Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Legendary

When you finally get the POV of the secretive, self obsessed, unlikable sister, Tella, from the last book, and you get to finally hear her reasoning for literally offing herself in front of her sister, Scarlett, who had also just watched her bf die in front of her, knowing that Scarlett would use her ONE WISH to bring her back to life, and all Tella can give us for an explanation in this sequel is “I did it for my sisters own good”….. WHAT?!?!

GIRLIE there is absolutely no proof or logic of that being the case!!!! like there was literally no reason for her to do that other than to add some drama to the plot and to get her sister to waste her wish bringing her back to life? Scarlett won the game by finding her, why toss yourself off a balcony? the game was pretty much donezo, what the fuck?!?! WHY?!?! THERE WAS NO REASON! WHY DID YOU PUT HER THROUGH THAT?!?! ASHAKDJKDLAAJHSJAK!!!! I HATE YOU TELLA!

As you may be able to tell, I got a little upset with the bad storytelling of this author. They can’t even tell me why their supposed “good” character is off traumatizing their family. Apparently they just threw in a literal suicide for fun and that’s seriously messed up and is quite triggering for a lot of people. To take such a horrific human issue and turn it into a spectacle was quite upsetting. Frankly, I hated it.

Kay, rant about THAT part is done (that rant was mostly because I expected a big explanation for this awful characters actions at the beginning of this book. We just got a one liner, fluff answer and then the author proceeded to make Tella the star of the next book, where I still don’t find her at all likable.)

This entire series was an interesting premise to start with, but when you throw in a bunch of half baked characters who lie constantly and whose identities change every 5 seconds, you begin to not believe anything or anyone and after about the 27th reveal, it gets old. Like idk wtf is even happening anymore. Nothings real or genuine or makes any sense whatsoever.

Idk if I missed a line or something that explains the plot better but I think I’m done with this series. I bought this one and the final book when I was halfway through the first book (when I thought it was good) but frankly, the story just got worse and worse and messier and messier. This is not a series I’d recommend. Shit made me GRUMPY.

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mj_86's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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mirroaoror's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There's just something about the world of Caraval that draws me in. I read this second book the day after I finished the first one, and oh my goodness, I am so glad that I did. Everything that I loved about the first book was just amplified here. I already thought that the world-building and the magical system was brilliant in the first one, but the world expanded even more here in the second one. And I really loved reading from Tella's point of view. The characterizations in general are also really good since there are so many interesting characters in this world. However, I do have to say that while the characters are well-written as individuals, it gets really messy once we delve into their relationships. They're filled with communication issues that never really get resolved (even between the sisters who just constantly lie to each other all the time and they once get to properly talk about their feelings and concerns without the other just refusing to listen or the other just avoiding conversation at all), or they're just tragically manipulative. But despite that, I still enjoyed the book. After the events of the first, I didn't think that I would feel as surprised as I did with the many plot twists and reveals in this one, but I was wrong!

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