14/100: Caraval and Some Thoughts

Caraval (Caraval, #1)I'm just gonna put this out there: I really need to stop buying books I haven't read before. It stinks, because there is nothing like the excitement of buying a new book and the feeling like you are getting yourself into a wonderful new adventure. But too many times over the last year I have found myself buying books with anticipation only to actually read them and wish I had checked them out from the library and saved my money for a favorite book.
I think this goes along with my desire to really curate my own book collection... as hard as it is, I really want to try and only buy books that I know I will either share with my own family or read over and over again. I want my collection to reflect myself and my interests, and books that I don't love, don't really fit into that.
I could go on for awhile so I'll move onto my review :)

Caraval was a solid 3-star read for me. I'm beginning to wonder if I am slowly moving away from the YA genre because I found myself... annoyed while reading this. Instead of swooing over the romance like I usually do, I found myself cringing and thinking in my head, "Yeah but it doesn't really happen like that." Instead of being caught up in the magic and mystery of Caraval, I found myself trudging through it.

I do think that Stephanie Garber has a talent for story-telling. Some people find her relations of feelings to colors (i.e. the main character associates her feelings for her father with the color purple) annoying and overdone, but I actually kind of liked it. I found it interesting and it seemed like perhaps she was hinting that Scarlett might have synesthesia, if not a form of it at least.

I think my main issue was that I found the characters rather lackluster. I didn't find myself invested in their storyline; I really couldn't identify with the sister relationship between Scarlett and Tella. I mean, yes, I would definitely die for my sister. Yes, I would do anything to save her. But I found myself completely hating Tella and thinking she was just... awful. Maybe I need to do better about being okay with unreliable characters and finding value in even the worst ones. But I couldn't do it with her.

Overall Garber has a knack for describing scenery and imagery. However, it took about half the book for me to feel the pull to finish and the urge to keep reading. Even after that though, I trudged through this one. I'm still not sure if it was me and I was too distracted, or if this was just really not the story for me. I own the next book in the series, but I'm not feeling overly motivated to read it.

I think this month has been kind of a bummer for me. I haven't really read any books that just blew me away, and I haven't read as much as I was hoping. I think I need a good, new, book to kick me in the seat of my pants and get me fired up again. Maybe a hold at the library will come to the rescue and I can get my hands on something new to me. I'm a big fan of re-reads but maybe what I need is something new...

Stats:
Completed: Feb 25
Rating: 3 stars
Pages: 407

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