Caraval Review
When I first heard about Stephanie Garber’s debut novel, 'Caraval' I was intrigued by the mystery and this book did not fail to disappoint. ‘Caraval’ is one of the best books I have read in a while and I have been so eager to write down my thoughts on it and share them with you guys. I am going to keep as much of this review as spoiler free as I can, however, I do want to go into some of the events of the book in more detail and talk about my theories for the next one but I will put a spoiler warning before I do this.
For those of you who have not heard of the book, ‘Caraval follows Scarlett Dragna the older of two sisters who come from an abusive relationship with their father. Their mother had mysteriously vanished when they were still children and ever since then all Scarlett has ever wanted was to go to the 'Caraval', a magical carnival that is held in a different location every year. 'Caraval' is very much a game which you can either get tickets to play in or just participate. Shortly before her arranged marriage to a count, however, Scarlett receives tickets to go. Scarlett is quickly drawn into the mystery of this years game, her sister's disappearance, but as events unfold Scarlett discovers another mystery is at a foot. One of murder and love ‘Caraval’ is a gripping tale with multiple plot twists that had me on the edge of my seat
One of the things I really liked about the book was the letters and notes in it. Every so often a character would receive clue or a letter and they would be drawn illustrations. This really helped with the immersion in the book. Particularly at the start when we see Scarlett’s letters to the Caraval leader, Legend. This showed that Garber could write for a number of different ages as we see Scarlett mature over the seven year period through her writing.
Our protagonist, Scarlett, has the best character arc in the film by far. She starts the book as basically a naïve child. She believes that when she marry’s the count then everything will be. This is displayed really well through when Scarlett finds out 'Caraval’s' prize, a wish. She immediately dismisses the thought as ridiculous saying, ‘The only person capable of giving Scarlett and her sister a brand new life was her Scarlett’s fiancé, The Count’ For Scarlett, money is magic and throughout the book, we see her desires transition for those of material value to ones of love and family.
That being said I did have one complaint and that is that we are not given any physical description of Scarlett until much later on in the book. I like to know what a character looks like as soon as we see them, which Garber seemed to do with everyone else but it is only on page 61 when we get our first physical description.
The best thing about Scarlett’s character, however, is the way she sees the world. The first thing you must understand about ‘Caraval’ is that it is very descriptive. Garber uses sight, smell, sound and all of the characters other senses to describe the rich world, however, Scarlett, in particular, feels her emotions in color. This made for interesting drastically different descriptions of themes that are often repeated in YA books. The best example of this comes in the color purple. In 'Caraval', purple is the color of death. It is often associated with Governor Dragna, their father and is what Scarlett sees when she sells one day of her life in the middle of the book. Dragna is also your stereotypical villain as he is always described as smelling a certain way. Like Snow in ‘The Hunger Games’ smells of roses, Dragna smells of plums, a purple fruit.
Another one of the themes in ‘Caraval’ in appearance against reality and that thing are never as they appear. Take Julien, a character we are first introduced to when he is sleeping with Scarlett’s sister, Tella. I can’t get too much into his character without going into spoilers but you can count on him not being the Sailor he says he is as more and more truths about him come out so read the book if you wish to know more. By the end of ‘Caraval’ Julien, in particular, had me wanted to re-read it so I could pick out all of the clues that were set up about the truth of his character.
Tella also turns out to be not how she appears, however not in the way you would expect. Like Scarlett, she also has a great character arc as she manages to gain control over her own life. At the beginning, she is a possession of her father and the men around her. Garber uses the simile, ‘as if she were a parcel he couldn’t wait to unwrap.’ When describing her in bed, however, by the end we feel as though she is totally in control. At first, I didn’t really like Tella, particularly in the scene when she blames Scarlett for sleeping with Julien, however, as we find out, Governor Dragna does not hit the sister who does something wrong but the other as he knows it will hurt more. Tella is a protective character and I loved her for doing this which made her disappearance all the more suspenseful because like Scarlett, I also wanted her to be safe.
We also meet Dante who like Julien also has a lot to hide and multiple layers to his character which I can’t mention without spoiling the book. When we first meet him he is described as having a black hair and black tattoos and my mind went straight to Rhys from ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’. I was expecting him to be more of a love interest but was glad Garber removed the possibility of the love triangle cliché early on.
Other than this it is also worth mentioning Legend. We don’t learn much about his character in this book so hopefully, we will learn more in a later book. He has shrouded in the mystery of a murder a few years ago. Legend used to be a traveling performer who fell in love with a rich girl. She couldn’t marry him because of money so he uses magic to wish to be the leader of the greatest traveling performance, at the price of his true love. I’m interested to see how his character develops and whether or not he still believes that to be loved he must be the greatest at his craft. It is also implied that Scarlett’s grandmother had a relationship with him so I’m interested to see if we get more details about this relationship.
