Caraval by Stephanie Garber 
 - Scarlett Dragna, the daughter of an immoral general, and her younger sister Tella, recieve tickets to go to the illustrious Caraval after years of trying. Scarlett knew that the audiences participate in Caraval, but when she arrives she discovers she's already more involved than she would like, and must rescue her sister before her whole life is thrown into disarray.- 
 Final Rating: 4.5/5 Stars 
 This book really impressed me. This is Stephanie Garber's first novel, and I had not heard of it before recieving an ARC (*in exchange for an honest review), so my expectations were not super high. However, it looked good, so they weren't low by anyone's standards. Either way, they were surpassed. I did find out about halfway through the book that the author teaches creative writing, and it's obvious she knows how to write a good story. It's an engaging and thrilling books, with lots of twists and turns, and I really enjoyed it! 
 Caraval takes place in a kingdom that reminded me a bit of 1500s Europe, however sadly my ARC did not have a map :(. Most of the story itself takes places in Caraval itself, an incredibly complex show in which the audience participates and are given the oppuritunity to find clues within a strange town and solve a mystery to get a prize from the show's master, Legend. The show's setting, and the odd town which it takes place in gave me some serious Alice-in-Wonderland vibes, probably from time occasionally being screwy and payment for goods being taken in things like secrets and dreams. Or maybe it was the velvet top hats. I mean this in a positive way, and the story felt quite original. It's definitely not any kind of retelling. 
 The characters that weren't already well-developed got better thoughtout the book. Scarlett, her younger sister Tella, and their godawful father were already pretty solid, but at first I was VERY unsure about Julian. He's introduced in the beginning of the book and pushed into your face as LOVE INTEREST to at least Scarlett if not both the Dragna sisters. So for about the first fifty pages, I was fairly certain this was going to be a solidly three-star book, all because of Julian. He just seemed so one-dimensional, and far to similar to some other YA love interests. I cringed an awful lot in the beginning at the "Oh, he's so handsome, but so mysterious. Oh, look at the scars on his back. Oh look, he's not abandoning Scarlett when he's expected to." Frankly, at first he seemed like a carbon copy of one of the two love interests in The Remnant Chronicles, and I was not happy about it. Luckily, that changed quite a bit, to where Julian was actually a complex character with his own motivations and feeling unrelated to Scarlett. Aside from Julian, I really appreciated how much Scarlett cared about her sister, and her often shifting feelings about Julian never seemed to distract from the story, thanfully. 
 The writing itself was pretty good. Sometimes there were metaphors that really didn't make sense, but otherwise it wasn't garish or too over-detailed. (Disclaimer, I rarely have a probably with books having too much detail, so maybe find someone else's review for a better opinion on that). Some parts of the book had sequences that were, for lack of better word, trippy, and these were well written and added to the story rather than just confusing the reader. 
 As for the plot, it seems fairly straightforward at first, but gradually becomes more complex, and in my opinion darker, as the story goes on in a suprising skillful way for a debut novel. I loved the action,and this book did really suck me in. I was not disappointed in the least, and look forward to reading book two. 
 I'd like to give some applause to Stephanie Garber for a debut well done.