BOOK: Caraval (2017)

 Disclaimer: Spoilers of the book Caraval, but only after the warning. All of this is just my opinion based on my experiences reading it, so no hard feelings to anyone. I hope you enjoy!

• Author: Stephanie Garber
• Series: Caraval #1
• Publisher: Flatiron Books
• Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Fiction, Mystery. 

Summary: 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. 

(From Goodreads)

Intro and Short Review

As an opening, I will say: this was a mistake. 

Throwback to some weeks ago, when I had just finished Six of Crows and it was amazing. I was craving for another book in a fantasy setting with lots of mysteries and plot twists, so I thought Caraval was a good idea, based on the synopsis. And I couldn't be more wrong about that. 

The thing is, I couldn't not compare it to Six of Crows, and was completely, utterly disappointed at each new chapter. It's just mediocre at every aspect, and not enough to make me interested in the least about the outcome of the plot. Actually, thinking about it, I guess that was the main issue that made me so mad at this book.

I know I sound very picky and annoying with things like worldbuilding and character development, but I don't really mind most of the points I didn't like in Caraval when finding them in other books. The character is boring? The world doesn't make much sense? The events are convenient? Well, that's a shame, but it's not enough to make me hate something. I watch anime, for hell's sake, I don't have that much of a standard anymore. But that only works when it's just one or two of these mistakes, not fucking everything. In Caraval, the little bothersome details were just piling up, and the good things weren't sufficient to balance it out.

So of course, that just made me unconsciously pay more attention to the bad aspects of it and roll my eyes with every cliché, plot hole and stupid decision in here. And trust me, there were a lot. Caraval felt precarious, too quick and all over the place, and no "magical land where everything is possible but nothing is real" could make it up to it.

To be completely honest, I just finished Caraval to make this review and to be able to shut down with arguments everyone who tried to argue with me. Maybe if I didn't have Six of Crows to compare it to, this would've been a different review. Who knows. But what is done is done, and I can't just change the fact that I didn't like this book (despite some friends having enjoyed it), even if you think it's an extreme and irrational opinion. So take this as you will. Caraval would get a 5/10, but just because of the stress it gave me (and because I can) I'll give it a 4/10.

Warning! Spoilers below!

Characters

The main character is, obviously, one of the most important pieces of a book. We have to accompanytheir decisions during the majority of the story, and often times it's only their perspective that guides us through the narrative. Because we spend so much time with the main character, they have to at least provide us with something to keep us interested in their story. Be it Percy Jackson's sassy attitude or Katniss Everdeen's intelligence and courage, even if we don't like the character we at least remain invested in what they're presenting us. 

Well, Scarlett Dragna has nothing of this. In a world of flat, one-dimensional characters, the main character of Caraval manages to be the most tiresome and annoying of all, which is a feat on itself. She doesn't add anything of interest to the story, no traits that differentiate and define her character, nothing. The author tries to make her "special" by seeing colors in different emotions, but it just makes her more weird than alluring.

And don't even get me started on her actual personality. I get it, her trauma with her father is no light issue and of course it would have big consequences on how she would act and think, but that ends up being her entire personality, and it just makes a disservice to the portrayal of traumatized characters in books. Besides this, she's just a simple girl that loves her sister and dreams of getting away by marrying a noble. Oh yeah, and she's a compulsive liar, a hypocrite in the most diverse situations and has a naivety bordering on stupidity that just isn't the most ideal to have in a game like Caraval. 

Scarlett is manipulated the entire game to find clues and do certain things, puts herself in danger multiple times because of her stubbornness (which she eventually escapes, conveniently without any major issues, but we'll talk about that later) and acts like she's the center of the world and everything should be as she wants. Her decisions are either safe or completely wrong, so reading her do them over and over again without change gets really dull.

There's nothing wrong with a flawed character, neither with one with a very sheltered upbringing, but at least make them interesting in some other way so we actually care about them! But instead we have to listen to her whine about everything being unfair or some shit. It's always about other people, never about her, and she's the victim and the voice of reason at the end. She never truly feels like a protagonist, and her development just adds to this thought. It feels rushed, forced, incomplete, and too much melodramatic to feel impactful. 

