THE WORST YA FANTASY BOOK EVER
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this is bullshit
This is astoundingly vindicating. Reading this book is like running on a treadmill thinking you’ll get somewhere
That’s exactly my feelings!!!!
now that's the most accurate description I've ever heard for that feeling!
This is the perfect description 😂
It's honestly so much worse when you read Once Upon a Broken Heart and The Ballad of Broken Heart and go into Carnaval expecting the same experience😢 those books were so much better
I read this book years back and I haaaaaaaated it
My review on goodreads for this book was: "I wanted girlboss but all I got was gaslit."
Top tier review tbh
I feel that man
Same
You're so real for this
You should've added: I wish somebody gatekept me from it.
Off topic but the parenting interlude was adorable!!
From an Old Mom, 👍 👍 👍
It was adorable and made me laugh honestly made my day a little better
“Um…poop?” “Yeah this book is poop.” KILLED me 😂
SPOILER
The reason her feelings have colors is bc you find out in book 3 that she actually has SUPER POWERS because her dad is the head of all the gods, gods that aren't even mentioned until book 2. Like..
What.
I never finished book 2. I'm sorry what on earth happened??? Donatella and Scarlett have super powers?? Do Julian and Dante have super powers too
How is it I read the whole series and missed this. To be fair, I read that one in 2019, then just read the third one recently without any refresher lolllllllll.
@@rono3457 the gods/fates are mentioned in book two, her powers arent revealed until book 3 when she realizes her real dad is the God of all the fates. Her and Tella are half siblings and their mom was really a theif idk
She literally had these powers in the first book- and the second book is based on Tela’s perspective. Like what?
Might as well have wings
My dumb ass thought the book was "Caravel", so I was picturing 15th century Portuguese ships 😅
I first thought the title said "Carvel," and I got excited for a story about ice cream cake.
i picked up this book thinking it was the night circus bc a lot of my friends were HYPING up the night circus (rightly so, it slaps) but when i read it i was like.... what are you ON
Same - I wanted this to be as beautiful and magical as the Night Circus…. It was not. Not at all lol
Yess!! I did the exact same thing. :(
Literally I thought it was awful but I had such high hopes 😭
The ending of this book really got on my nerves. Scarlett went through so much trauma just for none of it to be real and everyone to pretend its all good? Also Julian still wanting to be with her even though he was literally faking his personality the whole time was weird af to me. Very disappointing book.
THIS! That ending annoyed me so much, poor Scarlett was just dragged around, manipulated, lied to, and gaslit; just to have to prove her love for her sister. AGAIN!
ISN'T RUNNING AROUND LIKE A CHICKEN WITH HER HEAD CUT OFF ENOUGH?? Her sister would've gotten an uppercut from me, fr.
"Everything is a game" everything is a damn lie, more like it.
Like, I get that in Legend's twisted mind lying=fun=game. BUT! WE THE READERS ARE SUPPOSED TO LIKE THE DAMN MONSTER??? NO!!
I can say in defense of this book tho, it was very easy to read when I was in a reading slump.
@@JaneDoe_123 Yeah omg I also had read it when I was in a reading slump and it took me very little time to finish it aha. But yeah I did NOT like Tella or Legend or any of the characters really besides Scarlett a little bit.
@@sophialane4507 yeah, naíve as she was, she was sheltered and had been beaten into following very strict behaviours, it didn't take me out of it. But it's like every character, instead of helping her, took advantage of that.
Woo! Reading slump buddies! I've noticed that YA books and some murder misteries tend to do that for me, maybe because they're my Comfort zone books, since they're what I read the most growing up.
not to mention julian + legend potentially being old enough to have met their grandmother when she was scarlett's age??? and i'm pretty sure in that fever dream death part it shows legend WITH their grandmother, and considering that he gets with donatella...no.
and the lazy "we don't age on the island" to rectify the otherwise predatory age gap was so weird imo, especially since the magic system was never explained
I t feels like the author watched the movie 'the game' where a buisness man gets a real life game experience gifted to him by his brother and things go to shit and you never know if its real or not until the end. great movie, but the whole point of it was that the guy was a shitty human being and the game was to remind him of what matters in life and to humble him.
there was a goal behind that.
to me this seems like the author watched the movie, thought it was a clever concept, and threw a girl into it with no purpose to it and no reason that warrants it.
