Books like Caraval
What should you read after Stephanie Garber’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Stephanie Garber
- 2017
- YA fantasy
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Caraval
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchThe Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern
The obvious next stop and still the best one: a competition staged as a spectacle, dressed in the same velvet and candlelight, written with far more patience.
- Carnival magic
- Colour-drenched descriptions
- A game you can't trust
- Much slower, dreamier pacing
Best for the untrustworthy love interestThe Cruel Prince
Holly Black
If Julian's charm and menace were the hook, Holly Black does that with a scalpel: a mortal girl in a faerie court where every kindness is a manoeuvre.
- A charming, untrustworthy love interest
- A game you can't trust
- Twists every chapter
- Much crueller and bloodier
Great matchDaughter of Smoke & Bone
Laini Taylor
Laini Taylor writes the lushest prose in YA fantasy, and this one has the same trick of dropping you into a secret world through an ordinary door.
- Colour-drenched descriptions
- A charming, untrustworthy love interest
- Carnival magic
- Angels and war, not carnivals
Great matchThe Hazel Wood
Melissa Albert
A girl chasing her missing family into a story that keeps rearranging around her. Darker and stranger than Caraval, with the same you-are-inside-the-game feeling.
- A game you can't trust
- An island that rearranges itself
- Sisters above everything
- Genuinely creepy in places
Great matchWicked Lovely
Melissa Marr
Older, moodier faerie romance with a mortal girl caught between courts. It reads like the generation of YA that Caraval grew out of, and it holds up.
- A charming, untrustworthy love interest
- Carnival magic
- Distinctly 2007 in style
Best for the atmosphereThe Wrath & the Dawn
Renée Ahdieh
A girl walks willingly into a palace where she expects to die and finds the boy-king is not what she was told. Sumptuous, and the food descriptions alone earn it.
- Colour-drenched descriptions
- A charming, untrustworthy love interest
- Sisters above everything
- Romance is the main plot
Worth a look — with a warningThe Starless Sea
Erin Morgenstern
Morgenstern again, going further into pure atmosphere: an underground world of doors, honey and stories. Beautiful, and almost entirely uninterested in plot.
- Colour-drenched descriptions
- An island that rearranges itself
- Twists every chapter
- Very little narrative drive
Great matchShadow and Bone
Leigh Bardugo
The Darkling is the template Julian was cut from, and Bardugo builds a world with better bones. A safe bet if you want more of the same feeling with sturdier plotting.
- A charming, untrustworthy love interest
- Twists every chapter
- Military fantasy, not carnival
Great matchUprooted
Naomi Novik
A village girl taken by a wizard into a tower, in a novel that treats female friendship as seriously as any romance. The magic feels genuinely uncanny.
- Sisters above everything
- Carnival magic
- A charming, untrustworthy love interest
- Slower, folkloric pacing
Great matchThe Crown's Game
Evelyn Skye
Two magicians in imperial Russia duel by taking turns to enchant the city, and only one survives. The closest thing here to a formal magical competition.
- A game you can't trust
- Carnival magic
- Colour-drenched descriptions
- Romance leans sentimental
Great matchThe Gilded Wolves
Roshani Chokshi
A heist crew in 1889 Paris solving puzzles through a city full of hidden rooms. Trades Caraval's dream-logic for banter and cleverness, and the set pieces are glorious
- A game you can't trust
- Colour-drenched descriptions
- Twists every chapter
- Ensemble, not one heroine
Great matchEnchantée
Gita Trelease
Magic paid for in exhaustion, a sister to protect and a card game at Versailles as the revolution builds. Less whimsical than Caraval and better on consequences.
- Sisters above everything
- A game you can't trust
- Carnival magic
- Historical detail slows it
Worth a look — with a warningThe Kingdom of Back
Marie Lu
Marie Lu writing Mozart's sister and the invented kingdom she escapes into. Quiet, sad and lovely, and about half the sugar rush you came here for.
- Sisters above everything
- An island that rearranges itself
- Carnival magic
- Historical, mostly non-magical
What should you read after Caraval?
Caraval by Stephanie Garber works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern — the obvious next stop and still the best one: a competition staged as a spectacle, dressed in the same velvet and candlelight, written with far more patience.
If what stayed with you was a charming, untrustworthy love interest, read The Cruel Prince by Holly Black instead: if Julian's charm and menace were the hook, Holly Black does that with a scalpel: a mortal girl in a faerie court where every kindness is a manoeuvre. Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor is the other strong option — laini Taylor writes the lushest prose in YA fantasy, and this one has the same trick of dropping you into a secret world through an ordinary door.
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