The 'Caraval' itself is a lot like an old European town mixed in with fairy tale elements. One of the things I constantly forgot throughout the book is that 'Caraval' is set during the night. Garber was always reminding us when describing the setting. Garber sets this up before they even get inside with an encounter from one of the performers. Scarlett enters a clock shop and describes a man who ‘looked a bit like a clock himself’, a lot like Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast. This is because, as we later discover, the more a performer plays a part in 'Caraval' the more they end up becoming it. It no longer becomes a role but is who they are. Garber also uses an element from another fairy tale in this scene as the man offers Scarlett a portal to her sister in return for her voice for one day. This is, of course, an allusion to ‘The Little Mermaid’ as she sold her voice for true love.
I now want to move on and talk about some things a little more in depth so if you haven’t read the book yet make sure you go and check it out and then come back and finish reading this.
SPOILER WARNING!!!
The first thing I want to talk about is the, of course, the huge reveal at the end that Julien, Dante, and Legend were in fact actors. This was such a great twist and had me wanting to re-read the entire book with this new perspective. The emotions that went through my head in those last few chapters were intense. Firstly, the confusion that Julien and Dante might be evil, then sadness when Julien died. That scene literally almost brought me to tears particularly with his last line of wanting her to succeed.
I did wonder for a while maybe if either Dante or Julien would be Legend but this turned out not the be the case as ‘Legend’ turned out to an actor named Casper. Garber kept describing his appearance fading and I couldn’t understand what that meant. When it was revealed that he wasn’t Legend and this made sense
By the end of the book, it was unclear whether Scarlett would stay with the 'Caraval' or not but either way the winners are invited back each year. So whether or not she stays or not she will see the next 'Caraval'. The whole ending itself was reminiscent of the ending of Disney’s ‘Frozen’ with the love for Scarlett’s sister overpowering both the love she had for Julien as well as death itself.
On the subject of ships, I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of Julien and Scarlett until he got her earrings back for her. Dante only had a small part in this being an actor himself
My only criticism would be that there were parts of the book that I did feel were a bit convenient, for example, the picture that is left in Tella’s room. I’m guessing someone put that there after word’s but it was weird how at the time they took everything except what didn’t belong to her. Then there was also the option of plot convenience with Scarlett buys midway through the book. As soon as she got it I thought this is going to be used in a really specific circumstance and it was. Other than this the book was perfectly thought out and executed.I also do not usually like resurrection in books but this felt well thought out and made sense in the context of the world so I was okay with it.
As far as the next book is concerned, the letter Tella receives confused me as I originally thought it was from Legend but it was signed ‘a friend’ not ‘Legend’ like we see him sign throughout the book. I’m guessing she made some kind of deal to get the attention of the 'Caraval' in the first place so maybe the next book is going to from her perspective. Either way, I am hugely looking forward to the next book in the series and can’t wait to read more.
Thanks for reading this far. If you liked this post then make sure you let me know down and share on social media. I'll see you next time.
For those of you who have not heard of the book, ‘Caraval follows Scarlett Dragna the older of two sisters who come from an abusive relationship with their father. Their mother had mysteriously vanished when they were still children and ever since then all Scarlett has ever wanted was to go to the 'Caraval', a magical carnival that is held in a different location every year. 'Caraval' is very much a game which you can either get tickets to play in or just participate. Shortly before her arranged marriage to a count, however, Scarlett receives tickets to go. Scarlett is quickly drawn into the mystery of this years game, her sister's disappearance, but as events unfold Scarlett discovers another mystery is at a foot. One of murder and love ‘Caraval’ is a gripping tale with multiple plot twists that had me on the edge of my seat
One of the things I really liked about the book was the letters and notes in it. Every so often a character would receive clue or a letter and they would be drawn illustrations. This really helped with the immersion in the book. Particularly at the start when we see Scarlett’s letters to the Caraval leader, Legend. This showed that Garber could write for a number of different ages as we see Scarlett mature over the seven year period through her writing.
Our protagonist, Scarlett, has the best character arc in the film by far. She starts the book as basically a naïve child. She believes that when she marry’s the count then everything will be. This is displayed really well through when Scarlett finds out 'Caraval’s' prize, a wish. She immediately dismisses the thought as ridiculous saying, ‘The only person capable of giving Scarlett and her sister a brand new life was her Scarlett’s fiancé, The Count’ For Scarlett, money is magic and throughout the book, we see her desires transition for those of material value to ones of love and family.
That being said I did have one complaint and that is that we are not given any physical description of Scarlett until much later on in the book. I like to know what a character looks like as soon as we see them, which Garber seemed to do with everyone else but it is only on page 61 when we get our first physical description.
The best thing about Scarlett’s character, however, is the way she sees the world. The first thing you must understand about ‘Caraval’ is that it is very descriptive. Garber uses sight, smell, sound and all of the characters other senses to describe the rich world, however, Scarlett, in particular, feels her emotions in color. This made for interesting drastically different descriptions of themes that are often repeated in YA books. The best example of this comes in the color purple. In 'Caraval', purple is the color of death. It is often associated with Governor Dragna, their father and is what Scarlett sees when she sells one day of her life in the middle of the book. Dragna is also your stereotypical villain as he is always described as smelling a certain way. Like Snow in ‘The Hunger Games’ smells of roses, Dragna smells of plums, a purple fruit.
