Caraval Review ~Erin

Hey guys! I read Caraval this month and I ended up listening to the audiobook. I gave it 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed it and I recommend it but it was not my favorite.

I listened to the audiobook for this and also read along with the physical copy. It was very fastpaced which I liked. It helped me really get into the story.

Spoilers Below

The one thing I had a problem with were the relationships between the characters. I wish we got to see more of Scarlett and Donnatella because I didn’t really get a good sense of their relationship as sisters. So when she died at the end, I felt nothing. The audiobook was very dramatic and I was just sitting there like, I don’t really care….eek

I also thought Julian and Scarlett’s relationship was too fast. I love me a good hate to love relationship but I felt it was too fast and I feel like she just fell into it.

This book felt a lot like a prequel to the “real” story. The note that Tella gets at the very end told so much more than the rest of the story did. I also don’t trust Julian at all now that he said that he was actually Legend’s brother. Like how old is he??

The thing is, if you look at this story purely from an enjoyment standpoint, it was great! It was a great adventure and I am definitely going to read the next one. But, there were a lot of specific details that I think were just written off as “oh this is just part of the game, you’ll never get the truth because you never know what the truth is” sort of thing.

The thing that I look for the most in stories is character development and relationships between the characters and I think that was lacking.

Also, there was that thing with their abusive father. ALSO! I want to learn more about their family’s background in general because I feel like that would explain their relationships better. I don’t know. I am going to read the second one but I’ll probably get it from the library.

I got Caraval from Owlcrate’s February 2017 box because I saw it would be great for The Night Circus lovers but this book was so much different than The Night Circus. The magic was similar but in Caraval it is much more fast paced and what I loved about Night Circus was the long beautiful descriptions of things and scenes and this didn’t really have that. I shouldn’t really compare them because they are two very different books but I can see what Owlcrate was going for with the comparisons.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a fun read. I will be reading the next one because I want to know what happens.

Let me know in the comments what you thought of this book and if you thought similar things!

Happy reading!