Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful and cruel father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.
But this year, Scarlett's long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to attend. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season's Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.
Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, and her sister disappears forever.
The setting is the star here, and the plot knows it. Nearly every review separates the glorious game from the thinner story around it. NPR's Caitlyn Paxson compared the book to its own game: lovely surroundings, not much at the center.
Fans have a point, though. Caraval is whimsical and foreboding in the same breath, and the constant is-it-real question makes it a quick, addictive read. The slow-burn romance with a protective sailor is a big draw. The costs are real too. The prose is ornate enough that some images obscure more than they show, the magic works because the plot needs it, and repeated it-was-only-the-game reveals wear on suspense. If you read for atmosphere, you'll be happy. If you read for tight plotting, you may not be.
Early trade reviews were warm: Publishers Weekly praised the characters, setting and romantic tension, and Kirkus found it immersive despite an awkward opening. Later critics were cooler. NPR's Paxson found the heroine passive, and Reactor's Niall Alexander ranked it below The Night Circus.
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Find Caraval Stephanie Garber in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Caraval
14 books in catalog
Immersive multi-day treasure hunts, magical games, and enchanted universes form the bedrock of young adult fantasy literature that has reached audiences worldwide. Stephanie Garber emerged as a major figure in the genre with her debut novel Caraval, an internationally bestselling fantasy that launched an interconnected universe of whimsical and high-stakes narratives.
Garber's work, which includes the Caraval trilogy and its spin-off series Once Upon a Broken Heart, has been translated into over thirty languages and earned top placement on the New York Times bestseller list. Her stories blend intricate worldbuilding with romance and fairy-tale elements.
Before achieving commercial success as a novelist, Stephanie Garber worked as a college resident director. Valuing safety and stability after college, she initially pursued a different career path before turning to creative writing in her spare time as an outlet to cope with job burnout and depression. Her early attempts at writing faced significant hurdles; she wrote multiple unpublished manuscripts and received numerous rejections. Her fourth completed manuscript, a young adult space opera, eventually secured representation with a literary agent, but the project failed to sell to publishers.
Undeterred by early setbacks, Garber pivoted to fantasy and wrote Caraval, which sold to publishers and was released in 2017. The novel earned her recognition as a Publishers Weekly Flying Start author in spring 2017. She expanded the story into a full trilogy with Legendary and completed the original arc in 2019 with Finale. Following the conclusion of her debut trilogy, Garber returned to the same universe with Once Upon a Broken Heart and its sequels, The Ballad of Never After and A Curse for True Love, expanding her fictional world into two interconnected trilogies.
Garber's fantasy writing is characterized by deceptively magical settings, atmospheric worldbuilding, and complex romantic arcs. She frequently incorporates themes of sisterhood, sacrifice, curses, and the consequences of desperate bargains. Her narrative focus often centers on morally gray characters navigating magical rules, high-stakes games, and romantic tensions where appearances are rarely what they seem.
