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Saturday, November 11, 2017

Caraval - a Book Review

Alright, faeries, I know what you're thinking, this is a magical book about carnivals and clowns and romance. Right? Wrong! This book is not about carnivals. You were right about one thing. It has romance. :P But no carnivals, no clowns, no elephants, no ringleaders, no unicycles. No, wait, scratch that. It does include a unicycle.



Yeah Points
  • The place called Caraval is so awesome! There was an air of mystery about the whole island and its inhabitants. And you're not sure who to trust and what's really real. And, like they often remind you in the book, "it's just a game...
  • The way the Stephanie Garber describes the Scarlett's emotions is very unique. Scarlett feels in color and then the author says what the feelings are behind the colors. It made the book really beautiful sounding and poetic. I enjoyed it. :) Here's a quote from it:

 “Shades of the rich ruby love she’d felt during the game mixed with hues of deep-indigo hurt, turning everything just a little bit violet.”  -Stephanie Garber, Caraval

  • Julian was a dashing young man and quite clever. He had a Captain Hook (from Once Upon a Time) and Carswell Thorne (from The Lunar Chronicles) feel to him. 
  • Legend was a very intriguing character. I'd like to learn more about him in the second book, Legendary. 
  • The book had a very different take on magic. It was hard to tell real magic from fancy tricks in Caraval. There definitely was some real magic, but it didn't always come the way you think magic would. 

I really only have one thing against this book and it was, sadly, a rather major thing in the plot; and it was the romance. 

Nah Points, Ahem, I mean, Nah Point

  • I really, really, really wanted to love the romance between Scarlett and Julian totally. But I couldn't. I just can't. There were to many incidents where Julian or someone else (like Dante) was looking at Scarlett lustfully. Like, ew, why. And Julian had to pretend to be Scarlett's fiance which meant that they had to have the same room in a hotel. And Julian did not seem to mind that problem one bit. (Double yuck.) Thankfully, Scarlett could avoid anything bad from happening. Here's a example of Julian's... "charm":  

“Inside the house, violin music, richer than the darkest chocolate, started playing. It seeped outside and whispered to Scarlett as Julian’s smile turned seductive, all shameless curves and immoral promises. An invitation to places that proper young ladies didn’t think about, let alone visit.”  -Stephanie Garber, Caraval

How could I root for any of the guys in the book when they acted like that?

Also on a side note, there were a few characters that got drunk. :/ Phooey.

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All in all, I did enjoy the book. It was written quite well and I truly wish those distasteful things weren't in there, but they were. So I'll just have to live with it. But I wouldn't recommend this book to younger readers at all. I think I'll give this book 3 stars.

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I want to say... Happy Remembrance Day to all my Canadian readers!!!! And happy Veteran's Day to all my American readers!!! I'm so glad we live in such awesome countries!!! :D   


Have any of you faeries read this book? If not, will you? And if you have, what did you think? And what do you think of my nickname for you readers? Does "faeries" sound good to you? :D   

4 comments:

  1. It sounds like an ok book! (That nah point though, gross!)
    I probably would not read it though tbh XD Well, idk, perhaps when I'm older xD
    Awesome post! :D
    P.S
    Yes it is XD(Especially to Lost!)

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    Replies
    1. XD The writing was really good, but yeah, the Nah Point is soooo gross. Yuck. :P

      That totally makes sense why you wouldn't want to read it.

      Thank you! ^.^

      PS. XD (That is very true. XDDD)

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  2. I think I'm going to enjoy this one! (Minus the nah point. Unfortunate, that.) And Julian sounds like my kind of character--minus the nag point again. XD I'm so curious about the storyline and the writing, though! Love the review!

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    1. XD I hope you do! (Yes, it WAS quite unfortunate... I wpuld love the book if it didn't have that! >.<) Julian was mostly pretty cute. XD

      Thanks!! And thank YOU for commenting! <3

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