Besides, it's at this moment we meet her sister again, and let's be honest, she steals the spotlight completely. Donatella Dragna would have been a great main character, with her impulsive, risky decisions and charisma. Just the revelation of her deal with Legend at the end of the book made me very curious, so maybe I'll even read the sequel that has her as protagonist. She seems a lot more well-constructed than Scarlett, and it's a shame her sister kind of looks down on her most of the time. 

And Scarlett has a lot of wrong opinions about people around her. She has a lot of unfair thoughts about Julian, for example, all stemming from her jealousy that she refuses to acknowledge. Jesus, girl, he literally has no obligation to treat you well, and he actually is very kind considering he didn't take advantage of you. That's a weak game you have. 

Well, I honestly can't believe I just defended the most cliché character of all time, but I  guess it can't be helped. Julian is your plain romantic interest that of course is smoking hot, and of course has a dark/mysterious past that actually wasn't his fault and of course annoys the protagonist but ends up falling in love with her despite probably deserving better. Even though I have an aversion for this overused trope, I ended up liking his character just because of the refreshing change from Scarlett's tedious thoughts when alone.

Scarlett's romance with Julian seems shallow and flimsy, as if it happened by magic (ok I'll stop), and the fact that she prioritizes him before her own sister at times is just very dangerous and reinforces how Scarlett is the immature one, even though she thinks she's a lot more responsible than her sister. The way he acts like prince charming around her just seems like fanservice for 14 year old girls to me, so no thank you. Her relationship with Donatella is nice, I guess, along with the friendship she formed with the historian girl, but besides that she doesn't make a single effort to meet new people, which is understandable considering the context but still not very interesting.  

As for the rest of Legend's troupe and other side characters, my attention wasn't really caught. Dante was interesting at the very beginning but because everything was an act, I just didn't have a strong opinion of him in the end. At least the historian girl (Aiko? I don't really remember) was cool and for once actually helped Scarlett, so I guess I would like to see her again. 

The whole incognito of "is Legend the true antagonist, or is everything really just a game?" was pretty interesting, to be fair, but the reality at the end of the book was just dull. Of course the duke Scarlett was supposed to marry ended up being a bad person, and of course her father would appear at the end and have a weird dialogue about protection or whatever. Also, we didn't get a single explanation as to why governor Dragna acts like that (and no, I refuse to accept "his wife abandoned him so he became abusive to his daughters" as a valid answer, cause that's just bullshit), so the climax felt like watching a very old dramatic play or something. 

Really, all the good points about the characters were just promises of development in the sequel, and that killed the rest of the interest I had very quickly. A lot of them had much more potential than it was presented, so it's a shame it ended the way it did. Of course, I could just read the sequel to see if it's better, but it still doesn't erase the fact that Caraval didn't do anyone justice. You can't just say "haha oops read my next book cause it has everything you wanted for this one", it doesn't work like that.

Story and Worldbuilding

When I read the synopsis for Caraval some four years ago, what caught my attention wasn't the story or the characters: it was the world where the whole event of Caraval was held. A place clearly inspired by carnivals, where reality blends with magic and your wildest dreams come true? Are you kidding me? Sign me up!

Unfortunately, the reality was a lot less interesting than I imagined. Isla de los Sueños just felt... shaky. Fake. And I don't mean fake in the sense of fabricated by magic — which still can give you a great experience and sense of wonder — because I was made aware since the beginning that the entirety of Caraval was just a game and nothing was real. It's just that the more I looked, the more I noticed the little things that just didn't make any sense, and my interest dwindled.

I said it in my Six of Crows review and I'll say it again: it's imperative for a fantasy book to have good worldbuilding, because the existence of magic doesn't excuse or solve literally anything by itself. Even if the setting is the deep space or a gigantic jungle or a tiny island, you have to create a solid foundation so the readers have something to hold onto despite the crazy stuff. There has to be a set of rules underneath everything so things progress logically, even if it's a place where "normal rules don't apply". If not, it's just lazy writing. 

I can ignore one or two very convenient things in a magical world, but when everything is vague and random it ends up being boring as hell. I had a lot of questions while reading Caraval: where did the magic came from? How much does it influence the places outside Isla de los Sueños? Is it a taboo? Is it just Legend who controls the magic of Caraval? How exactly did he receive this magic? What are its limits? And so on, so forth. 