Caraval, Lightlark and Handbook for mortals feel like the three authors at some point sat down together and came up with this idea and other random things to throw in and came up with these books
As someone who ACTUALLY has synesthesia… it doesn’t work like that. Describing things as a sense they are not is just poor communication, when I describe my way of seeing the world it’s not like that at all. People’s voices have color and that color correlates to how they make me feel, songs do that too. I don’t hear a kitten getting its claws, that’s just nonsense.
“IS IT POOP?!”
“I would say so.”
😂💀😂💀😂🤣🤣🤣
See, I feel like a devils advocate, because I actually liked Caraval the two times I read it. 😅 It's such a nonsense book in a Wonderland kinda way with the whole "stage play" aspect, I just lost myself in it and read it all in one sitting. The writing is simple and I could easily picture the world as the story was happening, and some of the side characters were fun.
In honesty though, I never read the sequels. The first book finished in a way that I wasn't curious about what happens next, so maybe it goes downhill afterwards. Also to be fair, I read Caraval while in the middle of my massive depressive episode, so anything that activated serotonin was welcome. lol
I'm glad to see other people's opinions and I kinda want to reread the book and finish the trilogy now, just to find out why so many people have issues with it.
i read caraval years ago and was so upset about the ending. i tried explaining it to my sister but i genuinely couldn't cause i just couldn't recall which factoids actually turned out to be true (none, it turns out) and which got a twist, and what the final twist was. Completely convoluted.
Despite what people may say or feel about these bad book reviews, it is actually extremely helpful.
People in general don't know that a book to read, especially for fun is a luxury in some parts of the world. Especially me who lives in a remote place somewhere in Africa. Where there are no book stores and no library. I have to travel to a larger city 12 hours away. Its important not to spend so much money on a poorly written book because the hurt and disappointment is just extra. Because when I buy a book it's really a treat.
So thank you ❤
I have a special connection to this book b/c me and my best pal met in a Caraval RP server on a now-defunct website like 9 years ago. We hadn’t read it. We still haven’t read it. Glad to hear it was for the best lmaoooo 😂
This is awesome hahaha
I absolutely think so many of these criticisms were valid and I even agree with a lot of them, but I just CANNOT agree that it's worse than Lightlark. I feel like Krimson Rogue's (and everyone's honestly) breakdown of Lightlark is enough to show what a disaster that TRULY was and honestly it makes Caraval look like a minor offense in comparison imo
I still havent watched KR's video! It's so long
@Reads with Rachel I literally have it in my playlist a second time because it was so entertaining, it's my new favourite movie 💀🥲
I know I’ve watched a bunch if krimsonrogues videos but I wasn’t sure if I’d watched that one yet or not, went and checked and yeah apparently I’ve watched the 7 and a half hour video about a book I had never even heard of lmao
@@_laurenolo_ its like three movies 😭
The "wHYY??"/"I don't know. I would love the answer to that too, son." sent me over the edgeee 🤣
I feel like this entire book's aesthetic is "wasn't The Night Circus good? What if we made that, but without the good parts?"
(And no, I'm not claiming plagiarism, I'm just making a funny)
The shiny blue with the black lipstick are a really nice contrast! And with the glasses it ties the look together!
It's slapped together with spit, a prayer and a dry gluestick - this is genius and I shall be using in work when things do not make sense 😂
I think the divided opinions on this are so fascinating. Like I have never read this book yet I have heard several different booktubers I respect and enjoy talk about it. First time I heard about it someone totally hated it. Then someone else talked about it and absolutely loved it. Both of them talked about it in such different ways I was almost convinced they were talking about two different books. As I was watching your review I honestly wasn't still 100% sure if they were the same books (I'm now). But yeah I don't think I've seen a book divide opinions quite this much.
