Reviews with content warning for Death - Caraval

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

218 reviews

lolzyuh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

LUVED THIS ONE GUYS!!!! it was the right pace for me and still gave all the juicy details and goss about the characters lol. The twists were predictable but idk if it's just cause I read about the book online first??? Anyways SEE YA SOON LEGENDARY!!!!!!@

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clovvey's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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mahra's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

1.5

Welcome, welcome to Caraval! The grandest show on land or by sea. Inside you’ll experience more wonders than most people see in a lifetime. You can sip magic from a cup and buy dreams in a bottle. But before you fully enter into our world, you must remember it’s all a game.

I did not like this. The main issue that I have is that this book does not deliver on its promises.

There are good elements. The premise of the story is quite interesting (which is why I am so disappointed with the way it unfolds). I really enjoyed this dark carnival setting with some latin influences. I liked that the romance between the main character, Scarlett, and her love interest, Julian, was slowly built. It is believable.

However, I had many issues with the prose. I do not think that the author is a bad writer. I have read a lot worse, but the prose in this one feels overly colorful (*wink*). The superfluous descriptions started to interfere with the pacing. The author also uses color adjectives to describe smells, tastes, and emotions and ends up creating sentences that do not make any sense.

Spoiler

(I know it is because of Scarlett’s ability to see emotions as colors, but it was very distracting)

For example: "Shades of the rich ruby love she'd felt during the game mixed with hues of deep-indigo hurt" or "Something about him made her feel perilous shades of silky black". And since she described Scarlett’s emotions that way, it made it difficult to understand and connect with her. I really did not learn much about her outside of what was written verbatim, so I did not have any reason to care about her. She is also quite unlikable because of how foolish she is. I understand that this is supposed to be a story about much she learns during the game, but she very annoying at times.

I did not find any of the characters likeable or enjoyable. Even, Legend, as a villain felt… strangely boring (?). I also found them quite stereotypical and "one note" (opposite sisters, cold and cunning love interest

Spoiler

who is a double agent

, mysterious villain who is manipulating everyone…), which is not always an issue, but in this case it did not help. The father felt like a moustache-twirling villain, and I find those very difficult to do well… The author also used a trope that I hate:

Spoiler

the very old man who does not age (Julian) who ends up with the very young and naive main character and manipulates her before he falls in love with her.

The story was also somewhat predictable. I consume a lot of fantasy, so it is quite difficult to surprise me. It does not always bother me, but in this case, I guessed most of it pretty quickly (and what I did not guess was not well introduced to the story, it came out of nowhere).

I was expecting a harrowing story full of twists,

Spoiler

but ultimately they are all rendered pointless by that final twist. Donatella, the sister, was behind all of it. Everything was a lie. It is comparable to an "it was all a dream" ending, in my opinion. What was the point of all of this? Escaping their father and Scarlett’s fiancé? Was all of this necessary to achieve that? None of it makes sense. The other books may answer that question, but if that is the case, this one does not lead me to believe that. Scarlett simply accepts everything, and very easily forgives her sister. Which brings me to my next point: the book does not accurately describe how horrible of a sister she truly is. She put Scarlet through all of this — unnecessarily in my opinion — and she was completely unapologetic about it. Again. Why?

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viselik's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

By the end, I only gave a damn about the Legend and sort of Jullian. I didn't connect with either Scarlett or Tella.

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gillshea's review

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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teardropsonmypaperback's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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kiwij96's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Good lord this book is messy. There's so many supposed twists that makes it feel like a coiled spring. I couldn't keep track of all the lies and deceptions and the twists that kept happening. Also the way it was written: I couldn't imagine any of the scenery because it was just Scarlett's internal monologue with a couple of glimpses at what things looked like.

I found Scarlett too whiny. The whole time she wasn't her own person, she was like an extension of other people. Her intire thing was just "that's my sister" or "Julian" without any let up and that bothered me. Donatella was just outright selfish the whole time and she was just infuriating. Also the fact that they were like 16/17 years old and Donatella tried running away with boys from age 12? Like good lord. Maybe their immaturity plays a greater role in how unlikeable the two girls are. It definitely gave me an insight to what a fantasy book looks like with people who want nothing to do with the fantasy aspect of their world.

The only thing that will probably keep me reading the series is the cliffhanger it ended on but also saw coming.

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chiaraculpo's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

<verso la metà del libro mi stavo un po' stufando però mi è piaciuto il colpo di scena finale. Tella non mi piace come personaggio, nonostante volesse aiutare la sorella si è presa gioco di lei e l'ha fatta molto soffrire, alla fine ha esagerato. Mi è piaciuta l'evoluzione di Rossella e mi piace Julien come personaggio anche se non so se l'avrei perdonato così velocemente alla fine.> In generale mi è piaciuto, l'ho letto abbastanza velocemente, credo che proverò a leggere anche il secondo perché il finale mi ha incuriosita.

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ssbuschman's review

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.25

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mcc004's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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