Remember, it’s only a game…| Caraval Book Review

Happy 2021 everyone! I really should have said this in my last post, but better late than never! I hope you all had a safe holiday period, or if you don’t celebrate, a safe few days off work; and I hope you all were as happy and healthy as possible given the circumstances.

I am not a big fan of new years resolutions, purely because I always end up breaking them, or putting so much pressure on myself it ends up being more stressful than was originally intended. However, I did set myself a goal this year to continue putting as much time and effort into my blog as I did last year.

So first things first – you may or may not have noticed…I now have a logo and a header for my blog, both beautifully designed by my friend Larissa! I’ve wanted this for a while, especially after changing my blog’s name last year to something more permanent. Plus, with me writing the most I ever have on my blog last year, and putting more time and effort in than I ever have, I felt it was time to give my blog it’s own identity. I’m really proud of how far I’ve come with my blog and it’s been really nice to see my own writing improve, so the addition of the logo and header which I think really nicely represent me and my blog has made me so happy! I hope you like them too!

Another resolution of mine this year was to write more blogposts about books. This is something I have shied away from previously, only writing two in-depth posts about books that I can think of, and otherwise just writing monthly summaries of books I’ve read. This is because books is not my usual topic I write about, and therefore think it’s a topic I can’t bring justice to when I write about them. But practice makes perfect, right? I’ll never get better at writing about literature if I don’t do it. I love books as much as theatre, so it makes sense for me to write about them more. This year I want to step out of my comfort zone in my blog and write about new things.

So, here is my first (spoiler free!) book based post of the year. And the book I’m starting this year off with is a real treasure indeed…

(You may want to grab a cup of tea. I had a lot to say for this one).

Book: Caraval
Author: Stephanie Garber
Year published: 2017
Genre: Fiction (fantasy)
Rating: 5 stars

Before I get too invested in the writing, I’ll put a summary from goodreads below for those of you who may have never heard of Caraval and don’t know what the synopsis is. (If I try and summarise it myself, I’ll get carried away and end up just writing the entire book):

“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”.