It's a "have to read it to know how to feel" kind of book. It also depends on what angle you're approaching it from. I loved it for the twisted magic, deception, lies, and confusion. If you're in it for a straightforward plot, you're not gonna get that from a book about questioning your reality
Acctualy someone recomended this series to me when I was ranting about YA promoting toxic relationships, or something around those lines. Anyway I usually run in the opposite direction when someone is branding any YA novel at me specially involving romance.
Omg hearing the "wtf" descriptor lines brought me back to my bafflement when I read it the first time!
Legit had to put down the book for 5 minutes at the "acidic, moldy" death part. Because I work as a nurse and like...Stephanie why would you write descriptors for death when you don't even know what it smells like? 😂
Sure I read the book fast, but I was powered by frustration and this is so validating because my friend touted this book lmak
wow. the statement on the thumbnail is pretty heavy. i’m so ready to see why 💀
Having never read the book, hearing the nickname Tella made me constantly think of the magician from the duo pen & teller, and that image is wild to me.
"What do lies even taste like?"
This book, apparently. Wanna try eating a page? =)
Also I hope your son got to play Mario when you were done, sounds like a good time. =P
I think it's cool that you went back to do this review now that you've come more into your own as a reviewer. I love seeing how content creators are developing their skills.
So, ,would you rather have "moldy and acidic and burnt" or "yolky thing?"
Yolky thing. By a very slim margin.
Now I just need an edit of the cover that says "Everything is a Lie" in the same font as the title in place of the title XD
I'm so upset over how good the cover is. It's been years, I'm still not over it
I was so obsessed with this series as a teen I bought a signed version of the second book 💀Please forgive me
I LOVED this book so I guess it depends on the person
Those glasses look amazing on you!
as a person who love caraval so much it hurts me a bit when peope hate my fav novel but i respect your opinion
So I've never read the book. And I imagine it is very poorly written. But I do feel compelled to point out that from your description, I believe what the author was trying to evoke was most likely not "a carnival" as understood in America. We think of a circus, or a street fair. What the description sounds like is "Carnivale", which is a very specific festival held under very specific circumstances at a very specific time of year. And one of the most famous is held in Venice. It has a lot more in common with Mardi Gras (to which it is related) than it does with a street fair or circus, and it is closely associated with kaleidoscopic color, sound and movement, chaos, a complete lack of sense... A lot of the aspects of the book that you absolutely hated were very reminiscent of Carnivale.
Having said that, I would guess that you can do a good job evoking the complete disorientation of Carnivale. You can also do a good job of telling a straight story with a hard-and-fast plotline. But it sounds like this author tried to do both and was therefore accomplished neither.
I read the first book before an year or two. Recently i read the second one and the third one too.
I do agree the whole thing has quiestions that are unanswered. That much is definitely clear. I believe that the constant twists - not knowing what is real until the very end is part of its charms despite the confusion it may causes. The whole "what if" was one of the resons that make me want to read so that i finally know the truth. I really disliked Donatella in book 1 but tbf i was left with my jaw hanging when i understood it was all her plan.
I appreciated the fact that i was tricked like that, making me see the whole book in another light just by the end of it because i simply didn't expect that.
I happened to read some autor notes on the book. It is said that the autor was planning on making Julian the Legend but decided against it and then that is how she end up trying to fool the audience into thinking it is him. /I hope i am not wrong/. I agree it would have been better if we got to see more of the of characters. In addition, the caraval is not a place. It is an event.. perhaps you connect it with the idea of a place because in book 1 it is in the private island ( or wtv it was called).
Why i think i loved the books though.. i believe it is because of the emotions i got to experience while reading. That is one of the reasons why i liked the way she described everything... Even though it could be overwhelming on times. To me it was specific things paired in such a way that make you stop and think about it and try to find your own visualization of it.
I didn't think it would be, but your review was an interesting thing to see now that i have just watched it. Because it is of course another perspective.
I wonder though - what made you read 'Legendary' ?
Curiosity.
@@ReadswithRachel I see. I was left with a bitter feeling after the end of 'Legendary' if I have to be honest.
But I loved 'Finale' even though I had my disappointments for some certain things.
Thank you for the answer since it has been a year for you since you read them. Have a good day or night . ( Maybe afternoon. You get the message. )
I could never figure out why I disliked this book. Now I get it and I feel much better!
