Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Rating: 2/5 stars
☆☆☆★★

Scarlett and Donatella Dragna have lived with an incredibly abusive father ever since their mother had died. Scarlett, enchanted by all the stories her grandmother told her about the mysterious Caraval (a five-day spectacle of magic and games), wrote every year to the owner of Caraval for tickets. Finally, the one year she doesn't want them, she gets them. She loses her sister in the process, and has to do her best to win the game and find her.
I believed all the hype. I trusted y'all. ;__; So I'm insanely disappointed.

This book was very promising at the beginning! I was intrigued and disgusted and was ready to get into all the magical elements. The writing at the beginning about Caraval and what it looked like was beautiful (but also a little like the author tried too hard to make it sound beautiful, if that makes sense). But after the first night, this book went downhill.

To sum it all up quickly: this book just gave me a major headache, and I was screaming at the main character the whole time.

The story took many twists and turns, which I thought would be enjoyable, but they were all SO predictable. And I'm normally horrible at predicting things...  I get that the ending was totally trying to play with the readers' emotions, and I was feeling that way at first, but SO MANY THINGS WERE TWISTY TURNY PLOT TWISTS that it just made me tired and made my headache bigger. I wish I was kidding about the headache. :(

Scarlett, the main character, was the weakest character I've probably ever read about in my life. She has nothing going for her. She was whiny, weak, and even forgets about the main quest multiple times.

The romance was weak. Scarlett was just so.. prudish? I feel like that's sort of a rude word, but I can't think of another word right now? She definitely opens up to the love interest, but it just doesn't seem that real.

I'm also really annoyed that Caraval was so personal. No one else had the chance to find the prize, and that really ticked me off!!! These people probably traveled around the world for the chance to win a wish, and they didn't even have a chance!!!! >:(