At first the point of the carnival was really unclear I really didn't understand why Blake his brother and his friends were going through this imaginary carnival with all these crazy rides with this woman Cassondra and all these deadly consequences if they didn't finish a ride or they didn't finish all the rides in time but slowly but surely the plot started to open up Neil Schusterman is a genius his writing style is never what it seems to be there's always an underlined plot to which you think is the plot there's always some deeper message in which you're reading this book was not about a carnival it was about the internal struggle that one of the characters was having within himself and he was able to overcome that struggle in a blaze of glory well done Mr. Shusterman he took me on another wild ride it was a page turner everyone of his books that I've read I read in one sitting you can't put them down