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."
Review:
Wow, what a rollercoaster of a book. Sooooo much happened. It truly was a game of epic proportions and it was threaded far deeper into the story than I thought possible. I’ll be honest though, I have mixed emotions about it. We have all these clues and a bigger story at play here, but everything that happens in the game is an illusion? Nothing really matters? But everything has consequences? 
I really enjoyed the game, I’ll start there. For our main character, there wasn’t anything fun about it, it was a true quest for her kidnapped sister. Along with her we try to piece the clues together as much as we can and follow along as it gets more and more complicated. We have the handsome Julian who’s not all that he seems, a few cast of characters along the way who may or may not be a part of the game too, and more magic than our brains can even comprehend. It was incandescent to say the least.
And listen, did I have ideas of what was gonna happen next? Of course I did. Were any of them right? No, but the answers were out of complete left field. After all the emotional trauma we go through throughout the game, when it’s over we’re supposed to just... go to a party? It was very much like the director called cut, that’s a wrap, but the story was still going. I am truly spinning.
Now here's my issues: I'll briefly mention that Scarlett A) is engaged to a man she's never met, then B) falls in love with a guy over the course of the game which is 5 tremendously short days, THEN tries to switch sides and tell her sister "you can't marry a guy you just met"???? Oh, honey. No. You're not the Elsa of this story, you’re Anna.
But the biggest issue of these books is nothing tangible about the story. The magic has no real form and makes no sense. The characters themselves are constantly changing, and not in the "they're growing as people" kind of way, but their entire being changes from day to day and it's hard to understand or pin them down. And finally, the most frustrating part for me was the clues. We have hundreds of people who participate in Caraval every year and they can't seem to figure out a single clue, right? Then we have our main character, who seems to just stumble upon clue after clue, even when she's wrong! And the employees of Caraval practically spoon feed her the answers. AND THEN SHE'S APPLAUDED FOR FIGURING IT OUT???? HUH????
I’m not sure what I feel to be quite honest. I would be lying if I said the book didn't make me feel things, because it did. And there were points that I applauded Scarlett's caution in a world with no rules, despite everyone's best efforts to get her to abandon them. But I think my issues with it are substantial, especially at the end. It truly made me feel like nothing matters, any emotional trauma you may have suffered was just a row, but hey the consequences may come in the next book? I'm not entirely put off yet, so I am going to try and read the next book, but I won't make any promises.
Thanks for reading! Leave your own thoughts and feels down below in the comments! And I’ll catch you on the next game!
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