I had very high expectations for this book. I was told as a lover of theatre – especially immersive theatre – and the book The Night Circus, that this book would be perfect for me and right up my street. From the above description, I’m sure you can see why. Audiences participating in a show? A game of magic? Sign me up! So, with my high expectations, with what people had told me about it and after seeing so many reviews raving about it online, I was really keen to get reading and see what my own opinions would be. Despite my hopes being sky high, the book still took my expectations and knocked them out of the park. I didn’t expect to love the book this much, nor for it to consume me as much as it did. So, let’s break it down so I don’t just throw my thoughts onto my blog and have this be the most chaotic post I’ve ever written. First up: The story Caraval is a fantasy book, with magic very much at its core. Fantasy is a genre I love but magic is a theme I am quite touch and go with as to whether I like it or not. Sometimes I feel it’s either too cliched, not believable enough, or on the other end of the spectrum, too far fetched, even for my imagination. In Caraval, I loved it. This was a perfect middle ground where you had to use your imagination, because of the magic within Caraval itself, but the story wasn’t so far fetched it was completely unbelievable beyond measure. It felt like you could almost believe this magical world and show/game existed if you really tried. One thing I love about this book is at its heart, it is about the importance of family. The book is largely about the relationship Scarlett has with her sister, Tella, and just how much Scarlett is willing to put herself through and how far she’ll go to keep her sister safe and make sure she is happy. This is something I’ve not read huge amounts in books and I love that one of the main themes in the book isn’t a romantic relationship, but a sibling one. There is a romantic sub-plot, but it’s just that – a sub-plot. In fact, I actually quite liked the romantic sub-plot. At the very least, it didn’t annoy me! And that is a bold statement coming from me, the girl who hates romance in books. As the story pans out, we are constantly reminded of the love Scarlett has for her sister, and that all she does, every action – is for her sister. I think that is just beautiful. The story was far from predictable. The characters are told several times that in Caraval, it’s easy to get carried away, but remember: it’s only a game. Of course, the characters do get carried away and forget it’s a game and start believing it’s real…but so did I as a reader! As a reader, I knew and remembered it was still all just a game, but as the show/game and reality were so closely intertwined and even merged in some parts, it was hard to not get carried away and forget it’s a game. Especially with the the continuously high levels of tension and drama. When reading, sometimes I thought I knew where the book was headed; by the next page, a major curveball would be thrown in, the book would head in a whole new direction and I had no clue where everything was headed. I found my head was constantly filled with theories about what would happen, or certain characters, but they’d change within the short space of a page because of the sheer unpredictability. It kept me interested, hooked, and made for a really interesting read consistently all the way through. Even to the last page, the book kept on surprising me and kept me guessing. The book has clearly been cleverly planned out and written; there are clues dotted throughout the book that hint to things that later are significant, but these clues are so subtle, I didn’t even pick up their meanings and importance until much later, or some not even until I’d finished reading, and realised just how everything slots together. I love this because since learning this, and reading the second book, I’m second guessing every single thing I read – every location, every character, every interaction and every tiny detail. It certainly gets me thinking, which, in my opinion, is what makes a good book! With all this being said, it’s no wonder I was so keen to read the book so quick to find out what would happen next, and no wonder the night I finished the first book, I was instantly moving on to read the sequel. In fact I actually find myself having a bit of a battle; I want to read the books as quickly as possible, because I love them so much and want to know what happens ASAP…but also as soon as I’ve read them – that’s it! Of course, I will read them again, but the first reading experience of a book this magical is quite special. But alas, I don’t have the self control to slow myself down. Next up: the characters. They were real. Sometimes they annoyed me, sometimes they didn’t – the same way as people in real life do. They made decisions I didn’t always agree with, I found myself cheering them on and feeling a whole range of emotions both joyous and heartbreaking. They were realistically written. I like how throughout the book, my opinions on characters were constantly chopping and changing. I like the depth the characters were written with and I really enjoyed reading the characters grow, change and develop as the book progressed. I sometimes find it hard to relate or connect to characters in books, and that can make everything feel quite closed off to me. I found this was a rare book where I found whilst I may not have been able to directly relate to the characters, I did still care for them and was even concerned how things were going to play out for them all. There were even characters in the book who you only meet for a page or two, but I still found so fascinating and interesting to hear from. Every character in the book – be them a lead role or a minor – had so much depth to them, and so much intrigue. Even our lead characters, by the end of the book of course you see them develop, but you still know to your very core that you’ve barely scratched the surface on who they are, and know there is still so much more to them than what you’ve already read. The book is filled with characters that are simply fascinating. Even when I wasn’t reading, I found I was thinking about what would be happening next in the book. Even now I’ve finished the first book, I have this feeling that I need to hurry up and read the next books in the series to see what happens to the characters I’ve come to love so much, and I assume, meet some new characters I’ll also come to love if the first book is anything to go off. I mean, with a show as large as Caraval running, you can only imagine how many people there must be making it run and performing…so here’s to looking forward to meeting and learning about many new people in the next book! The writing style. It was mesmerising. The beautiful descriptions were so vivid, it took me very little to be able to imagine myself exploring the world of Caraval. From the island Tella and Scarlett live on, to the island where Caraval is and the whole setting of Caraval itself, to every street, store, tavern, costume…every detail I read brought the world to life more and more. By the use of stunning and poetic writing, the book flowed so beautifully, it felt like I was really there experiencing Caraval for myself, hearing the carousel and the excited chatter of other audience members, the smell of the countless types of flowers, and witnessing the dazzling colours and spectacular sights. As someone who also really loves costumes, having all these gorgeous descriptions of the costumes everyone was wearing made me very happy. I’d like to have a whole book just about the costumes in Caraval, let alone anything else! There are few books that consume me to the level this book has. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, the world, the characters, any of it, since I started the first one. It feels like I’ve gone back to being my 16 year old self again. This fascination combined with the fact I can imagine experiencing such a wondrous place so easily, that I can get so lost in this fictional world and be so mesmerised by it, speaks for itself as to how much I loved it. And that is the beautiful book that is Caraval. It was more entrancing and magical than I could have ever imagined going in. It transported me to another world and was just a truly fantastic reading experience. Addictive, magical, one of the most stunning books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I’m actually quite concerned – this was the first book I read in 2021, and now – what if no other book I read matches up to this? Highly unlikely, I know, with the thousands of fantastic books out there just waiting to be read, but the thought did cross my mind…Anyway. Going back to what I said at the start – as a fan of The Night Circus and Immersive Theatre, I was told I would love it…that was an understatement and a half. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is the perfect read for beautiful escapism to a magical world…and I don’t think there’s a better time for needing that than right now.