So I read Caraval by Stephanie Garber several summers ago, during the years where I was absorbing as much YA reading as possible without letting myself have my own thoughts on things such as personal preference, character appeal, how decent the storytelling and landscape development were, etc. As you can imagine, once that rose-tinted lens of reading dropped away and I had a long hard look at the books I supposedly loved (because why else would hundreds of dollars worth of books be on my shelves if I didn’t love them?) I came to the troubling fact that I was fooling myself.

After giving it several years, watching the hype over Once Upon A Broken Heart and Jacks especially blow up on bookstagram and booktok, I’ve decided to give the series another read with more mature, analytical eyes to see what it is about Caraval that I like and what is not my cup of tea. I should make it abundantly clear here and now that my opinion is by no means fact, nor should you be swayed from your own opinions of this book and Stephanie Garber’s writing just because of my words. Everyone reads differently. We have preferences and moods that change and may just bed different and thee’s nothing wrong with that.

Let me start with some positives. The pacing in this book is really great. From the beginning, we understand that there is a time pressure to attend this event and we are not slowly drawn into this world. Another great tools used in cohesion with the obvious pacing cues is the call to exercise caution. Twice the rules are given to Scarlett and we get echoes of reminders throughout the book. Together these really work well to get the tension in line with the countdown and for a story like this it really requires such a situation. While others are at Caraval simply to indulge is magical adventure, there is a serious reason Scarlett is there and every minute that goes by, every sunrise, the clock ticks.

The description and magical elements of this book are beautiful. The use of colour, scents, taste and emotion paints this beautiful yet dangerous setting, however, I wish there was a little more attachment to the description. There are times were Scarlett is observing these things like she’s removed from it instead of being in the centre of it all. I think had her surroundings and the activity around her been pulling her in more, distracting her from her goal which is to find Donatella, Scarlett’s journey through Caraval would have felt more engaging to me as a reader if there were more times where she had to correct her wandering attentions. We know she loves Tella, but having to physically pull herself away from distractions (images, celebrations, the jubilations of other guests trying to uncover the answers, Julian, red herrings, etc.) would’ve sold the magic of Caraval for me.

It seems like there were no other guests there past the first day. If Scarlett has a familial connection to Donatella, which the guests are aware of because she made such a big deal out of trying to gather her things from the masses trying to find that clue, people should have been following her. People should have been trying to stop her from doing things because she has the biggest chance of finding her sister and winning. To only be approached once after that initial night seemed odd. Almost as odd as the unspoken age gaps going on but I won’t get into that today. I’ll leave that for Legendary or maybe Finale.

While the description was nice and the pacing and tension worked in tandem with each other, I have to say the story isn’t as punchy as it could’ve been. This second read-through didn’t leave me with the magical leftovers I vaguely remember having the first time. There wasn’t a lot of depth to become engaged in the story, not a lot of personal investment in characters and their well-beings or relationships. The only time I felt for either of the Dragna girls was when their father was around.

It’s looking like this series is one that isn’t quite my vibe within the fantasy books and that’s okay. I’ll still be reading the whole series to see what my thoughts are and to prepare me for the even more hyped series of Once Upon A Broken Heart.