Reading book was so tiring. Not only did so much of it only make only half way sense, by the end none of it mattered anyway. I read this book in two days just because I wanted it to be over and then the ending just made me even more angry
I just bought this book for something school related as it was the only age appropriate fantasy book translated to my 1st language 🤕
I only just finished watching your last video. Keep up the good work.
Holy shit, thank you. I read this book and hated it, and for the longest time I felt like I was the only one because so many people were praising it and saying it was their favorite book. I felt like I'd entered some backwards dimension or something.
I think what made this such a frustrating read was the fact that the "game" had constantly shifting goalposts and parameters, and random elements kept getting thrown in seemingly just for surprise/shock value. Even in a story like this, where the game is ostensibly hiding something more sinister, it still has to have internal logic, and clear rules and stakes that everyone understands. Otherwise it doesn't give the characters a fighting chance, and is unfair to the readers because it just leaves them in the dark.
I inevitably find myself comparing Caraval to the Hunger Games -- that competition is also obviously not just a "game" because players are fighting for their lives, but the rules are clear: every year the tributes are put into an arena with a different setting or theme, they must do everything they can to survive (whether it's teaming up with other tributes, receiving gifts from sponsors, or killing other tributes), and there can only be one victor who walks out at the end. The Gamemakers may throw in complications, but these complications are always either relevant to the theme of the arena, or obviously serving the Capitol's agenda of ruling the other citizens through fear -- there's never randomness for randomness' sake. And no matter what, the rules of the games do not change; we and the characters always know what the stakes are, and we know that the rules are immutable. This is *why* when Katniss uses those rules to her advantage at the end of the first book and attempts to eat the berries with Peeta, the Gamemakers are forced to intervene because they, too, are adhering to those same rules -- they would rather have two victors than no victor at all.
Caraval, on the other hand, is like "you have to solve these riddles to win, but dOn'T TrUsT anYonE, things are not what they seem, but also iT's jUsT A gAmE lmao." But then you have people throwing themselves off balconies, and some of the NPCs are other players but some of them are secretly working for Legend, and then you're told it's NOT just a game, but then at the end it IS just a game again?? I would think that a riddle-based competition would mean that the main character has to use their wits and logic to win, but this is impossible for Scarlett to do because literally everything she encounters has the potential to be fake. She's constantly being yanked around by the narrative because the parameters and the rules of the game keep changing -- hence it's impossible for her to have any character development. People die and we don't know whether that's real or part of the game, or even WHY they had to die (or make it seem as though they've died), so we don't know if the stakes are even real. We don't know why Legend does anything -- is it all just to fuck with people? With Scarlett specifically? We don't even know for certain *when the game is over.* If it's unclear how real the stakes are, and we can't trust anything Scarlett encounters over the course of the story -- what's the point of us reading this story then? It's fucking exhausting.
I feel like midnight tastes like dark chocolate and black coffee.
See if I were to assign a time to black coffee it would be 6 am!
@@ReadswithRachel you are so right
DA DA DADADADA DA DA CIRCUS
(please do Legendary if it means using that clip again 😂)
When I got this, I was so excited because I thought it would be amazing. Waiting for it I even made up in my mind what I thought the story would be like. And to be honest, I prefered the story that I made up myself more than this (I made up some magical circus story set in a town that is a mix of old venedig and old london where some people have powers and have to compete in a magical game). I thought this would be such a magical, special place that the author created, but when I read it, it all felt shallow to me. Caraval was ... nothing special. The fact that the father literally sold her away and when he found her after running away gave her finance the go to basically rape her, made me so sick. And the characters felt so shallow. Scarlett expressed her emotions in colors and nothing else and it didn't make me feel anything at all. And the ending was hilarious. And not in a good way. I wanted to love this. It was my most anticipated read of 2023, but in the end I was just confused af because everything is a lie, but not like good plot - twisty lies and instead only stupid things made up for shock value and not because they were important. Like 99% of the information she finds out is unnecessary
Can’t stop watching!