When basically none of those were answered at the end of the book, I was very frustrated. So you're saying that Legend's magic can resurrect people, but nobody talks about that because it's some sort of sensitive or taboo topic or whatever, and the issue is forgotten? Why would I want to read a book where the author puts just what they want and it's our loss if we want explanations?

The rest of the world besides Isla de los Sueños just isn't explained at all. Then why mention it? Why would I care about some far away empire or whatever if you won't even put a map in the book to tell me where it is? I could go on and on about everything I didn't like here, but you get the point.

So a bit after the 25% mark, I thought to myself: "You know what? I'm being too picky, of course this book will not be like Six of Crows, so I'm just going to stress myself". And I decided to just focus on the story. If the characters and the worldbuilding are going to disappoint me, at least let me see if the narrative is enjoyable.

And to be completely fair, it was equally as disappointing as the rest. The events are way too convenient, there are basically no real stakes (despite the book desperately trying to make us think they exist) and things don't really make sense at all. But let's dissect it bit by bit.

The first chapters are kind of okay, establishing Scarlett's wants and needs, her relationship to her sister and to her father, but things start to go downhill when she's basically abducted by her sister and her future love interest. Didn't they have to leave immediately to get to Isla de los Sueños before the gates closed? Then how did Julian first got Tella there, then came back for Scarlett in just a few days? 

Then, we get to the island and are introduced to the game. Scarlett is insufferable during the beginning so we can't really appreciate everything, but finally Caraval has begun. Then we get some weird sequence of events, she discovers her sister is part of the game, and the convenient clues start. There's not another possible answer to this besides "this edition was made for Scarlett to win", because it wouldn't be humanly possible. There are people who pay lots to play this game, experienced and almost professional players wanting to earn the right to a wish, and it's this measly girl that wins at the end? And don't tell me the veterans didn't count because they didn't have good intentions at heart or whatever, because that's just too much of a stretch. 

Scarlett stumbles upon every clue with the cleverness of me when I just woke up, always trying to get immediate answers as if Caraval wasn't a mystery, always getting into trouble. But eventually everything happens just the way it should, and our great protagonist advances one more day. 

Things get a little more bearable towards the end, when she finally understands that she was treating the game way too seriously, but fall apart again when she meets with "Legend" at the sewer or whatever was that place. After that it was just the most obvious plot twists and random events, for everything to just resolve itself in the end, and everyone lived happily ever after. At this point I wasn't even paying attention anymore, so I can't give you a direct example of how bad it was.

Comparing the basic aspects of this book, worldbuilding definitely is the strongest appeal, but it still doesn't mean it was good or well developed. It just lacked explanation, and with the rushed plot we couldn't really explore Caraval to its full potential. 

Technical Details and Final Thoughts

If I were to rank the moments that made me cringe the most, the top ones by far would be the clues to solve Caraval. The poetry is terrible, and just made me laugh for two whole minutes at the forced flourish of it all. One of the worst mistakes this book makes is to try to appear more serious than it actually is. We have exaggerated and over-the-top paragraphs that just try to disguise the fact that there's not much of interesting there at all, which is ironic considering deception is a theme of Caraval.

And even with all that flourish, the descriptions still weren't good. If the worldbuilding was already lacking, the way Stephanie Garber presented us to the setting and the story made everything even worse. One thing is using sounds, textures and visual analogies for a more vivid storytelling, but using just that is not enough to give us a good notion of what's going on at the time. At least not in the way this book does it.

What happened in the end is that I ended up knowing almost nothing about how the island of Caraval looked like, because only the most important parts were given a good description. I'm not saying every book should be packed with every detail about the surroundings of every scene, but at least a bit more explanation would've amplified the sensation of wonder and magic a lot more. 

I guess in the end it's partially my fault that I disliked Caraval so much. Of course, right after reading Six of Crows, I would expect a well written, well constructed fantasy book, but I had just too many expectations. It's like the author took every major YA fantasy trope, created a melodramatic romance that young girls would like, sprinkled some magic stuff and some semblance of a plot to add more "depth" and duct-taped everything together. It definitely had some wasted potential, and I can just hope (for her own sake too) that the continuation does a better job in every aspect. If I ever feel the urge to torture myself further and read it, that is.