Book Review of Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Caraval by Stephanie Garber has taken the YA world by storm, but it is the most disappointing book I have read so far this year. It was possibly one of the most hyped releases of 2017, and every person I've talked to keeps saying how epic it is. So, as much as it might make me unpopular to disagree with the masses, I thought posting my more critical/less "OMG, squee!" style review of Caraval might be helpful to two camps of readers: the first camp, who are the potential readers trying to decide if reading a specific book is a good investment of their time and or money (these are the readers I usually write my reviews for), and the second camp, who are the, "Does not liking Caraval make me a monster/philistine?" readers. So, please go into reading this review with the understanding that it is basically a list of the problems I had with Caraval, and that I am not recommending this book under any circumstances. Because some of the issues I had with the book had to do with the ending, this is a spolier-y review. I feel that, for everything Caraval tries to do, there are several other titles doing it better. If you want my advice, go read those, instead. At the end of the review, I will include a list of recommendations for: if you wanted to read Caraval for _____ element, I'd recommend _____ title instead.

Caraval is such a blatant attempt to be The Night Circus, I actually kept finding myself wondering how it could've gotten published without some kind of legal action for copyright infringement as I was reading it. Both feature a hard-to-access setting that contains part reality and part magic. Both settings play host to people who are part of the show, and people who are there to observe or participate. Both are only open at night. Both have a purpose beyond simply magic for pleasure and spectacle. Both are supposed to feel simultaneously wondrous and dangerous. Both contain a fair bit of correspondence about the magical setting, and, in both books, some of the correspondence takes place between a person who is on the "inside" of the setting and not entirely forthcoming, and one who is on the "outside" and is fairly transparent. Both feature a young woman who is wearing an ever-changing enchanted gown, and is poised to risk it all in a dangerous romantic entanglement. There's even a very important male character in Caraval who appears dressed as a Reveur. Seriously?

But, wait: what is supposed to make Caraval different? Oh, yeah... the Night Circus is only black and white, and Stephanie Garber seems to reference nothing more than Caraval's vibrant hues. In fact, they are ubiquitous. There was no convention of Garber's writing more tired and grating than her constant insertion of color words into her description of feelings, or her use of color as metaphor for what the character was currently experiencing. Not only was this lazy writing (and a confusing stretch, because sometimes the colors mentioned seemed to have no relation to the feeling Garber had slapped them onto), but it also smacked of desperation. It was like somebody read an earlier draft of Caraval that lacked these tired pigment-based references and called Garber out on (what probably seemed even more at that point like) her tired Night Circus fanfic with a half twist, and suggested that what she could do to really differentiate the two wasn't to write a wholly original book, but to keep pounding the idea of vibrant colors into the reader's mind. This was ineffective. It was annoying. And, it was an obvious fail for surface-level originality where so many other elements of Caraval were clearly lifted from The Night Circus and plunked down on Garber's colorful island.

Aside from that, Caraval purports to be a book about sisterly bonds, but the relationship between the two sisters is given almost no page space. Instead of showing her readers any actual development of this dynamic, Garber settles for the lazy trick of constantly repeating that Tella is Scarlett's number one priority, but since she has merely told me this dozens of times, instead of shown it to me once, I really wasn't buying it. And, when you don't buy what is supposed to be the protagonist's main motivation, the book becomes boring. It also starts to fall apart under closer scrutiny. If this special bond between Scarlett and Tella was supposed to be Scarlett's driving motivation, why didn't Garber illustrate that on the page? Slogging through Caraval's 402 pages leaves me inclined to believe it's because she didn't have the writing chops to do so. (It also made me wonder how many pages could've been cut from Caraval if those tired color/feeling references had simply been removed.) Adding to this lack of showing and glut of telling about the importance of the Scarlett/Tella sisterhood is the fact that every time Scarlett has a chance to make a choice which would underscore this relationship as her main priority, she seems to choose the opposite thing. For me, that changes the story from something with the prospect of having an interestingly unreliable narrator to something where the telling is supposed to stand in for the showing, even when what little is shown contradicts what I've been told as the reader, and the author doesn't take the time to explain why.

