Not sure why this was marked 5 stars on my Goodreads as I didn't love it. Only just noticed and changed the rating..

You can find my full SPOILER FREE review here!

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

First off I think I like Tella a little more than Scarlett but I think they are both a naive and love obsessed. Tella also has no willpower when it comes to guys. She says she is determined not to care but then as soon as he appears she melts. This happens so often that it started getting really damn annoying. Just accept it or grow some balls and fuck him off.

I also found the book very predictable. Or maybe it was just Tella that was predictable. But either way, I found this predictable, which also made it a little boring because there were very little actually shocking plot points. Seriously it was so predictable from little things in the beginning, to the major plot points towards the end.

Overall this book was fine but underwhelming compared to Caraval.

I will still probably read book 3, Finale because I'm curious to see what happens.

This book is super fun, adventurous and filled with heaps of references to classic literature. Still annoyed Harry Potter has no mention... But hey, I'm biased.

The main read I only rated 4 stars was due to how the book dealt with separated parents. I thought that we would get some good rep, something relatable that may help younger people out that are going through parents separating. But no. The parents get pushed back together in the end for no other reason than to have a happy ending. Sorry, that generally ain't how it works in the real world.
Was disappointed by this aspect of the plot. And if they were just going to throw the parents back together in the end then why even bother having that side plot happening. It achieved nothing besides giving people unrealistic expectations of if you try hard enough your parents will get back together. NO.

I also would have liked a bit more world-building from it as well. As it is a standalone and only 250ish pages I know we won't get everything but the whole point of the experiments was never really explained. This story just could have been about a magical island that bought books to life without the science stuff that was never explained.

Besides those aspects, I really enjoyed the book. It was a fun quick read.

The audiobook is also awesome, the narrator did a really good job.

At first, this book felt boring and predictable. I wasn't really enjoying it, it was just kinda eh. Then it takes a very dark unexpected turn and I ended up really enjoying it!

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

This review can also be found at Dusk Angel Reads

Writing:
Okay, so the writing is the main reason that this book got such a low rating. I HATED this writing. It made it so damn hard to read & this book took me nearly double the time it usually would for a book this size.

First off we have the slang. I’m okay with slang in books BUT it needs to be explained! Don’t just throw words in that we have no idea the meaning of without explaining it! It’s infuriating and you spend more time trying to guess the meaning than concentrating on enjoying the book. One of the main slang words, “Fizzy” was explained but it wasn’t until past halfway through the book, so I spent over 200 pages have no bloody idea what that word meant.
Then there was the spelling!! So many words were deliberately spelt incorrectly. I guess the author was trying to make it seem that the characters weren’t that educated, I have no clue! But the incorrect spelling really messed with the flow of the book as it just puts you off when reading. Without meaning too I started picking out every one of them and thinking about the incorrect vs correct spelling. It just ruins the flow because you’re unintentionally concentrating on the incorrect spelling of the words than just going with the flow of the book. Books need a good flow!

Here are two examples of the spelling:
“Kalifornya”
“Skillz”

My last writing complaint was that the humour, especially Lemon’s, a lot of the time felt forced. There were some actually funny things but the rest of the time it felt like the author was just forcing her to be funny.

My only like about the writing of this book was there were a fair few good quotes thrown in this book.

“…but there’s nothing quite the same as sitting with a real book in your hands. Breathing in the ink and feeling all those wonderful lives beneath your fingertips. In between the pages, I’m an emperor. An adventurer. A warrior and a wanderer. In between the pages I’m not myself – and more myself than in any other place on earth.”

Overall the writing was just annoying, made it difficult to read & messed with the flow of the book.

Also, there is the fact that the Australian paperback edition of the book that I have has American English spelling rather than Australian English. Things like this are a pet hate for me. And before anyone makes this comment, yes I know the book is set in America, well Kalifornya, however, would you expect a book set in Japan to only be in Japenese to make it accurate to the book? No, because there would be a Japanese edition, in Japenese & then other editions in other languages. If there is a US edition of a book then it should be in American Eglish, but if there is an Australian Edition, it should be in Australian English..

Plot:
I actually really enjoyed the plot of the book. It was very action packed, so you were always on your toes. There were tonnes of twists and turns, so it kept you guessing & most of the time it was unpredictable. There were a couple smaller things I guessed but most of the big plot points were unpredictable to me.

Characters:

Firstly I didn’t love the main character, Eve. She was just annoying at times. Besides that I don’t really know why I don’t like her, I just couldn’t connect to her like I did the other characters in the book.

Lemon Fresh, I loved. Even with the forced humour, I talked about in the Writing section. Lemon is funny, sarcastic, loyal and fierce. She is just such an amazing female character and I did mostly enjoy her friendship with Eve.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” Lemon declared. “About whether your past makes you what you are. That’s all our memories are, right? The pieces of our yesterdays that make us who we are today?”

…

“So you’ve had some bad days, no doubt,” Lemon said. “But I figure, instead of letting your yesterdays bring you down, maybe you can concentrate on building some happier memories today. And that way you’ll have them for tomorrow?”

Crick was awesome too. He is sarcastic, a little aggressive at times but relentlessly protective. Well, he tried, 3/4 of the time they didn’t listen to him, but he tried to be the voice of reason.

“My vocab software lacks the capacity to describe how disgusted I am right now.”

Also

“You know, democracy sounds like a great idea until you spend three minutes with the average voter.”

Also, Kaiser, he doesn’t talk as he is a dog, but I cannot not mention him!! He is precious.

Then there is Ezekiel who is my least favourite of the side characters Again I can’t really pinpoint why I don’t like him. The romance is the main thing as I simply didn’t care for it. Half the time it feels one-sided, with one person obsessively in love and the other questioning if it really is love or just lust. Also, it felt insta lovey even if it wasn’t. We see the romance in kinda flashbacks of sorts. These flashbacks are skipping through time quickly, so one moment they meet and the next they are in love. So even though I know there was time between then, because I didn’t actually see that development, it felt like insta love.

Lastly, we have Grandpa, Silas. He is a grumpy dying old man but also very caring and loveable.

“How’s the cough? You take your meds? How much you got left?”

“Fine. Yes. Plenty.” Grandpa scowled. “Although I sometimes hear this annoying voice in the back of my head, speaking at me like I was a three-year-old. Is that normal?”

“Eve leaned down and kissed her Grandpa’s cheek. “You know the whole loveable grouch thing? Really working for you.”

Overall:
There are parts I really love about this book and parts I really didn’t. Most of the side characters are amazing and the plot was spot on. But the writing just made it so hard for me to absolutely love this book and like I said I didn’t love the MC or the romance.

“Grandpa said it’s always better to be shot at for who you are than hugged for who you aren’t.”

Also Trigger Warnings: Detailed family murder, suicide & suicide attempts, detailed descriptions of someone suffering from Cancer, animal injury & animal death.