Caraval Review

This week's novel is Caraval by Stephanie Garber.

Scarlett is trying to get herself and her sister away from their abusive father and believes the only way to do that is an arranged marriage that will take her away.  A week before her wedding, she gets tickets to Caraval, a magical carnival/game.  When her sister is kidnapped as part of the game's mystery and it turns out there's history between the Caraval master and Scarlett's family, Scarlett has to win the game or see her sister killed and Scarlett's marriage and escape from her father ruined.

There's good kissing in this.  I'm particular about what I like in romantic relationships built on lies, but this one turned into shades of "Charade" as Scarlett knew the guy was full of lies and his story changed so often that there wasn't any point in believing anything he said.  And the kissing was good.

It took some space for me to figure out why this book didn't work for me.  I think what happened was that Caraval is only vaguely defined to the point where I made up some expectations that were never fulfilled.  Not explaining Caraval and an intrisic sense of confusion over what's part of the game and what isn't are major parts of Caraval, so I can understand why this happened.  However, it's described as "magical" and filled with "the greatest performers" and it's called Caraval, which brings to mid Carnival.  So I was expecting magical jugglers and acrobats and fire breathers and musicians.  I was expecting a parade and fun-loving debauchery.  That's not what Caraval is, and it did take me until I was done with the book to sit back and realize what it was.  Caraval is more like a Renaissance Fair or a big LARP.  The performers are actors and the magic is mostly that you can buy extravagant (and possibly magical) items in exchange for telling your greatest fear or giving a day of your life.  Most of the players at Caraval are there to shop.

Presented like this, Caraval is pretty straight forward: there's a game like a murder mystery dinner, a bunch of actors who give clues, and some magical glowing buildings and food thrown in for ambiance.  Maybe explaining it would make it too straight forward and undermine some of the dream logic and confusion about what's real and what's not.  But I feel like from the stories about Caraval with which Scarlett grew up, she would have understood this.

It also hurts that Scarlett is a huge wet blanket who refuses to get involved in the experience even though she's dreamed about it her whole life.  She's like the new person your friend brought to your D&D campaign, who won't get in character and is continuously saying, "This is weird, you guys."  It sucks out some of the magic for the reader, and it makes it so that if cool things were happening at Caraval like I had imagined the reader doesn't get to see them becuase Scarlett doesn't care and we're following her point of view.

***

Next week's novel: The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Spanish inspired YA fantasy by Rae Carson