This book had sooo much hype before its release that I ended up preordering the UK edition from BookDepository last year. I was planning to get to it at the start of this year, but then I heard some not-so-positive reviews, and was like okay, maybe I'll wait.

I'm currently stressed cause of finals, so I was looking for a book to read that would be easy to read and not super mind-blowing (cause I didn't want to get too obsessed)...I decided to pick this one up and I guess it did what I wanted – aka it gave me some relief from the stress.

The main reason I gave this book 3 stars is because it did make me want to keep reading. I would come home from school and actually want to pick it up, but maybe not for the reasons that I was hoping for. It's really hard to tell what is true and what isn't in this book, and because of the unpredictability, it made me want to read more and find out what was going to happen next. And while I don't mind reading books where it's hard to tell the difference b/w truth and lies, it got really annoying in Caraval, to the point where I was like "someone please just tell me what's really going on". I was making predictions throughout the book, and mine weren't too far off of what happened, but I still felt somewhat underwhelmed.

The ending didn't have the "omg-what-just-happened" or "I-want-to-cry" factor that I like in books. Things happened that weren't really shocking – I actually laughed out loud during a very sad moment – and even after, I just didn't care too much.

(I will say though, that the little epilogue with Tella made me somewhat curious, so I might pick up Legendary if I'm feeling bored ever.)

Which leads to the characters...I just didn't like them. I think if I did, it would have made this book waaay better. I hated Tella from the beginning, and even by the end, I was like ehh I don't really know if I like this. I was honestly hoping for Scarlett to just leave the island and go off on her own. And even though things are explained at the end, I just felt like based on who Tella was in the beginning, she changed so much by the end, that she felt like a completely different character.

I also wasn't a huge fan of Scarlett, though she did do some things that I could relate to, cause I would probably do the same. But her character development felt kind of off, though it might have had to do with the fact that there's instalove in this book...yeah, I hate instalove. It barely ever works for me, and though Scarlett and Julian had "chemistry", it felt kind of forced in the beginning, and then things sped up waaay too fast. Like there was so much "oh is he touching me? wow, he's so close. I think I'm feeling stuff" and I was just rolling my eyes. Honestly, if there wasn't instalove, and this book spanned more than 5 days, and we got to see Scarlett eventually fall for Julian or whatever, I would have been super down for it.

I don't really know how I feel about Julian's character. It goes back to the secrets and lies that pretty much fill this book. I mean, it's fun not knowing everything about a character or what's going on plot wise, but it just didn't work for me.

Speaking of what else didn't work for me...the fact that Scarlett feels in colour????? I kind of remembering hearing about this early on when the book was first published, but I forgot, so when I started reading I was confused, and then I gave up trying to remember what colour was what. I guess it's a cool talent(?), but there should have been a page at the beginning or the end of the book that listed all the colours and the respective feelings. There were just so many feeling-associated colours, and then all the descriptions of the setting and dresses too, it was just too much.

Overall, I recommend reading this book if you're looking for something light and somewhat entertaining. Highly recommend if you're looking for a book to read while studying for finals, cause this was good enough to keep me wanting to read, but not so great that I didn't feel like studying lol