tiktok made me buy another book…

Caraval – Stephanie Garber

Young adult, games, survival, fiction. 

Rating 8/10

Scarlett writes to this Legend who is in charge of the infamous Caraval. It is a game where people compete for a prize at the end. Scarlett is about to be married off to a suitor her dad chose for her and doesn’t really want to do it other than take her sister away from their very abusive father. Scarlett was given tickets to go to the Caraval and at the same time her sister, Tella, went missing. Scarlett decides to go with Julian, a man who her sister was seeing, into the game to find her sister or else something bad will happen to her sister. This game makes everyone question if it is just a game or reality. 

I saw this book on book tok, a part of tiktok that is dedicated to bibliophiles, and was intrigued by the plot. I didn’t put this book down because of how it kept me intrigued with the story of how Scarlett was trying to survive Caraval plus saving her sister. There was simplicity and yet complexities to this novel. I couldn’t help but to finish this book in one sitting. This is sort of like the Hunger Games meets circus minus the teenagers being thrown into a fight but rather fleshing out parts of people and sides of people that they themselves didn’t know existed. Overall this was a small book and easy to indulge.

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Yawned in BOREDOM

Sweetbitter – Stephanie Danler

Young women, self-realization, New York, coming of age, urban life, fiction.

Rating 0/10

Tess, whom just arrived in New York, finds a job at a restaurant. As she adjusts to the new lifestyle, she learns from her lessons about life and how to go on with life. Tess finds love and heartbreak as well as recovering from addiction and understands what it means to be young and in love. She realizes that her lifestyle can’t always be this chaotic and time for her to grow up.

I found this coming of age too bland for my taste. Not a fan of this novel but appreciated some and little aspects. I had hopes that this novel would’ve been great but was greatly disappointed. There are other great coming of age stories, just not this one.