A review by oatsandtotes
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
4.0
I'm gonna start this review off with a rant that isn't about the writing or anything, but about the fans. As a POC, these characters are definitely intended to be hispanic, right? The place names are in Spanish (?) and there's the last names, like 'Santos'? The MC is 'olive skinned' and the male MC is described as brown. So how do they look in most fan art I've seen? White af, pale, actually. I usually use fanart to better imagine the specifics in a charcter's features (i.e. their face), and so it's frustrating and saddening to see their skin colours erased. I honestly want to get better at art solely to draw POC as POC. Anyways, rant over, now onto the book.
Until the last 25%, it was more like a 3.5* read. It was quite confusing, frustrating, and the romance felt a bit forced. But the book did what it intended. Just like the protagonist, I was confused and irritated reading most of the book lol. I can't even say she made bad decisions, because I understoof why she made them; she didn't know anything of what was going on! As someone who has a younger twin sister (16 minutes!) I highly related to wanted to protect the person you love the most. I sincerely pitied Scarlett the entire time, because everyone kept lying to her. The book did well with its mysteries, even if they were frustrating sometimes.
The magic in the book left me a bit disappointed. It was never really explained, it was 'just because'. So what are the limits?? Also I seriously wanted Scarlett to slap her sister at the end, like fr.
All in all, it was interesting, albeit stressful to read. I look forward to the next :)
Until the last 25%, it was more like a 3.5* read. It was quite confusing, frustrating, and the romance felt a bit forced. But the book did what it intended. Just like the protagonist, I was confused and irritated reading most of the book lol. I can't even say she made bad decisions, because I understoof why she made them; she didn't know anything of what was going on! As someone who has a younger twin sister (16 minutes!) I highly related to wanted to protect the person you love the most. I sincerely pitied Scarlett the entire time, because everyone kept lying to her. The book did well with its mysteries, even if they were frustrating sometimes.
The magic in the book left me a bit disappointed. It was never really explained, it was 'just because'. So what are the limits?? Also I seriously wanted Scarlett to slap her sister at the end, like fr
Spoiler
was there no other way of faking your death other than putting your sister through a week of stress and torture??All in all, it was interesting, albeit stressful to read. I look forward to the next :)