Caraval

From beginning to end, my heart raced with Caraval. Stephanie Garber created such compelling characters. I adored Scarlett, but with both Tella and Julian, there was so much more to them. Scarlett grew, so much in the story. She went to wanting just to escape, but also wanting to live. Not only did she learn about what people were capable of, good and bad, she learned about herself. She was more than what she thought.

Tella was more as well. There is a strength, as well as a level of duplicity beneath her colourful attitude. By the end, I didn't know what Tella was going to do. I didn't know if she was lying or what her plans were. Julian stole my heart a little though. He was torn throughout the story. Something about Scarlett though, she made him happy, I think. Being with her made him happy in a way he did not think was possible.

[Lite Spoilers] Caraval is a complex story. It sort of reminds me of Ocean's Eleven, where we see what happens, but then the end is a surprise. At the end, we take a journey back through the story so that we can see what was really going on the whole time. Even now, with two more books in the series, I don't know what's going to happen next. The future of Caraval is really unknown. I feel like anything could happen. Tella could die, she could also meet Legend and marry him. Their father could come back. The count is definitely not out of the picture.

One thing I absolutely loved was Stephanie Garber's use of colour to reflect how Scarlett was feeling. She even discusses her own name. Scarlett is red, which is the colour of love AND lust. Red can be positive and negative. The use of colour to describe feelings was a brilliant tool. I thought at first it was just part of Garber's writing style, but then I began to wonder if Scarlett had magical abilities and this was how it manifested. Maybe I'll learn more about it when I read Legendary. I'm definitely a fan of Stephanie Garber now. I look forward to reading more of her work.