Audiobook Review: Caraval by Stephanie Garber {4.0}

Title: Caraval

Author: Stephanie Garber

Series: Caraval #1

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Publication Date: January 31st, 2017

Pages: Paperback, 407

My Rating: 4 Stars

Remember, it’s only a game…

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. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval…beware of getting swept too far away.

When I first heard of Caraval, there was already a lot of hype surrounding it. I didn’t get why people were so excited, because this book made me think of The Night Circus, which was really dragging for me. I mean, they both promise amazing performances and lavish worlds, and I thought that this book might be excessively descriptive of the world. Turns out, I was very, very wrong. I’m really glad that I gave Caraval a chance, because I would have missed out on a fantastic story.

Caraval is not my typical read, what with all the deception and excitement that happens in the story, but I loved it nonetheless. Truth be told, I don’t really know how to review this book because so many things happened within just 400 pages, and I still can’t wrap my head around everything that happened. But what I can say is that it had my heart pumping, my head guessing and my whole being anxious. It kept me on my toes, and it has that addicting feel to it that I just couldn’t stop listening to it even though I was supposed to be reading other books.

Caraval is so far from what I expected it to be, and I’m just glad that I caved into the hype, because the hype is totally worth it. The world and the characters are so complex, and the mystery is really intriguing. There’s just too much more to find out about this world, and I cannot wait for the next book!

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The Narrator: The narrator is truly amazing. I think that she played a part in my loving this book. She really had so much emotion in her voice, and I love how she portrayed the voices of each character differently. I would love to listen to more audiobooks narrated by her. I think my only problem was the long “No”s from Scarlet. I don’t know, they sounded weird to me, like I just wanted to fast forward the audio so I wouldn’t have to hear it. But other than that, she really did an amazing job.

4 worth the hype stars