Warning: May contain spoilers, but opening comments are spoiler-free. Check out my Reading Ranting page for more.
Once again, the Dragna sisters are playing a bigger game than everyone else, but Tella is playing this time, and she’s adamant that it’s not real. It’s like Alice in Wonderland meets The Greatest Showman, and I got dragged down the rabbit hole right along with Tella. Everything was so imaginative and incredible and quirky.
As the epilogue in Caraval’s book 1 suggests, we now switch to Tella’s POV and her search for her mother. Now free from their abusive father, Tella and Scarlett follow Julian and the other Caraval performers to a very special game, where Tella ends up playing to win the one thing she needs to free her mother.
Mid book theory (not telling you if I was right or not so it’s not a spoiler) – There is no Legend. The performers run Caraval together and create rumours about Legend. They take it in turns to play him from a distance so nobody ever sees him properly.
What I liked…
More secrets. Tella reveals her secrets gradually and made me suspicious about Scarlett.
We meet some new characters and get more insight into existing characters via Tella.
I loved the romance in this book. It was a little fiercer even though Tella is younger than Scarlett. She’s also more passionate and willing to take risks which makes her POV that bit more interesting.
What I didn’t like…
Despite loving Tella, it took me a while to get into her POV. I think it was because I was too invested in Scarlett’s story from book 1 and I needed time to let that go.
This felt very imbalanced in tone. Some moments were on the very young side of YA compare to Scarlett’s POV. Then it flipped to the more mature end with some racy romantic moments.
Final thoughts…
Despite being just a bit too young in tone for me at times, I loved the story and all its adventures and surprises. It’s the perfect book and series to get lost in.
Love Fantasy Novels 