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Caraval  by Stephanie Garber
Published January 31st 2017 by Flatiron Books
Classified as Fantasy, Romance, & Young Adult
Obtained as Ebook

      

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

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Content & Trigger Warnings

Kidnapping, physical and mental abuse by a parent, suicide (Not detailed), & murder (Not detailed).

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Let’s Make Some Waffles

The World

Welcome to the ruthless game of Caraval, where nothing is as it seems. For the low price of a day or two of your life, you can be the proud owner of a dress that changes shapes with your emotions. Or a pair of glasses that can see the future. Yes, during Caraval, you can be whomever you want to be. Do whatever you want to do. Why, you may ask? Because it is all just a game….isn’t it?

“You’re missing the point of the game,” said Aiko. “They didn’t travel here for truth, they came for an adventure, and you just sent them on one.”

As the lines between real and fake blur, Scarlett Dragna, has to ask herself this question time and time again. Is it all just a game? To be honest, I’m not sure that it is. The word, “game” makes me think of Scrabble or Monopoly, but Caraval is not like that. Deep secrets await – death even – for those who do not want to play by the Caraval Master’s rules.

I really liked the idea of Caraval, but in execution, it felt like there was a lot of lost potential. We spend a lot of time around Scarlett’s hotel, which I couldn’t care less about when I know there is a whole magnificent world of mystery out there to explore. The world was what was most interesting about this book, and sadly I feel like I didn’t get nearly enough of it. Instead, I got wayyyyy too many passages detailing Julian’s muscles.

 

The Characters

“I think you’ve forgotten how to live, and your sister is trying to remind you,” Julian went on. “But if all you want is safety, I’ll take you back.”

I can’t particularly say that I liked either Scarlett Dragna or her sister, Tella. Granted, a good character doesn’t necessarily equate with likability; there are plenty of great characters that readers aren’t supposed to like. But I think the author wanted Scarlett and Tella to be likable, and they just… aren’t. Scarlett spends the majority of the book worrying and being an overall spoilsport (which is not the most fun thing to read about in a world that’s basically one big party), and Tella’s devil-may-care attitude is border-line obnoxious. Being wary and having fun are not bad traits,  but they are when they are your only traits.  Scarlett and Tella’s personalities can each be defined by a single word: cautious and reckless, respectively. That’s it. Those are the two main things that define them. On the other hand, both characters stayed true to these personalities traits straight to the end of the novel. So, maybe they can also be called consistent.

Scarlett had always seen her own emotions in color, but she’d never seen another person’s.

Okay, so I just said that I found Scarlett kind of boring, but there is one thing that is actually interesting about her. She sees emotions in color. At first, I was completely thrown off by this,  but after some googling, I realized that this is an actual thing people experience. It’s called Synesthesia and is a condition in which one sense (in this case, Scarlett’s emotions) is simultaneously perceived as if by another sense, such as sight.

Describing Scarlett’s feelings as colors made for a unique world-building experience that added to the already topsy-turvy nature of Caraval. And yet… while it did help create an ethereal atmosphere, it also made it more difficult to understand what the author was trying to convey.

She felt five different shades of berry-colored foolish as she walked away.

 

The Writing Style

Stephanie Garber’s writing style is a bit different than anything I’ve encountered in the YA genre, but I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Half of me likes it, half of me doesn’t, and all of me is confused. Although the author’s prose is pretty, it was edging a bit too much towards the purple side of the spectrum for my tastes. At times, her choice of metaphors and similes left me confused and unsure of what exactly she was trying to say.

It smelled of laughter and boasts, laced with sweetened ale.

My question is this: what does laughter smell like? Sure, this little phrase sounds nice – it sounds poetic – but it doesn’t invoke any sort of tangible image for me to better understand what’s going on. It doesn’t help me visualize anything. I’m just left wondering, “Okay so what does laughter smell like? What about boasting? And what do those smell like mixed with ale?” 

Goodreads reviewer, Emily May, provides some more thoughts on this. She says it better than I can.

Maybe the complete nonsensicalness of was all intentional – maybe the author wanted her words to mirror the nonsensicalness of Caraval. Maybe it has something to do with Scarlett’s Synesthesia. In any case, it just wasn’t working for me. Here is one last example:

She felt as if she could taste the red of the curtains. Chocolate cake drenched in wine.

So, apparently curtains taste like chocolate cake now? Maybe I should go take a bite out of the window shades in my living room.

Much like anything new or experimental, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. In Caraval, Stephanie Garber tried something a bit different, and props to her for that, but for me, it just didn’t work.

 

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Mix it all up and you get…MEH.

 

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Have you read Caraval?

What did you think about it?

Did you like the author’s writing style?