As a Latino myself, I will say that I felt comfortable with the descriptions of Julian and Scarlett. I've noticed this author tends to just not describe other characters besides her protagonists very descriptively (she just likes making similes of the "he looked like heartbreak" variety). As someone who comes from a Latin family that's mixed full of both fair and dark-skinned people, I loved that Tella and Scarlett were mixed. It's very heavily implied by the names of the islands (isla de los suenos, etc.) that this story takes place in some form of Latino/Spanish setting and a lot of the names helped make it know that these characters were not all white by names (Paloma is a Spanish name and fairly common within the Latino culture). I think people are used to hearing that characters are either fair or dark and forget that a lot of people, especially Latinos, are very in the middle. We come in all colors and one of those is definitely brown. I knew right away that Julian was POC, but that might be because I am come from a similar background. I also like how Garber made it clear that Scarlett took more after Paloma's looks (I am pretty sure she's POC too as it's mentioned several times by the author that she took after her mother with darker hair, eyes, and skin) and Tella looked more liker her father who was way more fair. That's my perspective on it, but hey, story pacing and the endless analogies were really really overdone and valid critiques. I swear if I hear one more description about how something looked like cotton candy clouds full of sorrow, I will cry.
I’m not asking to be offensive, but I am genuinely curious why it matters the characters skin color? Garber doesn’t really state too much about their ethnicity but you can almost assume they are from Latina descent. When reading a book, typically we create the characters how we imagine them ourselves in our head. At least I do. I don’t understand why it matters if they are black, brown, or white. A story shouldn’t be about the color of the characters but about the heart of the story. Caraval was an extremely creatively written book, it’s a shame to see people discredit it because of the ethnicity of the characters :(. Julian & Dante/legend are brothers. Scarlett & Tella are sisters. If one is of Latina descent... we can almost assume both are. In this case, all four.
Because each ethnicity deserves to see ppl that look like them in the media, doing cool things, helping people, succeeding, learning, etc. It’s about the representation. When you’ve been either ignored or type casted as the bad guy for centuries by the media, government, etc. You’re dehumanized by the people that are represented. It’s to put diverse people on equal ground and teach everyone that their incorrect preconceptions can no longer be given any thought. :) hope that makes sense
Like Miles Morales being black. Him being Spider-Man was intentional. He was chosen to show little black kids they can be the hero too. It was to boost their confidence and self image/body positivity while also teaching them they had the power to make the world a better place.
Honestly, I hated Caraval but I loved the sequel Legendary. I feel like it's definitely the difference between Scarlets perspective vs Tellas perspective, Tella definitely has flaws but she's way less dramatic and overall I feel like there's way more at stake in her story. I 100% agree about how the poc characters should've been handled better, matter of fact I kinda wish there were more in the series.
Hi! I know I’m late to this review, I just wanted to comment because it was very interesting to hear your point of view. I’m glad we’re on the same page about Scarlett, she’s SO dramatic for no reason at all. She’s suspicious of Julian even though he literally saved her life (she would’ve drowned if he hadn’t helped her when they jumped from the boat) and yet she falls in love with him. It’s one of the most forced and boring romance I’ve ever read. As for Julian’s skin, apart from his “brown muscles” (which was kinda cringe), we do get a description of him: on page 29 of the ebook (I don’t have the printed copy, sorry) his golden-brown skin is mentioned. On page 45, his hands are said to be also brown. On page 110 it is said, “Julian’s teeth didn’t chatter, yet his brown skin was taking on an indigo hue.” Still, I’m not here to argue, because I too felt like his description wasn’t enough. Or rather, it was wrong. We don’t wanna read over and over how good his muscles are, we get it. We get that Tella has golden hair. The author described over and over the same things instead of giving the characters proper characterization. Again, Scarlett was SO DRAMATIC and Julian just felt like the sarcastic and handsome guy who acts like a jerk but deep down cares for other people. The whole book felt like a big YA cliché and there was nothing fresh, not even the plot. It was interesting to hear your opinion, it’s true we did make some progress but it’s still not enough, we need more. Thank you for review.
7:57 one of the things i've learned about writing is how names (or lack thereof) connect to psychic distance, which is essentially how connected the reader feels to a character. you may introduce a character as simply "the jockey", but once you learn that his name is samuel and he's the main character's best friend, it'd be very weird to keep referring to him as "the jockey" because that's such non-intimate, distant way to refer to a person we are supposed to know quite well. it CAN be used without feeling too weird, but should be done sparingly as it can make writing feel clunky, distant, and hollow, and make characters feel one-note and under-explored even if they aren't entirely. edit: psychic distance can also be kept intentionally far! with the prev example, maybe this is a story being told from a very distant standpoint with some kind of omniscient narrator who acts as a character of their own, but does not deeply explore the mind or experiences of any of the characters. then, keeping psychic distance very far would make sense. caraval is not a book intended to read this way, however. most are not. this would be a very deliberate artistic vocal choice!
