This book started off with me almost putting it down for good just in 2 chapters. Scarlett is annoying as hell to start off this story. If it wasn't for the intriguing notion of what the Caraval mystery was offering, I might have just been done. In the end I'm glad I stuck with it as once the mystery starts kicking off, it is a fun ride. I had a lot of fun with the twists and turns in this book, and seeing a certain character getting what he deserved felt good. I only have one last complaint, which would be the world building. Settings were just thrown together, with very little build up of what me as a reader should be seeing.

This is another one of those ratings where I wish Goodreads would allow half stars. In my mind, this book is about a 3.5, and I feel like a half star up and down is either overrating or underrating it. But I'll go with 3 stars for this first book in the series based on how I almost dropped it off the bat. The ending of this book at least made the next book's plot setup super interesting.