“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.”
Caraval is Book 1 of the Caraval series which has three books – Caraval, Legendary and Finale. This review is for the first book in the series, Caraval. And it will be spoiler free, so you can read it even if you have not read the book 😊.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS
A legendary competition.
A mesmerizing romance.
An unbreakable bond
between two sisters.
Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.
But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.
Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless, she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.
Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . beware of getting swept too far away.
MY REVIEW
The first thought I had after reading the synopsis was how mysterious Caraval sounds. And throughout the book, it stays the same. Caraval is dreamy, wonderful and so enchanting! I initially expected it to be like The Night Circus. It was so different but I was not disappointed by this book!
The best part of the book for me was the dreamy writing style. It is such an atmospheric book and through the writing, I was able to imagine the world of Caraval in all its colourful splendour and grandeur.
I really enjoyed the relationship between Scarlett and Donatella even though they don’t have a lot of scenes together. I know that a lot of people seemed to dislike Scarlett’s character, but I actually liked her at times. Donatella was such a fun character to read about! I absolutely loved how spontaneous and easy going she is. The ending revealed a completely different side of her story and I am so excited to read her POV in the next book! And the stark contrast between the two sisters was very interesting to read about.
When it comes to the romance, I have mixed feelings about it – I liked it but I won’t say that it was a favourite. I loved Julian’s character and I loved Scarlett too but I am not sure how much I love them together. And especially after the plot twist, a lot of things changed rapidly so I feel a little vague about the relationship. Nevertheless, I am excited to see how things will change and progress in the next book!
The story by itself was such a wild ride. I was at the edge of the seat the whole time, trying to figure out what was real and what was part of the game which was super exciting! And even though I kind of expected it, the ending left me feeling shocked, excited, nervous and all the more eager to read Legendary!
The only problem I had was somewhere around the middle when the story started becoming a little slow and I found myself exhausted with all the speculating and the wondering. But after a little bit, the story took a completely unexpected turn changing everything and turned out to be completely different (and better!) than what I originally expected it to be.
This is such an easy story to get lost into. Caraval’s mystery, intrigue, and wonder had me hooked and the ending was so unexpected and brilliant and left me wanting for more! If you love circus themed books, or if you love a mysterious and enchanting world, Caraval is perfect for you!
STAR RATING:
If you’ve read this book, please let me know your thoughts! Thank you so much for reading my review and I hope you have a nice day 😊
The soulful scripturient 
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