Genuine question if you don’t mind my asking, but how would you like to see black characters described, I understand more than just ‘pretty brown skinned’ or ‘golden brown muscles,’ but I’m always worried when talking about skin colour. My current work has a handful of POC fairly central to the plot, but I’m always worried I’ll come across as rude when I mention colour of skin, same regarding the white skinned.
I don't mind you asking AT ALL. In fact, I am so happy you asked because more authors SHOULD ask. There is a myriad of factors that play into appropriately depicting people of color in writing, and for some *excellent* discussions on what POC in writing should look like, I want to refer you to my friend Jesse over at Bowties & Books (ruclips.net/channel/UCTIbjVYcbwhoqFeWdiJGfkA). They have GREAT videos on critiquing books for poor POC representation and giving examples of how to do better!
Ooh thanks for letting me know! I’m always interested in expanding my writing capacity and I shall check out the video once I’m home :) Hope you had a lovely Christmas/day in general
I have very mixed feelings about this book I enjoyed it, the writing style was good for me, I didn't bother much with the main character and I actually really liked her progression and the evolution of the romance but a few things brought it down a bit, firstly the descriptions of julian, it just bothered me how scarlett was always just so hesitant do trust him and she always used the same words to describe him, and I had pictured him as a black character from the first description, but after some time I started wandering if I hadn't misread since the book never referred to that and I felt like it ran away from describing his skin or mentioning it clearly and the other thing was the ending, god I hated the ending, it threw every bit of information about legend and the caraval that we had on the trash, that dream when she died for a day was completely useless if not by her finding out her grandma's name was annalise, and it really bothered me cause the lore and legend's past was something that really exited me when reading but it never payed off also the fact that it was really all a game was at the same time good and bad, it was good because of the theme, they had been warned, but I hated it cause it made me feel like a fool, and it made scarlett look completely dumb and manipulated since everyone knew about it except her, and I would be fine with it if julian wasn't one of the performers, that just pissed me and their reunion was shit, and also death didn't mean anything, everyone that died came back like nothing, tella came back to life but we didn't see it so it felt like an afterthought, and honestly the whole scene up in the balcony was awful tldr: good book with few things that bothered me, that is up until the end, which was totally trash and kinda ruined the magical and wondrous feelings I had until then, hope the sequels are better
*faints in disney I TOTALLY agree about the mc being so dramatic UGH. A lot of this story felt very forced."attractive bottle of poison" ahahha I laughed out loud I forgot about those weird descriptions I love this video!! Every rant about this book restores a piece of my soul ahah I dont think I even picked up on Julien being a poc! The imbalance between descriptions is so weird to me, that's frustrating as hell. Thank you for making this video and bringing this up!
I didn’t love this either - and Scarlet was very dramatic and I kind of felt that it showed her age? Thank you for your conversation on POC rep in this book! I read this when I was less attuned to these issues in publishing and I’m going to be reading Legendary in November. I’ll watch out to how the writing evolves and discuss your video and comments in my vlogs 💙💙💙
Thank you *so much* for your comment. I really appreciate hearing this from another point of view! Be sure to come back and send me the link to your review of Legendary!
Perhaps if the author thought white people would not keep reading the book if she described the POC right up front. I hope not. Editors have been known to "suggestion" in the past. Its long over due for authors to make the effort to show POC, both fully formed, described and represented.
Caraval is so bad in so many ways. I recently read it and I'm SO disappointed. Also, side note your reading journal is so cute. I was thinking about making a rant review of Caraval and you made so many great points!
Thanks for this honest reflection, lady! 🙌🏽🎉 -Was thinking about purchasing this trilogy series. Based on the information you shared, the author was sloppy to under develop Javon & Julian. That said, I'll save my coins...
As a Latino myself, I will say that I felt comfortable with the descriptions of Julian and Scarlett. I've noticed this author tends to just not describe other characters besides her protagonists very descriptively (she just likes making similes of the "he looked like heartbreak" variety). As someone who comes from a Latin family that's mixed full of both fair and dark-skinned people, I loved that Tella and Scarlett were mixed. It's very heavily implied by the names of the islands (isla de los suenos, etc.) that this story takes place in some form of Latino/Spanish setting and a lot of the names helped make it know that these characters were not all white by names (Paloma is a Spanish name and fairly common within the Latino culture). I think people are used to hearing that characters are either fair or dark and forget that a lot of people, especially Latinos, are very in the middle. We come in all colors and one of those is definitely brown. I knew right away that Julian was POC, but that might be because I am come from a similar background. I also like how Garber made it clear that Scarlett took more after Paloma's looks (I am pretty sure she's POC too as it's mentioned several times by the author that she took after her mother with darker hair, eyes, and skin) and Tella looked more liker her father who was way more fair. That's my perspective on it, but hey, story pacing and the endless analogies were really really overdone and valid critiques. I swear if I hear one more description about how something looked like cotton candy clouds full of sorrow, I will cry.
