Title: The Winner's Curse
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: The Winner's Trilogy, #1
Farrars, Straux Girous
355 pages
Winning what you want may cost you everything you love
As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.
One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.
But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.
Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.
I started reading the Winner’s Curse because of a Fierce Reads promotion - they gave me the book and I’d help build the buzz around for it. I was pretty excited for this book in particular, because I’d been hearing loads of great things about it. I didn’t expect to fall absolutely and rather madly in love with it.
First of all, The Winner’s Curse has this amazing worldbuilding - a world that had been plagued by war, and now is full of slaves. The passages and setting are beautifully written, but what gripped me was the description of the people and how Marie Rutkoski made this world feel absolutely real - even the history of it felt real.
Now to the characters (my absolutely favourite part) - Kestrel is an amazing main character. She knows her weaknesses and her strenghs so well that it made me tear up. She’s proud, smart, delicate - she’s a strong girl without resorting to force. It’s quite amazing how she’s built, and how much I loved about her. Her strategist self made into my heart, and she quickly became one of my favourite characters.
In fact, so did Arin - to be honest, even though the rest of the characters are very well built and with awesome backgrounds, the main characters are the ones that come off the pages perfectly. Arin is amazingly well-built, you can feel his rage and his love and all of his emotions, it’s all beautiful - and yes, I’m repeating myself, but there is no other word for it.
What I also loved about this book was the questions it raised - about slavery, freedom, history, everything else. Culture appropriation and many other issues we face in the current world, all of them intricately woven into the plot. Sometimes I had to stop reading just to catch my breath. And another thing - that ending. I was utterly surprised and astonished, and yes, ended up crying a little bit.
To patch it up, the Winner’s Curse is a book every fan of young adult and fantasy SHOULD BE PICKING UP RIGHT NOW. GO.
Rating: 5/5 stars
Quote: “Isn't that what stories do, make real things fake, and fake things real?”