I've rarely laughed as hard as I just did for a book review (rant?) XDDD Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I read this when it came out and I also wasn't impressed. It could have been SUCH a cool story, but it was a mess. And Tella pissed me off so much, like how could you do that to your sister? and from what I remember there was no one calling her out on that??
23:10 took me out!! 😂 definitely the best gif and sound to describe how I felt about this book
The color and taste descriptions sound like a fragrantica review 😭
Your mom moment was great. Fantastic parenting!
Now I remember why I DNFed the series after the first book ... I also remember why I didn't remember the plot and only knew that the cover looks sort of familiar.
Yay I need glasses and I've been avoiding it, I will put Glasses USA at the top of my list. And high five -- blue is your favorite color because it's the BEST color, objectively 😉 I am unexpectedly going to be in Perdido/Pensacola on Monday, can't wait to enjoy that Florida sun, desperate for a beach day.
I loved this book 😢
"poop?" "yes this book was poop" lol
I have to say, all teens deserve to read at least one trashy teen book, but they deserve to read good books too
FIRST! Still in the sponsorship but I am seriously looking forward to this review.
Oh man, I get to watch you rip to shreds a book I disliked and a parenting interlude, too! "Poop?"
OMG! The Monopoly aside. SAME.
This author wrote a giant nothing burger and I’m still convinced that those who enjoyed this book were gaslit into believing there was a deeper meaning behind all the smoke and mirrors lies
Thank you. Though, with that claim on the thumbnail I feel obliged to save up money for a review commission of either Alex Von Richters 'The Victorian Vigilante' or Tricia Levenseller's 'Daughter of the Pirate King'. Is it possible to commission a review and let you pick?
To be fair, while I never read thr book, i always interpreted the tagline to be a deliberate misdirection. But there is a reason why I never read it...
You joke about golf but I'm watching Birdie Wing and I'm having a ball.
- Thing I like doing better than reading Caraval.
Hey that rhymed
Oh wow! You said exactly what I thought about this book (especially the Scarlet being boring part). My best friend and I consistently call this "the bad carnival book". Is it the worst YA book I've ever read though? I rated Poison Princess lower. Or Shatter Me. I have a special kind of hatred for Shatter Me...
Poison princess is truly terrible
I came here for your opinion after seeing someone buy a really expensive hardcover copy of Caraval yesterday lol
I only want to continue the series because once upon a broken heart is connected???? and is supposed to be better. But I was in so much pain by the end of this...idk if I can do it.
DONT DO IT SAVE YOURSELF. OUABH WAS TERRIBLE.
So glad I’m not the only one who finished this book angry with myself, the characters, and the author.
I'm down for a review of whatever the second is called. You just said it and I already forgot. I'm mostly interested in a review of that because I just won't ever read either book. I picked up years ago and then was like, "Nah." But I'll survive if you don't.
It just sounded kind of ridiculous and not up my alley. And it sounds like I was right. Thanks for constantly taking one for the team. 😅 I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts about The City of Dusk.
What’s that film where a guy’s deadbeat brother convinced him into this “game” that ruins his life and ends with his prevented suicide that marks he “won”? This sounds like a painfully YA version of that.
I cannot get Lightlark I do not know how to get an Amazon password and I always have problems with the verification code
Oh wow I unhauled this book last month cause I started reading it and it was hard to get into and then it had a bad memory attached to it.
The funniest part of caraval to me was the shear thoroughness in which every dress was described and how ugly they all sounded
God... i hate that this makes me want to find those excerpts, just out of morbid curiosity. (Cuz lord knows im not about to read this whole thing)
*sheer :3
Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way could never
It's one of my biggest pet peeves as a reader: when the author overdescribes their MC's pretty wardrobe. I. Don't. CARE. Just tell the frickin story.
Am reading Garber's related series right now and OMG yes. Less than six hours ago I was complaining at a brunch about how the only thing that gets any detailed description in these books are the 1980s Barbie dresses her and her stepsister wear.
Alternating picturing Donatello (the turtle) and Donatella Versace as the sister, either of which could have improved the book
What about Donatello in a wig that looks like Donatello Versace's?
