Why Caraval was just…okay

I thought I would be in love with Caraval by Stephanie Garber, it checked all my boxes, an adventure, a strong female lead, something magical. It seemed like plain fun. 

Caraval had a fun upbeat tempo, and did include magical elements, but for me, the first book was just fine. The characters in caraval seemed generic. The main character is Scarlett, who is a kind, naive girl who is just trying to give her and her sister a good life since their father is basically a horrible person. Julian, her main love interest, is a cocky, arrogant guy who's always there to crack a joke. They both end up having to enter a game called Caraval, which is run by a guy named Legend. However, I find Scarlett's sister, Donatella, really annoying, this will matter a bit more later. I thought this book was completely normal, there wasn’t really anything that stood out to me as amazing, but I already had the rest of the series so I figured why not try to finish. 

That’s when I started Legendary, which is from Donatella’s point of view, and is about her experience in a different Caraval that comes after the one in the first book. Like I said earlier, I found her sister annoying and boring, and honestly just insufferable. Her plot line just felt really dry and didn’t interest me in the slightest. Even though I didn’t technically hate this book, I was really bored and just didn’t care about Donatella’s perspective at all. 

But I was excited to start the next book Finale, because it went back to scarlet perspective along with Donatella. I found this book the most interesting out of the three, because the stakes were the highest and the plot really started to develop. 

I think Caraval is an okay series, the books aren’t too long but it's also a bit of a commitment for an average story. Tell me what your thoughts were on Caraval!

-Eva Gleason