Reviews with content warning for Murder - Caraval

I loved the beginning of this book. However, I do not understand what happened near the end. There was so much potential, and I considered this at least a 4-star book until the final 2 days of the caraval and the day after it. After that, the book took a nose dive. It tried too hard to have an interesting twist by adding too many nonsensical twists. Like, an unnecessary amount of twist done not great. I really wanted to like this book by the end, but I just can't.

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camifestari's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

Ugh...

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carrotnyx's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense

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

3.0

I don’t know how to feel about this book… The beginning felt so slow and I honestly I was getting kinda bored. For the entire first half of the book I didn’t care about any of the characters. Literally none. Scarlett was kinda bleh, Donatella was annoying in all of her scenes and Julian seemed like a douchebag.
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However, I know it felt a bit out blue but I enjoyed reading Scarlett’s and Julian’s relationship. I loved (past tense) their dynamic. And when the plot picked up I couldn’t stop reading. Then the plot twists went little overboard. Basically every other page had another twist and I started getting desensitized to it. I think that was the downfall of this book.

I wish it just had a sad ending where it ends after Tella dies.

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Julian became bland

because we find out he was acting this whole time aND HE DIDNT ACTUALLY GIVE UP HIS LIFE FOR HIS CRIMSON. HE STARTED CALLING HER “SCARLETT” (which absolutely broke me) AND HE DIDNT EVEN HAVE THE SAME SMILE. YOU’RE TELLING ME HE DIDNT HAVE A CUTE TWISTED GRIN THIS WHOLE TIME???? To me, the Julian Scarlett fell in love with is dead. Hah. Sorry got a bit heated there

. Their chemistry just vanished. Yet they still ended up together (-_-).
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And omg Donatella.

I don’t even care if she ‘did what she had to do’. She still put her poor sister through SO MUCH TRAUMA.That is not “sisterly love”. She didn’t respect Scarlett’s choice and she came off selfish. ESPECIALLY when she expected Scarlett to pick her over Julian.

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Well the only character I actually enjoyed reading about was Julian before the plot twist and, surprisingly, Legend.

EXCEPT IT WASNT LEGEND IT WAS SOME GUY NAMED CASPER.

Reading about madness is so fun.
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I didn’t mean be so negative but I swear I enjoyed a good part of the book when the plot twist started kicking in

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annadelreads's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

“I think you’ve forgotten how to live, and your sister is trying to remind you.”

Good to be back to reading a fantasy book once again! I’ve gotten a copy of Once Upon A Broken Heart by the same author and was told that to get the full experience, I had to read this series again, so here I am.

To be honest, I started this book thinking it was just pure fantasy so I was somewhat surprise to see a little bit of romance in it - although it was a little falling in love too fast in my opinion. The caraval story was done alright but the ending was sort of anti-climactic. I don’t really have much to say other than, I’m surprised to see that the next book is not Scarlett’s POV since I was already heavily invested on her now so it’s sad to have another character’s point of view. But I do love Tella and I really hope and am excited to see her story with Legend!

Overall, it’s a good story but at the moment, not one I would immediately recommend to people. Maybe once I’ve read the next few books?

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