Rating
Spoiler Free
“Finale” is my least favorite book in the “Caraval” fantasy series by Stephanie Garber. Scarlett has become even more boring. Every time her point of view came up, I was tempted to skip it completely. I hated and completely disagreed with the few decisions she made. Her point of view was also paced extraordinarily slow, dragging on much longer than I felt it needed to.
In the first two books I reviewed for this series, the setting and magic that I felt while reading were some of the highlights. However, the magic seems to be lacking in “Finale”.
There weren’t many loose ends left from “Legendary”, and “Finale” ends up feeling like an extra book added to a duology. While the first two books have themes and story lines in common, the third book is pretty separate and feels almost like a different series. While the themes of love may run through all three books, it loses much of its luster and excitement in the last book.
“Love is messy. It’s not easily controlled. But that’s what makes it so powerful. It’s unbridled passion. It’s caring about someone else’s life more than you care about your own.”
— Stephanie Garber
*Spoiler Warning*
One of the main issues I have with “Finale” is that it introduced a new villain. To me, the final book in a trilogy isn’t the time to introduce the villain. There wasn’t enough time to actually build out the character, and instead I was left confused as to what the point of him was and what his goals and motivations were. Additionally, the other Fates, who were also released from the deck of cards, weren’t really touched on. They were written off as what feels like side characters who don’t really contribute to the story.
Scarlett, once again, was bland. She also came across as very childish, leading Julian along to have him and her former fiancé, Nicolas, compete for her. Even though the book is partly in Scarlett’s point of view, the motivations behind her actions weren’t explained. Tella, while better than Scarlett, didn’t really stand out. At the very least, she actually did something over the course of the book. My favorite part of this book is Jacks. Even though his role as a character was reduced, when he was part of a scene he entertained me. His motivations are interesting enough, and combined with Tella, they were enough to propel me to finish “Finale”.
