Caraval ~ Stephanie Garber (Caraval #1)

★★★☆☆

Dec 18th, 2018 update: I've been thinking about it more and I'm gonna lower my rating from 4 to 3 stars since tbh this book is trash and really doesn't stick with you afterwards. (The review has been appropriately changed to reflect this.)

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Hope is a powerful thing. Some say it’s a different breed of magic altogether. Elusive, difficult to hold on to. But not much is needed.

A simple, easy-to-read novel that's a good thing to shut your brain off and read. It dips its toes into depth but doesn't delve deep, and overall paints a nice enough picture.

I found the world not particularly interesting but that's just because nothing at all was fleshed out. There are no info dumps because there was no setting exposition. This book takes place in a proverbial white room. The time period parallels were impossible to figure out, though I'm thinking it's early 20th century or perhaps late 19th. Also...was the "foreign" language literally just Spanish? Because it looked like it was just Spanish.

The magic was also unimpressive and lacked charm. The characters were generally cardboard. Tella is literally the worst and I hate her, and Julian was convoluted. Scarlett was nice enough though. The ending was dreadful and the game itself was fairly boring.

Why did you give this 3 stars if you dislike just about everything about it? you ask.

Well, that's because of what I said earlier. It's mindless. I can literally shut off and just read it and enjoy myself because I don't have to read between the lines. It doesn't really try to be anything other than what it is. It doesn't go off waxing philosophical or advertise itself as profound or revolutionary. And for that, it's refreshingly honest. It's nothing but what it is, a stupid young adult book with a "swoony" love interest and a "witty" MC girl of undetermined age.