Book Review: Finale by Stephanie Garber

Finale by Stephanie Garber

Book title: Finale
Author: Stephanie Garber
Genre: Young Adult fantasy
Published: May 7, 2019
478 pages
My rating: 4/5

“Every story has four parts: the beginning, the middle, the almost-ending, and the true ending. Unfortunately, not everyone gets a true ending. Most people give up at the part of the story where things are the worst, when the situation feels hopeless, but that is where hope is needed the most. Only those who persevere can find their true ending.”

Two months after the Fates were released from a magical deck of cards, the lives of everyone in Valenda are at stake. Scarlett and Donatella Dragna must destroy the leader of the Fates, the Fallen Star, with the help of friends—and potential foes. In the process, they uncover unexpected truths that threaten to upend their lives.

Finale is the third and final book in Stephanie Garber’s young adult fantasy series Caraval. Unlike Caraval, which was told from Scarlett’s point-of-view, and Legendary, which was told from Tella’s, Finale is told form a dual point-of-view. We get both Scarlett’s and Tella’s reactions and viewpoints in the same book, although Tella’s point of view is more prominent. In this book, the stakes are higher: the Fates are threatening the lives of everyone, and the sisters have to come up with a way to destroy them.

As I was finishing this book, I realized what my issue with the series is: it’s too plot-heavy, or at least action-heavy, for my liking. The whole series crams as many plot twists as possible into the books to the detriment of character relationships, character development, and to certain extent even worldbuilding.

The world never felt real to me. The books were telling me that Caraval and the city of Valenda were vibrant and full of life rather than showing it. Because the story focuses so much on plot events, the people that populate the world were pushed to the sidelines, and as a consequence the world didn’t feel lived in.

As I’ve mentioned in my reviews of Caraval and Legendary, I had a similar issue with the characters. The books claim that there is a strong relationship between Scarlett and Tella, but we barely see them interacting with each other. Instead, they spent their time doing their own things, which mostly involves pining after boys.

In Finale, there are a lot of plot ideas that never come into fruition. To give a few examples, in the beginning of the book, Scarlett sets up a competition between her ex-fiancé Nicolas and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Julian. But right afterwards, she decides she doesn’t want to go through with it. Later in the book, they need to find a magical object, but once they obtain it, they don’t use it. Instead, the two main characters come up with an idea after idea for defeating the Fates, but nothing really sticks. I found that annoying, as both Scarlett and Tella act impulsively without any well-though-out plans. And this is the last book in the series! It’s like they haven’t learned anything from the previous books.

I’m still giving the book four stars, because it was an entertaining read. If you don’t mind a plot that has a shiny new object syndrome, you’ll probably enjoy this series more than I did.