Moving on to what is supposed to be a compelling potential romance between Scarlett and Julian, I wasn't feeling the chemistry. If the basis of your "I can't stand you/I can't get enough of you" romance is that the guy refers to the girl whose name is Scarlett as "Crimson" constantly, that doesn't feel like an inside joke, a flirtatious jab, or relationship building... it feels like a desperate attempt to produce chemistry where there isn't any, and a manufactured bond where the author (once again) hasn't done the work on the page to make me believe it. And, this seems to be the only instance of that, so Garber uses it ad nauseum, without any variation. It is supposed to be a relationship built upon one teasingly annoying nickname. Also, Garber seems to have no clue what Scarlett actually wants from Julian, without bothering to acknowledge that she might (understandably) have confusion and use it to build her character or add tension to scenes they share. She is constantly saying that Scarlett wants something different from Julian than protection, but also saying she felt protected by him and that she liked the feeling. So... which is it supposed to be? Interactions between Scarlett and Julian couldn't feel any more fake and predictable to me, so instead of distracting me from Caraval's many other serious writing problems, they drew more attention to the flaws I felt the relationship was designed to cover.

...like, for example, the mystery plot. Scarlett is supposed to be inside Caraval solving the mystery using manufactured clues provided by Caraval's organizer Legend to find her sister Tella (kind of like how Triwizard Tournament competitors were supposed to locate their abducted loved ones in HP 4). Scarlett is given no character development before the mystery begins that supports any level of deductive reasoning. In fact, readers are shown her overall cluelessness and willingness to buy whatever she's told, rather than looking at what is actually going on at the outset of the book, when she has no inkling that Tella has arranged for Scarlett to be kidnapped and taken to Caraval to participate in the game Scarlett has always wanted to play.

The clues, which Scarlett doesn't even have to work for, are bothersome because they don't rhyme (though, they are presented in such a way that it seems like they are supposed to), and they are so generalized that they could fit any conclusion Scarlett forces onto them. So, even after Scarlett uses the absurd clue to reach the wrong deduction, the reader isn't left with the ability to shout, "No, that's wrong, do this instead!" in the style of horror movie watchers who have seen the teenage girl run up the stairs when she could've gone out the door. Rather, they are left to sit, frustrated, and go, "Well, that could fit, I guess...? Though, it seems like that isn't the answer." Because a clear answer after successfully parsing the clue would just be too much to ask for from such a poorly thought-out plot.

I also have trouble with Garber's treatment of magic, using it as a Band-aid to fix whatever she doesn't want to explain, or accept as permanent, while not consistently and clearly communicating the rules of magic within Caraval. Any time Garber didn't want to do the heavy lifting to think through how something might actually work, it felt like she slapped the label of "magic" on it and went on her merry way to label another emotion as a color or have Julian call Scarlett "Crimson" again.

And, finally, here's my issue with the ending. Tella's character is almost completely undeveloped. Through the whole book, Garber constantly repeats that Tella is impetuous and selfish, constantly indulging in her own desires, rather than thinking through the consequences and acting accordingly. So, as the reader, I'm supposed to believe that Tella wrote to Legend on her sister's behalf, cooked up a whole Abominable Bride-meets-The-Truman-Show-style scheme with him, planned every painstaking detail to make it happen in terms of faking their kidnapping, getting Scarlett to Caraval, and putting the ticktets in their father's hands? (And that is all assuming everything that happens once inside Caraval falls on Legend's shoulder to orchestrate.) ...all without any sort of incident that would change her character into a more dynamic one and explain her sudden personality shift? If she really is a selfless planner, how am I supposed to believe, as a reader, that she is also Scarlett's first priority, when it's clear from the contrast between her behavior and Scarlett's characterization of her sister that they don't add up? Wouldn't Scarlett have to know her sister well in order to put her first? For someone as flighty as Garber keeps saying Tella is, I'm not buying that she would've had a hand in masterminding and carrying out such a grand plan.

So, since Caraval failed on basically every level for me as a reader, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, here's a list of books I would recommend, depending on what element(s) you were seeking from Caraval:

• For a moving depiction of sisterly love with much more of that type of relationship actually developed on the page, read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
• To be swept off of your feet and transported into the magical setting Caraval so desperately wanted to be, read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
• For a more general sense of historical adventure with a female protagonist, with an equally feminist look at how women and girls were treated in other times and places, read The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig.
• For a thoughtful portrayal of an intelligent girl character who is trying to relate to a guy, but whose trust has been affected by trauma, read A Study In Charlotte (book one) and The Last Of August (book two) by Brittany Cavallaro.
• To be thrown back on your heels by multiple unreliable (female) narrators of a powerful story, read The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma.
• For a complicated and intense YA relationship unfolding against a supernatural/magical-type of backdrop, read the Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin or Wizard and Glass by Stephen King.