Another one of the themes in ‘Caraval’ in appearance against reality and that thing are never as they appear. Take Julien, a character we are first introduced to when he is sleeping with Scarlett’s sister, Tella. I can’t get too much into his character without going into spoilers but you can count on him not being the Sailor he says he is as more and more truths about him come out so read the book if you wish to know more. By the end of ‘Caraval’ Julien, in particular, had me wanted to re-read it so I could pick out all of the clues that were set up about the truth of his character.
Tella also turns out to be not how she appears, however not in the way you would expect. Like Scarlett, she also has a great character arc as she manages to gain control over her own life. At the beginning, she is a possession of her father and the men around her. Garber uses the simile, ‘as if she were a parcel he couldn’t wait to unwrap.’ When describing her in bed, however, by the end we feel as though she is totally in control. At first, I didn’t really like Tella, particularly in the scene when she blames Scarlett for sleeping with Julien, however, as we find out, Governor Dragna does not hit the sister who does something wrong but the other as he knows it will hurt more. Tella is a protective character and I loved her for doing this which made her disappearance all the more suspenseful because like Scarlett, I also wanted her to be safe.
We also meet Dante who like Julien also has a lot to hide and multiple layers to his character which I can’t mention without spoiling the book. When we first meet him he is described as having a black hair and black tattoos and my mind went straight to Rhys from ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’. I was expecting him to be more of a love interest but was glad Garber removed the possibility of the love triangle cliché early on.
Other than this it is also worth mentioning Legend. We don’t learn much about his character in this book so hopefully, we will learn more in a later book. He has shrouded in the mystery of a murder a few years ago. Legend used to be a traveling performer who fell in love with a rich girl. She couldn’t marry him because of money so he uses magic to wish to be the leader of the greatest traveling performance, at the price of his true love. I’m interested to see how his character develops and whether or not he still believes that to be loved he must be the greatest at his craft. It is also implied that Scarlett’s grandmother had a relationship with him so I’m interested to see if we get more details about this relationship.
The 'Caraval' itself is a lot like an old European town mixed in with fairy tale elements. One of the things I constantly forgot throughout the book is that 'Caraval' is set during the night. Garber was always reminding us when describing the setting. Garber sets this up before they even get inside with an encounter from one of the performers. Scarlett enters a clock shop and describes a man who ‘looked a bit like a clock himself’, a lot like Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast. This is because, as we later discover, the more a performer plays a part in 'Caraval' the more they end up becoming it. It no longer becomes a role but is who they are. Garber also uses an element from another fairy tale in this scene as the man offers Scarlett a portal to her sister in return for her voice for one day. This is, of course, an allusion to ‘The Little Mermaid’ as she sold her voice for true love.
I now want to move on and talk about some things a little more in depth so if you haven’t read the book yet make sure you go and check it out and then come back and finish reading this.
SPOILER WARNING!!!
The first thing I want to talk about is the, of course, the huge reveal at the end that Julien, Dante, and Legend were in fact actors. This was such a great twist and had me wanting to re-read the entire book with this new perspective. The emotions that went through my head in those last few chapters were intense. Firstly, the confusion that Julien and Dante might be evil, then sadness when Julien died. That scene literally almost brought me to tears particularly with his last line of wanting her to succeed.
I did wonder for a while maybe if either Dante or Julien would be Legend but this turned out not the be the case as ‘Legend’ turned out to an actor named Casper. Garber kept describing his appearance fading and I couldn’t understand what that meant. When it was revealed that he wasn’t Legend and this made sense
By the end of the book, it was unclear whether Scarlett would stay with the 'Caraval' or not but either way the winners are invited back each year. So whether or not she stays or not she will see the next 'Caraval'. The whole ending itself was reminiscent of the ending of Disney’s ‘Frozen’ with the love for Scarlett’s sister overpowering both the love she had for Julien as well as death itself.
On the subject of ships, I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of Julien and Scarlett until he got her earrings back for her. Dante only had a small part in this being an actor himself
My only criticism would be that there were parts of the book that I did feel were a bit convenient, for example, the picture that is left in Tella’s room. I’m guessing someone put that there after word’s but it was weird how at the time they took everything except what didn’t belong to her. Then there was also the option of plot convenience with Scarlett buys midway through the book. As soon as she got it I thought this is going to be used in a really specific circumstance and it was. Other than this the book was perfectly thought out and executed.I also do not usually like resurrection in books but this felt well thought out and made sense in the context of the world so I was okay with it.
As far as the next book is concerned, the letter Tella receives confused me as I originally thought it was from Legend but it was signed ‘a friend’ not ‘Legend’ like we see him sign throughout the book. I’m guessing she made some kind of deal to get the attention of the 'Caraval' in the first place so maybe the next book is going to from her perspective. Either way, I am hugely looking forward to the next book in the series and can’t wait to read more.
Thanks for reading this far. If you liked this post then make sure you let me know down and share on social media. I'll see you next time.
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