I’m not asking to be offensive, but I am genuinely curious why it matters the characters skin color? Garber doesn’t really state too much about their ethnicity but you can almost assume they are from Latina descent. When reading a book, typically we create the characters how we imagine them ourselves in our head. At least I do. I don’t understand why it matters if they are black, brown, or white. A story shouldn’t be about the color of the characters but about the heart of the story. Caraval was an extremely creatively written book, it’s a shame to see people discredit it because of the ethnicity of the characters :(. Julian & Dante/legend are brothers. Scarlett & Tella are sisters. If one is of Latina descent... we can almost assume both are. In this case, all four.
Because each ethnicity deserves to see ppl that look like them in the media, doing cool things, helping people, succeeding, learning, etc.
It’s about the representation. When you’ve been either ignored or type casted as the bad guy for centuries by the media, government, etc. You’re dehumanized by the people that are represented. It’s to put diverse people on equal ground and teach everyone that their incorrect preconceptions can no longer be given any thought.
:) hope that makes sense
Like Miles Morales being black.
Him being Spider-Man was intentional. He was chosen to show little black kids they can be the hero too. It was to boost their confidence and self image/body positivity while also teaching them they had the power to make the world a better place.
I LOVE THIS COMMENT
No spoiler warning?! Just finished book 1 and didn’t know who Legend was :(
Cuz you want to be ignorant @@macpcnriles
Honestly, I hated Caraval but I loved the sequel Legendary. I feel like it's definitely the difference between Scarlets perspective vs Tellas perspective, Tella definitely has flaws but she's way less dramatic and overall I feel like there's way more at stake in her story. I 100% agree about how the poc characters should've been handled better, matter of fact I kinda wish there were more in the series.
lol I tough the story was playing in a Italy fiction world
Hi! I know I’m late to this review, I just wanted to comment because it was very interesting to hear your point of view. I’m glad we’re on the same page about Scarlett, she’s SO dramatic for no reason at all. She’s suspicious of Julian even though he literally saved her life (she would’ve drowned if he hadn’t helped her when they jumped from the boat) and yet she falls in love with him. It’s one of the most forced and boring romance I’ve ever read.
As for Julian’s skin, apart from his “brown muscles” (which was kinda cringe), we do get a description of him: on page 29 of the ebook (I don’t have the printed copy, sorry) his golden-brown skin is mentioned. On page 45, his hands are said to be also brown. On page 110 it is said, “Julian’s teeth didn’t chatter, yet his brown skin was taking on an indigo hue.” Still, I’m not here to argue, because I too felt like his description wasn’t enough. Or rather, it was wrong. We don’t wanna read over and over how good his muscles are, we get it. We get that Tella has golden hair. The author described over and over the same things instead of giving the characters proper characterization. Again, Scarlett was SO DRAMATIC and Julian just felt like the sarcastic and handsome guy who acts like a jerk but deep down cares for other people. The whole book felt like a big YA cliché and there was nothing fresh, not even the plot.
It was interesting to hear your opinion, it’s true we did make some progress but it’s still not enough, we need more. Thank you for review.
7:57 one of the things i've learned about writing is how names (or lack thereof) connect to psychic distance, which is essentially how connected the reader feels to a character. you may introduce a character as simply "the jockey", but once you learn that his name is samuel and he's the main character's best friend, it'd be very weird to keep referring to him as "the jockey" because that's such non-intimate, distant way to refer to a person we are supposed to know quite well. it CAN be used without feeling too weird, but should be done sparingly as it can make writing feel clunky, distant, and hollow, and make characters feel one-note and under-explored even if they aren't entirely.
edit: psychic distance can also be kept intentionally far! with the prev example, maybe this is a story being told from a very distant standpoint with some kind of omniscient narrator who acts as a character of their own, but does not deeply explore the mind or experiences of any of the characters. then, keeping psychic distance very far would make sense. caraval is not a book intended to read this way, however. most are not. this would be a very deliberate artistic vocal choice!
