Caraval

Caraval by Stephanie Garber is the story of Scarlet, a young girl living with her little sister Donatella (“Tella” for short), on a small island with a physically abusive father. Scarlet longs to escape her life, to take her sister, and run off to Caraval, a carnival where magic appears real and dreams can come true. Just when she has accepted her fate, tickets to Caraval suddenly arrive in the hands of a handsome, roguish young man named Julian. When Scarlet’s sister is kidnapped at Caraval, she must navigate various mysteries and mind games to save her life. The deeper into Caraval she gets, the more she questions what’s real.

Caraval is a thrilling reading experience. At it’s heart, it is a mystery, and every time you think you have something figured out, the story will pull the rug out from under you. Like Scarlet, you will be left wondering what’s real. Because of this, I even had a hard time excepting that everything at the end of the book was actually true.

My only teeny tiny issue, is that I would have liked to see Scarlet make some bold choices for her own happiness, not just for her sister. After everything she goes through - abusive father, selfish sister, cruel Caraval Master - I don’t feel that she’s 100% happy at the end of the book. Her sister does not seem to think about anyone else other than herself, and I hope that Scarlet will realize this in future books. That being said, I am 100% sure that I will be reading the next book to see what fate has in store for these sisters.