@@lycianempire yes please, the best of both worlds 😂
Plot twist: Donatella Versace is actually Donatello the mutant ninja turtle. And Scarlett is Splinter. (I did not read the book. Obvs)
@@glitterdivine Nah, Scarlett is definitely Raphael (I also did not read the book)
Exact same thing that I was going through this whole review lmao
When she described a dress as "the colour of midnight laughter" I threw the book across the room 😩
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 yes, but how do I, the reader, understand what that is?
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 But the reader doesn't, so it doesn't give the reader any emotions. Like she says her embarrasment is yellow and that's it. The reader doesn't see any other signs of embarrasment. It's just emotions written lazy
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 she doesn't even have synesthesia, apparently it's some magical power she randomly has and somehow fully unlocks later on
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 schizophrenia
@@linkshorodk but I think I have word synesthesia and to me laughter is gold and midnight is deep velvet blue-purple exactly like the cover
Patiently waiting for Rachel to launch her “Teens Deserve Better Books” campaign 😅 I’d sign up in a heartbeat
I love Jennifer barber
Ooooh, she did make a video on teens deserving better YA books!
Like most stories, this would be infinitely improved if it had an entire Muppet cast.
Only Miss Piggy would not put up with any of this BS.
Added note: the creepy scene with the Count would be replaced with having to help him count things in a gloomy castle room.
@@lycianempire This would be so much better.
If the Muppets did an adaptation of this book, Miss Piggy would play Donnatella, and Scarlett would be played by the only prominent human actor on the film (like Scrooge in _A Muppet's Christmas Carol,_ Jim in _The Muppets in Treasure Island_ and Dorothy in _The Muppets and The Wizard of Oz)_
All stories are better with the muppets
At twenty minutes in I became convinced this is the Truman show and everyone around Scarlett are actors
I did read Caraval when it came out, but I honestly have no memory of it. I remember being really intrigued by the premise, but confused and disappointed with the actual novel, and that's literally all I remember. It was very forgettable apparently
Edit: Omg, I have synesthesia and I love reading books with characters who have it, because there's a lot you can do with it in writing. The fact that Scarlet has synesthesia and I managed to forget that speaks volumes
Same here. There was so much hype behind the release, the cover was beautiful (yes, I'm a sucker for a good cover), and the premise was interesting enough. But I found it far too easy to put down.
Do you have recommendations of other books with synesthesia?
@@rebeccapawela5417 A Mango Shaped Space is good for a realistic representation of synesthesia. Mondays Are Red is a more fantastical take on it.
The character flaw or quirk of being easily embarrassed isn't terrible, but it sounds like it was just done super poorly.
Absolutely. I'm easily embarrassed, and once, when I was fighting with a guy in school, someone asked me if I liked him. I didn't, but my face turned as red as a tomato out of embarrassment and no one believed me when I said I didn't because of it. Neither of us liked each other. In a book series all about romance, characters being easily embarrassed is a very convenient trope for reasonable misunderstandings and for funny scenes.
Marasi Colms in the Alloy of Law and the other books is a much better example, it’s actually done well there
"Poop?"
"Yes this book is poop."
Crying 😂😂😂
The entire of the first book DID NOT make sense. Like why couldn’t they just simply fake their deaths and leave?? Why did Tella put her sister through the trauma💀
"I'm salt, like Lot's wife"😂😂😂 this is so perfect! Love that so much🤣
no matter how bad uni gets, it is a highlight to see rachel tear into bad books haha
The idea of Caraval as the festival itself sounds so fun but this book drained me so bad... "He's Legend!" "No, he's Legend!" "No, maybe Legend was the friends we made along the way..." Please. And the end? Stop this madness. I was so done with the twists by the time it was revealed Julian is not actually Legend
The most frustrating thing to me is that ALL of the world-building, “true plot”, anything like that, is in the MIDDLE of book two! In terms of pacing a trilogy, this has got to be one of the most confusing to me. Caraval ends up feeling like a first draft of a decent (?) duology of legendary and finale.
I HAAAAATED this book so much. I didn’t want to finish it, but I kept on angry-reading it all. The whole trilogy.
I can’t fathom how so many people loved it so much.
