By Svara Jayasinghe
Scarlett Dragna has dreamed of seeing the magical Caraval – the annual performance where its organizer, Legend, puts on a show that immerses the audience into the performance until the line between fact and fiction is almost impossible to distinguish – since she was ten years old. Now seventeen, Scarlett assumes that her dream, as most are, is nothing but a fantasy that is beyond her reach. Then, a week before her arranged marriage is to take place, Scarlett and her sister Tella receive invitations to the legendary performance.
But before the show can even begin, Tella is kidnapped. It seems that Tella was kidnapped by Legend himself, and whichever contestant in this round of Caraval finds her first, wins.
Determined to find her sister, the one she loves and treasures most in life, Scarlett throws herself into the five-night game. But as magic and reality start to blur together, Scarlett finds herself getting swept away into the enchanting sorcery of Caraval as time begins to run out.
I rate this book a 9 out of 10. Stephanie Garber crafted a whimsical world that took me along Scarlett’s journey as if I were a character in the book. It was fun, thrilling, perhaps a bit cliche at times, but overall an enchanting read!
The one critique I have for this book is that it didn’t have much character development. While Scarlett and Tella share a couple of personality traits, they are extremely different, which is something that is established within the first couple of chapters. Both Scarlett and Tella are headstrong and stubborn, but Scarlett is cautious and a serious over-thinker, while Tella is more mischievous and makes decisions on a whim. These traits are detailed thoroughly throughout the book and it is clear that Scarlett and Tella are almost the complete opposites of each other. I was hoping as the novel progressed that we would see development of both characters and witness them start to mellow out and begin to adopt some of the traits of the other sister (i.e. Scarlett begin to adopt Tella’s spontaneity; Tella caution) but, unfortunately, we did not get to witness very much of that. And if we did, it seemed to me that it only appeared at certain moments, instead of being a gradual, yet consistent, part of the story.
Overall, I highly enjoyed Caraval! It was a fun and witty read and is a book I will definitely revisit and read again!