Book Summary:

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.

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Review:

“Hope is a powerful thing. Some say it’s a different breed of magic altogether. Elusive, difficult to hold on to. But not much is needed.”

– Caraval

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Caraval—a place I’d love to be invited to, where magic exists and the real world can fade away…except, the real world can be invited in. It lurks around the darkness, watching from a distance, never too near but always right in view, until it’s time for the story to need a little push in a different direction. This plot was full of twists and turns, surprises, and reveals that I both anticipated and was shocked by. While I had to push through the seemingly slow beginning and focus intensely on the descriptions and imagery to paint a clear picture of what was happening, the story picked up the pace and I’m glad I kept with it.

Book-length spoilers past this point!

I wanted to know everything I could about Legend and see all Caraval had to offer…knowing there are two other books in this series. While I cared deeply about the sister’s wishes and wanted them to get away from their father— if you can even call him that— Tella was so tough to like. Maybe it was because of how often Scarlett would talk about her love for her sister and the fact that her sister was the most important thing to her and that she would do anything for her and to have Tella brush it off and get them in worse trouble, but it rubbed me the wrong way. I was glad for a majority of the story she was absent, just a trace and a will for her sister to find her, and still felt like that was enough to represent her. She felt very flat. Everything about her personality and feelings were laid out on the table, and even after reading the story, it still feels like we knew everything she felt. While I also didn’t like Scarlett and found her to be annoying until around 60% of the way through, her character was much easier to empathize with. We see a caring sister willing do to anything and everything to protect her counterpart…even allowing death to be an option.

Knowing how the story ends and the twist happening behind the mask makes a lot of the scenes play out differently looking back on them. The author explains how Tella couldn’t have told the truth at any point because it would have put too much pressure on Scarlett and while I agree, Tella should have been softer to her in the end. As Scarlett, to have gone through so much trauma — her sister’s betrayal, witnessing so much death, falling in love with the sailor and promptly learning he’s been lying to her the entire time, facing her father, facing the man he’s sold her to and the implied scene that unfolded in the bedroom, —thank the gods for their connected rooms!— on top of juggling all these emotions and fears, and Tella just expects her to be okay with it all?? That was the most unrealistic part of the book for me: how the characters expected Scarlett to act.

Carnival promised a fantastical world of magic and real-life consequences…but most of the consequences could be undone. This is where I think many people may split in opinions. I am usually of the type who dislikes the revival of a character who dies for the plot…and for one to come back in order for plot to continue. It worked in this book, **but I can’t say I’m happy about it. Having not one, not two, but three of the characters come back to life by the last page was a bit much. Julian and Tella, sure, those make sense. BUT I think it would have been a better decision to have Dante remain dead since he was killed by an outsider who was not participating in the game. It would have left a more hollow, deadly feel to the father who kept showing remorse for his actions while committing them.

As for Julian, I liked his character. His personality had layers, and it was obvious he was trying to tell her something from the very beginning when they arrived on the island. While many of my theories of the plot and character reveals were on the right track, I was pleasantly surprised by the ending twist in his connection to Caraval and to Legend instead of a cop-out of him being involved in an expected way. It was cool to look back and see all the little things that pointed to this reveal and how many of them were misleading or I missed entirely. I am excited to learn more about his story in the next book, and hopefully, learn a deeper side to the more shallow-level characters.