Get Captured in Words! discussion

Okay so it took a bit longer for me to read this book as I'm currently hurtling towards my end term exams at a frightening speed. But I finally finished it.

Let's discuss our thoughts together!
I'm going to write up an official review in the next few days, as well as a video review, both of which I'll post the links to once I have them up.

I truly wanted to be swept away by Caraval. I really did.
My overall opinion is that this book had a fantastic idea yet failed to match it with its writing. While I still enjoyed reading it, I also came across many annoyances and an abundance of bad YA tropes.

The metaphors, color description, and comparisons felt like they were trying way too hard to be abstract and poetic, when actually they just don't make any sense. It wasn't like the cute imaginative way Anne of Green Gables would describe things. It's like a bunch of colors and descriptive words were tossed into a bowl and picked out at random. I understand some may think it sounds beautiful and whimsical, and that's fine, but for me it just felt amateur and forced.

“He tasted like midnight and wind, and shades of rich brown and light blue.”

"It came in shades of Hemlock Green- the color of poison and terror." (Please Google Hemlock Green. It does not remind me of poison or terror in anyway, in fact it looks more like a calming color.)

“It smelled like the middle of the night”


“Something acidic and moldy and burnt bubbled up through Scarlett’s throat - the taste of death.”

Another thing, it is incredibly melodramatic. Like middle-school/high-school dramatic. I've never seen the word "No!" be yelled by the main character so many times in a book. This over-dramatic writing comes with the romance as well, with Scarlett getting all excited over the smallest of physical contact (hell, sometimes she would freak out even when there was no physical contact). The romance feels like it leads this book and pushes the magic and plot away. The worst of it is that the romance can pretty much be summed up by the time when Scarlett was under magical influence and blurted out:

“I think he’s the most attractive person I’ve ever seen.” Is that really all you got to say about him? That's the reason you love him?

We are constantly being reminded that Scarlett loves her sister by phrases like: “I just want to find my sister and get home in time for my wedding” or “my greatest desire is to find my sister”. These are repeated SO many times. Yet the problem is that we never even got to see much of a bond between these two sisters. It's important for the reader to feel that bond since the MAIN driving force of the protagonist is to find her sister (even though she is told this is just a game, and she could have simply enjoyed Caraval instead.). Scarlett constantly makes several decisions that contradict this driving motivation to find her sister. Not that I blame her, but since these lines about saving her sister are repeated so often, it seems odd that she makes such contradicting actions.

Scarlett in my opinion was very unlikable. Her character is practically based around worry. Oh and being naive and dramatic. That's basically what she has going for her, and at times it got really annoying. I would have liked to see more character progression other then her finally speaking back to her father.

I also felt the world building to be rather underwhelming, with much left to be imagined. Actually near the beginning of the book I was very hopeful for some good world building, with mention of the Conquered Isles and I believe even an empire of some sort. But none of that goes anywhere. Caraval itself sounds like a beautiful and weird place. Sort of Alice in Wonderland mixed with Venice. While I liked the rose carousel, Castillo, and general magical essence of the place, I just still had a hard time forming an image of anything due to how the author skips over a lot of things without giving description. Unless they are colors.

Oh and the villains. Scarlett's dad is abusive, and at the beginning that made me feel sympathy. But later on he is brought into the story as pretty much one of the main villains, with no motive to him at all. I mean he killed people at Caraval and was perceived to be incredibly ruthless for no reason whatsoever. His wife left him, yes, but other then that everything seems to be going just peachy for him in his life.

And the ending. I liked the unpredictable tension near the end, but the final conclusion just felt flat. It still makes no sense to me whatsoever why Tella set this whole game up, even if she new her sister would wish her back if she died. What was the point? Just to win a fortune and run away? And what if the wish didn't work? I mean, it was even said that only Caraval performers were able to be revived from death; the players still died. So how did she come back to life? Oh right, un-explainable magic.


I can see the appeal, and like I said, I reaaaally wanted to enjoy it. Sadly it just didn't work for me.

Now I don't mean to say that I hated this book, or it was absolutely horrible. Ovbiously I did enjoy some parts of it and that is the reason why I stayed up until 3:00 AM to finish reading it. The mystery and suspense kept me reading.

Also keep in mind that it's perfectly fine if you enjoyed this book and don't agree with my opinions. I don't want my opinion to change your mind either; if you enjoyed the book then that is great! I wish I enjoyed it more.

Jay wrote: "Let's discuss our thoughts together!"

What can I possibly write after such a perfect review?... Other than I'm so happy I'm in this Group and we buddy-read this and we'll hopefully continue reading more?...

