#master legend

like this is a real guy

I couldn't stop laughing 😆

****Slight Spoilers****

5/5

Years ago, there was a performer who loved a woman named Annalise. The performer was handsome, but not overly talented and believed he could be more. Following the notion that each person gets one impossible wish, the performer met with a woman who practiced enchantments and asked her to turn him into the performer he would become and give him the troupe that would eventually become Caraval. Though the man, who would come to be known as Legend, was granted his wish, his love Annalise ended up leaving him for another. It is said that Legend became bitter and swore to never love another.

Legend wore different faces for every Caraval and the more he played the villain, the more the magic made villainy part of who Legend had become. Years after Annalise left Legend, a woman named Rosa came to Caraval. Legend convinced Rosa that he loved and adored her, only to expose his lies once the game had ended. Rosa was so overcome by grief that she jumped off a balcony and fell to her death. The incident prevented Caraval from traveling, leaving it to be held on Legend’s private island. Those invited to participate in Caraval are all chosen for a reason. Prior to the game the guests are warned several times that Caraval is a game, and to not get to swept up in it.

“Whatever you’ve heard about Caraval, it doesn’t compare to the reality. It’s more than just a game or a performance. It’s the closest you’ll ever find to magic in this world.”

Seven years ago, Scarlett and Donatella’s mother disappeared, leaving them in the hands of their abusive father. Scarlett spent those seven years writing letters to Master Legend, asking for an invitation to Caraval for her and her sister. Legend finally responds to Scarlett’s final letter, inviting her to Caraval as a sort of wedding gift. In order to get a better life for her and her sister, Scarlett has agreed to marry a count whom she has never met. Leaving for Caraval now would put her engagement in danger. Donatella comes up with a plan to go to Caraval and enlists the help of a sailor to drag her hesitant sister along with her.

Scarlett awakens to find that she is in a small raft with the sailor, and that her sister is nowhere in sight. The sailor, a young man named Julian, tells Scarlett that he has already dropped Tella off at the island and that they are going to meet her. Once inside the gates, the goal of this year’s game soon becomes clear; Tella’s location is the mystery and to win the game she must be found. Each guest is provided with the first clue, but the rest are up for them to decipher:

“This is your first clue on the road to find her. The others will not be so easy to retrieve. Some will make you question your sanity and all that you believe. Clue number two you’ll discover in the rubble of her departure. Number three you must earn. Number four will cost you something valuable. And number five requires a leap of faith. Most of you will fail, But one will surely succeed. You have five nights to find the four remaining clues and then the girl, And Legend’s wish will be yours.”

Scarlett still believes that she can find Tella and make it back in time for her wedding if she completes the game in two nights instead of five. This ideal lasts only until her father and fiancé both appear at Caraval and both appear to somehow be involved in the macabre game. The further Scarlett gets into the game, the more she begins to question the nature of Caraval. Her partnership with Julian furthers her in the game, but even he is not what he seems. With no true allies and her father closing in, can Scarlett find Donatella before the end of the games, or will she drown in the madness of Caraval?

Scarlett has lived the last seven years of her life trying to protect her younger sister Donatella. The choices that Scarlett must make at Caraval are reckless and spontaneous, but necessary to win the game. Scarlett must learn that making the “safe” decision is not always the same as making the right decision. That sometimes you must take a leap of faith. Caraval is a mysterious world of magic and mayhem, with twists around every corner. The reader, much like Scarlett, won’t know whom to trust, even at the end.

Books Read in 2017: Caraval by Stephanie Garber

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Caraval ~Stephanie Garber

| YA, Fantasy, Romance|