All right, we’re back with another book review! It hasn’t been that long since I wrote a review because I posted the Iron Flame review about a week ago. But, I did read one book between that and this one, Caraval, which I didn’t think was worthy of a lengthy review because it didn’t feel like the type of content you guys might be looking for. But, if you’d like to hear about it (it’s called Less is More by Jason Hickel), I will post a review. Now, back to business!
I read Caraval in about two days, which is pretty close to my record of a day and a half (no surprise, that was Icebreaker), but I think that’s a pretty big indication of how much I liked the book. It was a super cool and fun world, and the layout and structure felt similar to a heist, fantasy book, so I loved the vibes of Six of Crows that it gave me. I love Six of Crows, so that was definitely a pro. But, it was unquestionably Y/A, had little smut/physical romance, and was a super simplistic writing style. That’s probably why I flew through it; I was super engaged the whole way through and could understand what was going on easily.
That’s not to say the plot twists and turns didn’t surprise the heck out of me, because they did. I was gasping and nuh-uh-ing for my life in the last half of the book, which gave me such an awesome feeling of drama, theatrics, and high tensions. That was the vibe of basically the whole book, and it was absolutely what I needed. I have little to no complaints about this book. Would it be one of my all-time favorite books? No. Did it change my life and force me to question my soul? Nope. But it took me back to parts of my childhood while also appealing to my taste in books right now. I loved the Six of Crows vibes, the fantasy and tension, and the colorful, magical, performance world. It was difficult not to visualize everything about the book, which is one of my favorite things to do, so I enjoyed that as well.
In conclusion, I had lots of fun reading Caraval, breezed through it, and didn’t see the plot twists coming—but then again, I never do. It was a great read for me to have at the moment and a perfect world to escape to, which is what I love about fantasy and fiction.
Genre: Y/A, fantasy, fiction, light romance
Age: 12+
Rating: 8/10