I will write that it's finally obvious that Jay studies Writing, and that he must be perfect in his studies! :) I'm just amazed by these paragraphs he wrote here, so mature, in-depth, concise, wow.... I can't wait to read something by you!

As I wrote in my little review, I went into this book knowing fully well what it was, so I'm not really disappointed. It was exactly what I expected and needed right now. I also found it to be original and the language very carefully constructed. She didn't just write it in three months and it shows - this is very important for me. She believed in it. It was a labour of love and her first novel, so I'm being lenient to all those things that were mentioned by Jay and are absolutely true.

Last observations: I didn't like how Death was never something final. Everyone who died along the book ended up alive in the end, no questions asked. I haven't witnessed so many "resurrections" since the Vampire Diaries Season 3! In my mind, once someone dies, that's it. Otherwise, all suspence is lost.

I'm also irritated her father walked free in the end! Did I get this wrong? He just went home to continue ruling his island?... Believing his daughter simply jumped to her death? So Tella will have to be in hiding and on the run for the rest of her life in order to be safe from him? Where is the justice in all this?

Also, I don't know why but I was expecting more of a circus atmosphere, animals, clowns, tricks, at least something like a theme park.... (maybe cause I watched YouTube videos in which Caraval was inside an OwlCrate "Run away with the circus" box unpacking thing?...) But there was NOTHING circus-like about it :/ For me, Caraval was like some Carrebean Colony, Port Royale town in the 1770s, full of ruthless criminals who had been shipped there. I didn't feel sympathy for any of the characters nor felt connected to them, what can I say, maybe I'm just old...

Finally, Julian must be like 80 years old but simply "looks" like 20, as long as his brother choses to permit it with his magic? Then should Scarlett be with him? She's 17 and they have nothing in common.

PS1: I haven't read that many YA books so far but I must admit didn't detect a lot of irritating tropes. Most of all I'm thankful both sisters weren't after the same guy Julian, I was almost sure this would happen but I was wrong. ;)
PS2: The book didn't end on a cliffhanger, I would say it's complete, but I'll definitely be reading the second and final volume next year. I was sure her mother will have some role to play in all this.

Dimitris wrote: "Jay wrote: "Let's discuss our thoughts together!"

What can I possibly write after such a perfect review?... Other than I'm so happy I'm in this Group and we buddy-read this and we'll hopefully con..."

Thanks for your kind comments Dimitris! We are definitely going to continue to read more! :) For now I think it's safe to buddy-read like a book a month in this group, but later on as I gather people's insight then we might read more then one a month.

I suppose since I do study writing, I probably let a lot of things bother me in books that most likely wouldn't annoy others. Hahaha so sometimes my opinions can be a bit harsh! For what it's worth though, even if I didn't enjoy this book as much as others I can still see the appeal and I respect the author for writing what she did. I just wish it was written a bit differently ;)

I also agree with your thoughts on the numerous 'resurrections' at the end. I found it awfully convenient that nobody truly died. Also the fact that the father just seems to get away at the end sort of bothered me. I don't really feel like it was even necessary for him to show up at Caraval and 'kill' Dante and what not.

Yeeees I was definitely expecting more of a circus atmosphere as well! Caraval is constantly being compared to The Night Circus, and like you I felt more of a Caribbean Colony feel to it. Nothing gave the impression that this was a circus, it was more so a magical scavenger hunt. I didn't feel connection with any of the characters either, and that's something I really need to have in a book in order to fully enjoy it.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! ^_^

On a side note; These next two years I'm going to be focusing a lot on my writing and eventually plan on sharing some things on my channel. Not really sure the best way to go about this though. At some point I would like to look for some beta readers to help critique and give their opinions on my writing.

So I completely gobbled this book up. I could not put it down. But even though I had fun, and took it in quickly, it felt like what eating ice cream is like. Yummy, gone quickly, and leaves you with a ton of calories and no nutrition.

Honestly, the only reason I kept going was because of Julian. I liked him, and I thought there would be a lot more to his intentions for staying around with Scarlett. But by the end, I saw I was wrong. I thought there would be other motives besides his feelings for her.

Scarlett had almost no character, except for, like Jay said, her worry. We never see more of her. She was written like there was supposed to be more to her, but it was only a feeling, and the reader was never shown any depth.

There were also a few moment where I would have to go back and reread a paragraph, because I often could not figure out the purpose of what was said. Then after reading it more carefully I would realize there really wasn't a purpose for it. That really irritated me.

Anyway, it was a fun read though. But I probably won't read the next one.