone had woken me up abruptly from  a weird dream. Anyways the book was easy to read (like I say in a lot of my reviews because apparently I always pick them like that lol) and the story was interesting enough that I couldn’t stop reading. Even though it had really bad lines like this one;

“… the color of late-night laughter, early-morning sunshine, and waves crashing around ankles.”

What the hell is that?..

The book has a lot of descriptions like this one, that made no-sense. But apart from that the story was really interesting and every time a chapter ended I wanted to know more.

The characters are alright although a little annoying at times, specially when the main character’s daddy issues surface (eye roll) (this makes me sound sooo mean, but if you read it you’ll get me). I want to say sooooooo much more but I don’t want to give spoilers.

Anyways when I was finishing the book, which in my opinion has a satisfyingly enough ending to be a stand a lone is part of a series. Apparently. That’s a commitment I didn’t want to make.

Not sure if I’ll read the next one, but this one was good. So if you can put aside the things that I mention above, go ahead and check it out, and then contact me so we can talk about it.

I’m pretty sure I’ll end up writing another post about Caraval…