- the setup/world-building: makes no sense, lazy
- the characters: what a bunch of unlikeable, bumbling idiots
- the story: so much contradiction and ridiculous coincidences
- but the writing,… the writing: please kill me. ‚Her electric confusion tasted like the deep blueof the ocean while she could hear the fuzzy softness of the wind in the distance‘ (made up, but could be legit in the book)
- the magic: it’s whatever Stephanie needs it to be for the next nonsensical plot twists
I had forgotten how bad and frustrating this was - I feel phantom anger again lol.
Thanks for this spot on review.
I bought the entire triology and I regret it!! Nothing made sense and the writing was so frustrating 😭😭 I tried to like it but just couldn’t
I agree. They acted like Caraval was such a special, magical thing but when they came there, it was nothing special at all. It was just a town and there was so little magic. And the magic that was there, was boring
@@idk-YS Same. I brought the whole series and regretted it as well
I read the series as a teenager with very little taste in books but I still hated it.
I tried to read the book all the way through, but I genuinely couldn't stand to. I'd go on a rant about all I strongly disliked about it, but you pretty much hit every nail on the head. I highly respect the amount of patience and willpower it takes for one to hate-read all the way through.
From the blurb I was kind of expecting a sort of fairy type thing where the sister is whisked away by a fairy circus and the lead only has a few days to find her before she becomes a part of the circus forever (sort of a labyrinth kind of thing) where we get chapters from the pov of both sisters; one trying to hunt down the circus, the other experiening it's wonders/terrors.
The actual plot is just odd, and not in a creative or fun way.
Its a shame as I love stories about carnivals and circuses. Oh well, guess I'll have to stick with the Night Circus.
I love nightmare circuses and carnival stories too!!!!!!
that is such a gorgeous plot for a book, you are so creative and i can truly feel your love for stories with carnival themes 🥹 i would love to read or write something with this plot, infinitely better than whatever caraval was 😵💫 the dual pov idea is brilliant!
Honestly I also thought thia will be like this. But instead of becoming part of the circous forever, she disapears with it.
I'll play devils advocate for a second in terms of her flowery descriptive methods.
She honestly sounds like she may have synesthesia. I have it, and the way she tries to describe interactions with the senses makes utter sense to me, because stars ARE sharp, and colors CAN have a sound or feel.
I hope that makes sense
unfortunately she doesn't even have synesthesia, apparently it's some magical power she randomly has and somehow fully unlocks later on
I think if any other aspect of the book displayed an ounce of intention, I'd give Garber a pass on the prose and take it on faith that it's there for a reason and that it means something. But the entire novel is just pretty frosting over a turd cake.
@@linkshoro Exactly. Her powers are never fully explained. I was so confused about that.
OR maybe write for most people who doesnt have synesthesia (or make it part of the story, i.e. make it make sense)@@johnwaggner9143
@@linkshoro Sorry for the random reply to a 10-month-old comment, but I think goddess up there was referring to the author having synesthesia IRL and that being why she describes things the way she does in the book. Like, she's trying to describe to the reader how those things look and feel from the perspective of someone who does, and the MC having magic powers is the handwavey reason she uses in the story for her as the writer to be able to put those real life experiences to paper.
Not excusing the remainder of the book, of course, just that one particular point :)
'I don't need to be nice to paper and ink.'
I'm getting this tattooed on my face
As a person with minor synesthesia, I do not think synesthesia does that
I also have synesthesia and (for me) it’s literally just numbers have shapes 😂
As a person who also has synesthesia, that’s not how it works💀
@@Pharm2be Of course numbers have shapes. That's how you know which number they are.
@@ms.moronic9165 I think they mean that the synesthesia affects numbers and shapes vs affecting emotions like the book says
@@starksandrecreation but there's different types of synesthesia
This is just 'gaslighting' the YA novel😭
I forgot what a fever dream this entire series was as you were summarizing everything. Strangely, I liked Donatella more than Scarlet simply because at least Donatella was a more active participant (via the second book) while Scarlet is being a wet blanket the entire trilogy. Donatella was annoying as hell but at least she didn't make me want to flip tables like her sister.
