Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Caraval is a book that should be compared to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  They have all of the same elements: magic that seems to be fake but is real, love both romantic and non-romantic, a game brought on by a magician, a big twist at the end, and strange yet magical worlds that feel more like game boards than locations (something I am sure the authors did on purpose).  I liked the books about the same amount, which is to say they are about average.  But I have already talked about The Night Circus and my problems with it, now I will be talking about Caraval by Stephanie Garber.

One thing I liked about this book was the "magic system".  I put this in quotes because I still feel like I cannot call it that.  It is not magic to these people, it is their everyday lives.  My favorite aspect of it was how they dealt with time.  In the beginning the main protagonist enters a clock shop, and this is just used as a piece of foreshadowing for on of the most exciting moments in the book.  Scarlett trades days of her life for a dress.  This is something we see as a warning often in fiction, but I really enjoyed how they played with her not dying sooner but instead being unconscious for those days.  The whole book is focused around time.  Things are done at night.  This adds an elements of mystery but also weirdness.  Overall the way the book handles magic and time was very interesting.

So why did I think this book was average when I really like the concepts behind it? I think it all cracks down to personal opinion.  I felt like Garber's writing style was a bit juvenile.  I also felt like the story was predictable.  I should give authors more of a break, because as I get older I hear more stories and it is harder to surprise me, but instead I get frustrated when I can figure out the big ending before the main character can.

Amanda