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robotnik's review
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Unpopular opinion apparently, but this book suffered from second book syndrome for me. I was super into it for the first 50% but then it waned into kind of boring territory for the next 40% before finally finishing strong in the last 10%. It was that 40% that's preventing me from giving this a four star to match the previous book.
Originally, I was super into the plot and the tension and I was feeling all that super branded reader stress over what was going to happen. But by the time I reached the midway point, the feeling of tension went away because there wasn't really a whole lot going on. Only a handful of incidentssuch as Arin's attack that scarred his face lived up to the threats that was being tossed around the whole time.
Part of that is because the Emperor doesn't live up to the hype. He's a basic, generic villain. I was expecting so much more of him, to be perfectly frank. If you read the other characters speaking of him, he's much more impressive than what we actually got. Everyone's scared of him and you hear of him doing dastardly deeds to beat people into submission all the time and yet Kestrel was able to be the worse spy in existence and he still didn't do much besides threaten her that he knows she's up to something while barely actually doing anything. Whenever he did do something, it was a surprise because he was actually being proactive in his threats and following through rather than threatening you like your mom does when she says she'll take your phone away but never actually does so.
The other issue I had was the pining between Kestrel and Arin. At the beginning, it's all tension and I'm dying because it's so heartbreaking. And then it got really fucking annoying because these two literally demonstrated one of the worst cases of miscommunication I've ever actually had to read. It felt like most of the drama was because the two couldn't vocalize shit to each other, despite numerous chances to do so. In the process, they continually made things worse for themselves, each other and everyone around them. This goes on for the entire book.
The final issue is that Kestrel went from having some sort of functioning brain to being a complete moron. She tries pulling off some espionage tactics while also lacking self-awareness at some important times though she seems perfectly aware at all the other times. It just goes to show that the people of the palace are complete idiots themselves because they didn't manage to catch her poor fumbling attempts much sooner.And, of course, the ending mentioned that she, indeed, was noticed so she's not even as good as you initially are led to believe anyways.
I sound like I hate this book but I don't. Again, I was super into it throughout the first half. The problem was it couldn't keep the momentum throughout the whole thing. Or really, it plateau'd and never got any better. It just remained the same until it hit the final 10%.
Those last few chapters were everything. That was what I was expecting from this book after the previous book. It's a shame the entire book wasn't as great, but still pretty good overall.
Originally, I was super into the plot and the tension and I was feeling all that super branded reader stress over what was going to happen. But by the time I reached the midway point, the feeling of tension went away because there wasn't really a whole lot going on. Only a handful of incidents
Part of that is because the Emperor doesn't live up to the hype. He's a basic, generic villain. I was expecting so much more of him, to be perfectly frank. If you read the other characters speaking of him, he's much more impressive than what we actually got. Everyone's scared of him and you hear of him doing dastardly deeds to beat people into submission all the time and yet Kestrel was able to be the worse spy in existence and he still didn't do much besides threaten her that he knows she's up to something while barely actually doing anything. Whenever he did do something, it was a surprise because he was actually being proactive in his threats and following through rather than threatening you like your mom does when she says she'll take your phone away but never actually does so.
The other issue I had was the pining between Kestrel and Arin. At the beginning, it's all tension and I'm dying because it's so heartbreaking. And then it got really fucking annoying because these two literally demonstrated one of the worst cases of miscommunication I've ever actually had to read. It felt like most of the drama was because the two couldn't vocalize shit to each other, despite numerous chances to do so. In the process, they continually made things worse for themselves, each other and everyone around them. This goes on for the entire book.
The final issue is that Kestrel went from having some sort of functioning brain to being a complete moron. She tries pulling off some espionage tactics while also lacking self-awareness at some important times though she seems perfectly aware at all the other times. It just goes to show that the people of the palace are complete idiots themselves because they didn't manage to catch her poor fumbling attempts much sooner.
I sound like I hate this book but I don't. Again, I was super into it throughout the first half. The problem was it couldn't keep the momentum throughout the whole thing. Or really, it plateau'd and never got any better. It just remained the same until it hit the final 10%.
