So, I know that it's not perfect but it was just so freaking fun and engaging to read. 

Was it the best world building? No there were definitely a few holes and some unanswered questions (although I'll give a liiittle leeway in saying that Oraya as a character/narrator was kept in the dark about the world around her a bit so that contributed to some of the murkiness)

I do think the characterization was done pretty well. Even most of the (important) side characters were multi-dimensional, which really made the stakes of the whole tournament that much higher. 

Definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.