Genuine question if you don’t mind my asking, but how would you like to see black characters described, I understand more than just ‘pretty brown skinned’ or ‘golden brown muscles,’ but I’m always worried when talking about skin colour. My current work has a handful of POC fairly central to the plot, but I’m always worried I’ll come across as rude when I mention colour of skin, same regarding the white skinned.
I don't mind you asking AT ALL. In fact, I am so happy you asked because more authors SHOULD ask. There is a myriad of factors that play into appropriately depicting people of color in writing, and for some *excellent* discussions on what POC in writing should look like, I want to refer you to my friend Jesse over at Bowties & Books (ruclips.net/channel/UCTIbjVYcbwhoqFeWdiJGfkA). They have GREAT videos on critiquing books for poor POC representation and giving examples of how to do better!
Ooh thanks for letting me know! I’m always interested in expanding my writing capacity and I shall check out the video once I’m home :) Hope you had a lovely Christmas/day in general
I appreciate this review so much. I want to read it, but it really made me reconsider whether I should read it in physical form.
I have very mixed feelings about this book
I enjoyed it, the writing style was good for me, I didn't bother much with the main character and I actually really liked her progression and the evolution of the romance
but a few things brought it down a bit, firstly the descriptions of julian, it just bothered me how scarlett was always just so hesitant do trust him and she always used the same words to describe him, and I had pictured him as a black character from the first description, but after some time I started wandering if I hadn't misread since the book never referred to that and I felt like it ran away from describing his skin or mentioning it clearly
and the other thing was the ending, god I hated the ending, it threw every bit of information about legend and the caraval that we had on the trash, that dream when she died for a day was completely useless if not by her finding out her grandma's name was annalise, and it really bothered me cause the lore and legend's past was something that really exited me when reading but it never payed off
also the fact that it was really all a game was at the same time good and bad, it was good because of the theme, they had been warned, but I hated it cause it made me feel like a fool, and it made scarlett look completely dumb and manipulated since everyone knew about it except her, and I would be fine with it if julian wasn't one of the performers, that just pissed me and their reunion was shit, and also death didn't mean anything, everyone that died came back like nothing, tella came back to life but we didn't see it so it felt like an afterthought, and honestly the whole scene up in the balcony was awful
tldr: good book with few things that bothered me, that is up until the end, which was totally trash and kinda ruined the magical and wondrous feelings I had until then, hope the sequels are better
I couldn’t finish this book. It was tough to get through.
Yeppp. You could basically tl;dw this video review with saying, "it was tough to get through" lol
I am way late on this review, but that shade of gloss looks stunning on you!
*faints in disney
I TOTALLY agree about the mc being so dramatic UGH. A lot of this story felt very forced."attractive bottle of poison" ahahha I laughed out loud I forgot about those weird descriptions
I love this video!! Every rant about this book restores a piece of my soul ahah
I dont think I even picked up on Julien being a poc! The imbalance between descriptions is so weird to me, that's frustrating as hell. Thank you for making this video and bringing this up!
I didn’t love this either - and Scarlet was very dramatic and I kind of felt that it showed her age?
Thank you for your conversation on POC rep in this book! I read this when I was less attuned to these issues in publishing and I’m going to be reading Legendary in November. I’ll watch out to how the writing evolves and discuss your video and comments in my vlogs 💙💙💙
Thank you *so much* for your comment. I really appreciate hearing this from another point of view! Be sure to come back and send me the link to your review of Legendary!
Perhaps if the author thought white people would not keep reading the book if she described the POC right up front. I hope not. Editors have been known to "suggestion" in the past. Its long over due for authors to make the effort to show POC, both fully formed, described and represented.
Dear gosh, I sincerely hope that's not true. The idea that main characters of color are less marketable is so repugnant.
I’m so glad you feel the same way as I do. This book is nothing but problems.
Indeed. You warned me 😅
A curse so dark and lonely us my fav book too
A curse so dark and lonely us my fav book too
Caraval is so bad in so many ways. I recently read it and I'm SO disappointed. Also, side note your reading journal is so cute. I was thinking about making a rant review of Caraval and you made so many great points!
Thanks so much for watching! :) You should also do a rant review for the book if you feel like there is more to say!
Yesssssss exactly
Thanks for this honest reflection, lady! 🙌🏽🎉
-Was thinking about purchasing this trilogy series. Based on the information you shared, the author was sloppy to under develop Javon & Julian. That said, I'll save my coins...
The trilogy is amazing
Wait, Julian was a POC?? 🤣
No, I kid. A little.
I didn't make it past page 200 anyway.
This book was so annoying, she was so dramatic during the whole book but at the end it was like "oh well I don't mind I was played like a pawn"
Yes that bothered me so much, like how do you get over it so quickly?
this book is a disaster