Those last few chapters were everything. That was what I was expecting from this book after the previous book. It's a shame the entire book wasn't as great, but still pretty good overall.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Slavery
thedarkfields's review against another edition
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Genocide, Grief, Gaslighting, and War
Minor: Animal death, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Death of parent
Colonisation, war, and slavery are main themes in this series. This book also includes a great deal of manipulation, emotional/physical abuse, some gaslighting, and off-page references to terrible thingsThere's one scene (fairly early on in the book) during which someone is briefly but brutally tortured in explicit detail. Can be skipped without missing plot. There are other brief references to torture but none I can recall that are explicit.
karly_ackley's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Slavery, Torture, Murder, and War
raxtrop's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery and War
wildflowerleahg's review against another edition
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture
Moderate: Suicide and War
Minor: Slavery
fifth_magpie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture and Violence
Minor: Slavery
gabbygarcia's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, and Alcohol
nikitanavalkar's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This series is turning out to be like a bag of chips, no one can eat just one. Or well like a Netflix show, intensely bingeable. The writing gets prettier and the turns of phrase more elegant in this one, the politics gets more involved, the social conscience and implications more complex. Now we’re talking.
Kestrel is one fascinating girl. She’s sharper and more mercenary than ever. We are with her as she learns more about her own morals and priorities, and is a firmly Grey character. She’s not perfect, but her strategic brain is the only thing keeping the pieces on the board moving in the right direction. For the most part. Her character arc is uncomfortably real and true to someone who’s been raised with a certain set of beliefs would be. As in, raised by colonizers.
When she does make mistakes, which of course she does (she’s 17 after all), it is mostly out of desperation or to correct errors on others’ part, most often Arin’s. Who by the way, might be on the noble side always, but has a tendency to make the worst decisions. That Kestrel has to fix, and boy does not understand her cues whatsoever. Okay I’m being too harsh on him, but he’s not the sharpest crayon in the box. At least in this book. Your typical hero with a hero complex, leaping without thinking things through.
Thanks to that and desperation and some poor choices on everyone’s part, it all went to he11 in those last few pages. Which tbh I expected, but was brutal nonetheless. Now do I put the rest of my tbr aside and go straight to the last book 🧐
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
nytephoenyx's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Wow, The Winner’s Crime took me by surprise. This book was intense.
We talk a lot about how middle books are a bridge between books one and three and are a bit blah. That was not the case with The Winner’s Crime. This book – particularly Kestrel’s POV – was a constant rollercoaster. I loved listening to it.
Well, I loved listening to Kestrel’s POV chapters. As I found with The Winner’s Curse, Arin’s chapters were ridden with a lot of stereotypical poor decisions and I found him underwhelming. Honestly, I don’t know what Kestrel sees in him as a person because Arin is reckless and shortsighted and frustrating. Please know – when I say “stereotypical poor decisions”, I’m not giving Rutkoski enough credit. Even though Arin makes a lot of expected choices, Rutkoski chose to take the story in a different direction than I expected. This book stressed me out in a lot of the best ways and I appreciated it.
Kestrel, Arin, and the emperor all fit neatly into character tropes and are easy to get to know in a short period of time. As far as characters go, Rutkoski hasn’t done anything spectacular. These characters aren’t memorable on their own and won’t bring readers back for their own sake. The Winner’s Crime relies heavily on its plot to bring in readers. If you aren’t interested at the beginning or if you’re a very strong character reader, this series may fail to interest you.
For myself, I wasn’t overly impressed with The Winner’s Curse, but I was intrigued enough to pick up the sequel… and I’m glad I did. The interesting parts of the story flourish in The Winner’s Crime and this book stressed me out. In a good way. In that “yelling at the TV ‘NO DON’T GO IN THERE'” kind of way. I really enjoyed it and I’m glad I picked it up. I have no idea how this trilogy is going to end and I can’t wait to find out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racism, Medical content, and War
Minor: Slavery
beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Death of parent and War