Now without further ado this week’s victim - I mean story - is Caraval by Stephanie Garber. 

Now I know this book is really popular on BookTok, Reddit and Goodreads but I personally don’t think it’s worth reading unless you choose unrealistic relationships over plot. Garber presents us with a colourful and unique world full of magic and games with incredible world building skills and a map to match it. However, it does not make up for the sheer annoyance I constantly saw in Scarlett. Several reviews on the book say things like, “An unbreakable bond between two sisters” (Garber 1), but  that is complete horse dung. Throughout the story the only thing on Scarlett’s mind was “Donatella this” or “Tella that” which was the most infuriating thing ever, especially considering that at the start of the book it was clear that Donatella would do anything to indulge her selfish desires and did not care as deeply for Scarlett as she did for her. 

Even as Donatella was taken as part of the game (it’s not a spoiler, it’s written in the summary of the book), Scarlett would not stop worrying about her sister even though it was clear she was being well cared for. As the book progressed, I started to see some character development and as the romance sub plot picked up it made the story marginally better. However when the plot came to a grand finale and Scarlett was reunited with her sister all that development went down the drain and instead of reaching out to her or going on a rant about how much she loved her sister, all Tella did was gaslight Scarlett and ignore the trauma she went through to get her. And while there was some miniscule redemption arc at the end for Tella, she was still a pain in the rear.

Now all that being said, there were aspects of the story I enjoyed, such as the unique world and romance subplot between Scarlett and Julian. The whole story was very clever and the idea was  good but the execution could have been a lot better. 

Overall the story was three out of five. Incredible characters. Enjoyable world. Unique magic system. But the relationship between Scarlett and Tella…now that was painful to read.