Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

26 reviews

steen19's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is totally YA for a reason. The main character is painfully immature. 

The final ~15% of this was really fucked up. Like serious psychological trauma. 

This book is like 80% telling and only 20% showing. The MC kinda just walks up on situations and people recount it all. There weren’t really game-like challenges or carnival ambiance.
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jessicaludden's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“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.”

I loved Scarlett. I loved Julian. I loved how this world was so unpredictable and full of risk. The magic left me with a simultaneous feeling of wonder and unease. The ending felt a little rushed and there was a lot going on. Everything in Caraval is truly not what it seems and I’m excited for the rest of the series.
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abortress's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

the main character is insufferable. but the intrigue surrounding the story itself kept me going; i really wanted to see how it could end. i can't possibly read the next book kuz i spent the entirety of this one annoyed.

WARNING: there is an age-gap trope
one of the male characters is decades older than the female character he gets romantically involved with, like old enough to be her grandfather, but i guess it's fine kuz he LOOKS her age due to mAgIc
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gretchen_lynn's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The plot twists in this book were excellent and were foretold nicely so that they were believable. The cliffhanger was slight, but not too much, so one could conceivably stop after the first book and perhaps end on a decently wrapped-up ending. It was not everything that I was expecting it to be if I'm being honest, but perhaps that is on me for having the expectations that I did.
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glorytowers05's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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skeptic_hecate's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This has more twists than the Amazon river, except that, unlike the Amazon river, the twists here are pointless and full of plotholes. I didn't like the protagonist at all, Scarlett Dragma reads like an anime filler episode monologue:
"I should do 'x', but if I do 'x' then I cannot do 'y', but perhaps people will expect me to do 'y' so I shouldn't do 'y', unless when two dimensional and pointless side character hinted that doing 'x' is better..." and so on.

The only character I liked was Donatella, and she was in a few pages of the book. The decisions taken by the characters are very stupid to the point of being random, and the clues are designed to be solved by something that happens to appear out of thin air rather than forshadowed. 

The climax is meh, there are no real consequences to the actions of the characters. I had to force myself to finish this book. The outfits and setting are nice. 
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ellasommers's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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thecatconstellation's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Overall, I enjoyed this, but at times I felt like one too many things was happening and some of the information towards the end felt very rushed, especially compared to the pacing of the rest of the book.
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helloimjacq's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

That was honestly such a rollercoaster of emotions… so many twist and turns and I’m not sure I trust anything still. Full review to come once I sort through what I just read!
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tressa_the_elephant's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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