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A review by robotnik
The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski
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