"I know Son it's frustrating when we want to do things and can't. I wanted to read a good book, but this..." 😆Parenting Goals right here
trilogy spoilers! idk if this is revealed in the first book but legend was deeply in love with tella's grandma and then decades later falls for the grandma's granddaughter (one of the sisters). such a weird plot twist
@@klane2004 lol yes. i just remember reading that plot twist in i think the first book (?) but i was oddly umcomfortable with tht. sure legend is immortal so he doesnt technically "age" but dating a girl then 70 years later, dating the same girl's grand-daughter? it aint right lol
when i first read this book i thought scarlett’s synesthesia was just her being cringe and describing her emotions like a 14 year old fanfic author would but no (slight finale spoilers if you care) it’s actually her superpower and it becomes plot relevant i can’t believe stephanie got away with this 💀
I read the last book a month ago and already cannot remember this plot point.
“Slapped together with spit, a prayer, and a dry glue stick.”
😂
I read this book in 2016 right when it came out, I was a teen with poor mental health and tbh this book just felt like a fun, fluffy Wonderland type story. It probably wasn't a masterpiece tbh, and I'm never gonna read it again, but I genuinely refuse to believe it was worse than LIGHTLARK of all things. And even if it was just as bad, you'd think we would have moved on to better things since 2016. Lol I guess I'm just willing to be more generous for the sake of nostalgia, but still, to me Caraval was just an age-appropriate, kinda silly but enjoyable YA book
same here! i read it when i was sad as a teen and it’s silliness and lightheartedness made it a fun read for 15 year old me to be honest. i wouldn’t read it again or continue the series and sure there are some problems but it was something that entertained me in a bad time so i cant hate it
I'm right there with you both, 14-16 (somewhere in there) me didnt get heavily emotionally invested in the characters and the horror fan in me was like "ooh twisted magic and deception?"
Yeah, I read it in eight grade and while it wasn’t a masterpiece it was entertaining and I loved it at the time.
You can still have nostalgic appreciation for a book and also think it was a terrible story. These things are separate. As someone who is part of the Twilight generation, while I have nostalgia for those books and fondness for the memories of reading those books with friends, I can fully admit now as an adult that it was a big pile of dung.
100% agree that a book being YA is not an excuse for poor quality work. It says a lot that folks are willing to make excuses if those affected are predominantly teens and women.
As for this book specifically, it seems like the author panted the first draft, then didn't actually fix any of the gaping plot holes. I've read a number of authors that write without a plan - but they do several drafts and fix up the mess of the first draft. It's wild to me that this was trad published - the amount of hands it would've gone through, and it's STILL like this??
"Dante is dead, or was dead." Who knew that even Caraval had Dante Must Die mode
Edit: "Dante's alive" oh thank god we need that crazy white haired half demon mf running amok to make this book interesting
Girl you need to stop dropping new vids while I'm trying to watch other videos because you know I'm gonna come running right over here.
Turning your kid being sad they can’t play Mario at the moment into an opportunity to roast this book was too good
aaaa i remember when i commented on your review of caraval, i think it was the first time i left a comment because i felt like i was finally not alone in my dislike of this book lmao the infinite cop-outs and the fact that there are no consequences to anyone's actions were so deeply unsatisfying and the amount of gaslighting scarlet goes through by literally any person important in her life are so problematic-- i remember feeling flabbergasted by the fact that the author decided to respond to her clearly traumatized protagonist, that just saw two people important to her (no matter how instalove julian was) die with her not being able to do anything about it with just a silly afterparty scene. like WHAT. i vaguely remember liking the shapeshifting dress and i think that's the only thing that left a good impression on me of this whole book jajajaj
I always felt that there was something a bit poetic about how much work was put into Caraval's packaging compared to how little work was put into the contents.
I don't know who remembers this, but Caraval had such a stranglehold on... basically half the book world in the months PRIOR to its release. It was hyped to high heaven. It was Macmillan's biggest effort to push a book in years. It was in every subscription box for the month of its release. The hardcover has four different (beautiful) designs and we were all talking about which one we would get. It was likened to The Night Circus.
And then it came out. If half the time put into its physical development and marketing had instead been put into the contents, we might actually have a forgettable but decent enough book. Instead we have... Caraval.