Legendary (Caraval, 2)

Atlast, I am going to read the Caraval Series. I am so excited and happy. The book is a hardcover beauty. Arrived in perfect condition. A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win. After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister, Scarlett, from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name. Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . the games have only just begun.

“The air tasted like wonder. Like candied butterfly wings caught in sugared spiderwebs, and drunken peaches coated in luck.” And this re-read of Legendary is done! I know I already said it in my Caraval review, but I'm truly happy I decided to re-read this series before jumping into Finale. First of all, I realized how many things I didn't remember, little details that need to be remembered in order to enjoy Finale to the fullest. I was also quite surprised to realize how much my perception of a book could have changed after one year. When I first read the series one year ago, I loved Caraval but Legendary stole my heart: I resonated with Tella so much, I saw myself in her and I felt absolutely involved in her story. It was weird to discover that my perception of this story had changed. I still enjoyed Legendary very much, but I must admit that I now prefer Caraval. I think the idea behind this series is so unique and different from everything we're used to finding in the YA section and with the first book you get the entirety of it, you get the magic, the dreams, the illusions, the lies, the romance, the doubts... Caraval is a book made of dreams come true. You can almost taste the magic that comes out of it and while reading you find yourself completely absorbed in this fantastical world where everything is real and not real, where everyone is saint and sinner. Legendary failed to give me the same, magical feeling. In this book, Caraval is no longer a game full of pretty illusions and smart actors. This time the game is real and everything Tella goes trough is real as well, which is scary and it glues you to the pages, but it doesn't have the same dreamy vibe of the first book. You don't have to constantly wonder what's real and what isn't, because it's pretty clear since the beginning that there's something going on this time, that the game is no longer just a game and even though Tella tries to push these thoughts away, to the reader it's pretty clear that she's delusional and she doesn't want to accept how real everything is. The only thing you can do this time is watch as she tries to extricate herself from this heap of clues and lies. I still enjoyed this book a lot, I loved learning more about their mother and I loved how deeply Tella loves her and how far she's willing to go to save her, even when she thinks her mother doesn't love her back. In that moment you can clearly see how Tella has matured. There are still some shady characters, like Dante or even Scarlett, who will make you wonder what are they up to. And there are some new characters, like Jacks, who will be difficult to read and they will leave you craving for more. I loved Tella, even though I realized I resonate more with Scarlett. She's analytical, she thinks everything twice, she evaluates her options and she notices the lit...

I was pondering on whether this book was a 4 or a 5-star one because I think I liked better the surprise & the pace of the first one, but I liked the characters & conflict of the second one more. At the same time, Garber proves one more time just how fast-paced & addictive prose she can write & her worldbuilding keeps showing page by page, chapter by chapter. I would have liked to see a teaser of what sort of worldbuilding & entities we'd expect in Legendary ever since I read Caraval but I highly respect a series that rests on cliches and flips them. Everything about this book is a trope or something you've already said and read somewhere but the way the author has used the game of Caraval as a plot device to ramp up the stakes & the way she keeps using twisted magic and fairytale-inspired worlds is mesmerizing. I feel like the series is a fairytale for adults who love romance, so it definitely matches my taste. I have high expectations for the last one but as with the previous two, I felt like I knew where the story was going. This didn't reduce my reading experience though--it only made me want to read more and more. I still feel like the 2nd book pales a bit in comparison to the first one because the same game is used again but with different stakes, yet, the set-up of the sequel is the same as its predecessor. I changed my mind. This is a 4-star book but that doesn't mean I won't keep reading the series or enjoying it with every bit of my soul.

When I read Caraval last year, I suspected that I’d enjoy it. The idea of a magical scavenger hunt embedded within a five-day-long Renaissance Faire environment was too awesome to pass up. Needless to say, it appeared pretty high on my year-end list of favorite books. And the epilogue’s teaser for the sequel Legendary had me anticipating it well over a year in advance. Well, Legendary was released at the end of May (and I had it in my hands the very next day), but due to being super busy at the end of my school year, a road trip, and then the holiday, it took me a little longer than I would have liked to read and write this review. This is no reflection of the quality of the book because I think Legendary is better than Caraval in almost every possible way. First off, the decision to switch the primary character from Scarlett to her younger sister Donatella (mostly referred to as “Tella”) is brilliant. In Caraval, it was clear that Tella was more outgoing, more thrill-seeking, and more inclined to act on impulse than think things through. In short, I find her character far more intriguing. Secondly, the stakes of the game are considerably higher. This time around, the game of Caraval occurs almost immediately following the game from the previous book, which in the world of the story is never heard of. That indicates there’s something greater than just a scavenger hunt at play here; there’s got to be a significant reason for Game Master Legend and his troupe to have the game when they do. Whereas the game in the first book seemed be played with one common quest for all participants, this game seems tailor-made to Tella’s own personal quest to find her mother. Third, there’s significantly more danger. The motto of Caraval is to remember that it’s only a game. The players are warned not to get lost in the game. This time around, the boundaries between being real and being only a game are more than blurred. Tella runs into the enigmatic and slightly sadistic Jacks, the possible heir to the empress, and pretends to be his fiancée. I won’t spoil the book with the reasons and consequences behind this action, other than to say that it seriously puts Tella’s life on the line. An underlying motif in the book is that no one is who they necessarily appear to be. The Caraval players from the first book have all switched roles, and it was fun seeing some of my favorites in new lights. Even some of the people who figured prominently in Scarlett’s pre-Caraval life turned out to be Caraval players. Oh, and there are times when the motives of Tella’s own sister Scarlett are in question! While trying to find her mother, Tella learns of her true identity, and along the way, she has to learn Legend’s true identity such that she questions that literally anyone could be the mysterious game master. And she’s fated to learn Jacks’s true i...

6/5 Stars "Only those who persevere can find their true ending." ~ Stephanie Garber When I read Stephanie Garber's debut novel, Caraval, I thought it wasn't possible to like a book (besides my beloved Crooked Kingdom) anymore. LEGENDARY proved me wrong, which is why you will notice it has received a whopping 6 out of 5 stars on my rating index. Legendary is truly legendary. It breaks its own mold. The second book in the Caraval trilogy, Legendary takes all the good bits of Caraval and cranks them up a notch. It's faster, bigger, bolder, darker, richer. To accomplish this, Garber gives us a new lens by which to view this dark, dangerous "game." She gives us Tella -- the daring younger sister of Caraval's protagonist, Scarlett. Tella was made for Legendary. She is not Scarlett cranked up a notch, but in many ways, is the opposite side of a perfect coin. She is all edges and distrust and brash, sometimes reckless bravery. But like Scarlett before her, Tella grows throughout the novel. And like Caraval, watching this growth happen throughout Legendary is equally as fulfilling as watching the game of Caraval unfold. But this time... it's much less of a game. This time, the stakes are higher. This time, the winner is not so clear.