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maggieha 's review for:
The Winner's Curse
by Marie Rutkoski
“Isn't that what stories do, make real things fake, and fake things real?”
I loved The Winner's Curse much more than I've anticipated. It was such an enjoyable ride, pulled me in from the start and made me fall in love with the whole story. I honestly don't have much to complain about: I absolutely adored (worshipped) the writing-style, fell in love with both main characters - Kestrel is one of my favourite heroines of all time now, the slow burn, hate-to-love forbidden romance (Because let's face it, I'm sucker for this certain trope!) the world-building and the meaningness of it all. If I had to describe The Winner's Curse in one word, it would be elegant, delicate even.
“She saw, yet again, that her friend's compliments were just bits of art and artifice. They were paper swans, cunningly folded so that they could float on the air for a few moments. Nothing more.”
Rutkoski's writing style is a thing to behold. It's very sophisticated. Elegant beauty. The delicate metaphors and meanings of it made my flowery-writing loving heart ache.
The pace of this story is slower, the storyline gets faster mostly toward the end. Which, of course, does not mean that this book is boring. Not at all. The masked lies, whispered intrigue, dangerous games and rumours will pull you in until the end. And when you close the final pages, you'll need more.
“Kestrel's cruel calculation appalled her. This was part of what had made her resist the military: the fact that she could make decisions like this, that she did have a mind for strategy, that people could be so easily become pieces in a game she was determined to win...”
As for the two main characters, I very much loved them both. Kestrel is your different kind of heroine. She's strong and proud and cunning. Even devious, sometimes. She's an excellent piano composer, and loves dresses. She's a warrior, but her strength is not the physical kind, it's her mind. She's a strategist. She does not excel at combat fighting. She can admit where her strengths lies and where they does not. I completely and utterly adored this main heroine. I loved how different she is than your typical kick-ass girl with no fears, yet she's not less strong, sometime even more so I'd say.
“Arin wondered if she would lift her eyes, but wasn’t worried he would be seen in the garden’s shadows.
He knew the law of such things: people in brightly lit places cannot see into the dark.”
Arin is great main hero. He's complicated, torn, broken yet still fighting. And I could connect to him and understand everything he did. I won't tell you much because that would possibly mean spoilers, but I can tell that even through everything, there is still something in him of the dreaming boy he once was. A spark that could ignite a revolution. Somber and conflicted, Arin is the god of lies.
“Arin smiled. It was a true smile, which let her know that all the others he had given her were not.”
The romance was slow burn, very much forbidden love. Now, that I have finished the book, I can safely say that it will be one wild addictive ride of love, politics and war combined together.
The world-building: It's clear that the author focused more on the characters than on the world-building, and I'm perfectly fine with that. It's very captivating, intriguing and questionable.
One of the things that strikes me as pretty different is the fact that Kestrel is on the side of the powerful empire. The 'bad side', actually. It was intriguing to see Kestrel struggle with, to find the balance between, what Valorian society taught her and what she knew was right, and what was not. Struggle with the blindness of other nobility around her. How she could both love the people closest to her, yet sometimes feel guilt, shame.
It's also interesting that the conquering empire – Valoria, is the originally barbaric one, a brute force. And the conquered nation – Herran, is the advanced, creative, civilized one.
It was intriguing to see how Kestrel's world, the life of Valorian nobility in colonized Harran, was built upon theft and lies, made up rules with no real history. No meaning.
“Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.”
Forbidden love. Desperation. Politics. Rumours. Hate. War. It all artfully comes together in this novel, until you can't pick one from another. There is no black and white.
Kestrel was born to the oppressor side, to the empire which thrives for more power and glory. Empire which knows how to take, but not how to make. Yet, even some of the bad guys have light to them, and the good ones shade.
This book raises lots of important questions, in my opinion. When one has no freedom, does one even live? And does happiness means freedom? When you live an oppressed life for far too long, life without a free will, what happens when you suddenly have a choice. Would it be revenge? And would it all be justified then? In what lenghts would you go to achieve freedom?
It all blends together. But the biggest question of this book, is the one of freedom. Of free will. And what happens when you have none.
“The truth can deceive as well as a lie.”
Overall, The Winner's Curse is a delicate high fantasy, with very much historical feel to it, and very little (none) fantasy aspect. It's political intrigue, dangerous game full of rumours and war, tension, romance and the meaning of things if you dare to look deep enough. I loved it to pieces!
“The Winner’s Curse is when you come out on top of the bid, but only by paying a steep price.”
I loved The Winner's Curse much more than I've anticipated. It was such an enjoyable ride, pulled me in from the start and made me fall in love with the whole story. I honestly don't have much to complain about: I absolutely adored (worshipped) the writing-style, fell in love with both main characters - Kestrel is one of my favourite heroines of all time now, the slow burn, hate-to-love forbidden romance (Because let's face it, I'm sucker for this certain trope!) the world-building and the meaningness of it all. If I had to describe The Winner's Curse in one word, it would be elegant, delicate even.
“She saw, yet again, that her friend's compliments were just bits of art and artifice. They were paper swans, cunningly folded so that they could float on the air for a few moments. Nothing more.”
Rutkoski's writing style is a thing to behold. It's very sophisticated. Elegant beauty. The delicate metaphors and meanings of it made my flowery-writing loving heart ache.
The pace of this story is slower, the storyline gets faster mostly toward the end. Which, of course, does not mean that this book is boring. Not at all. The masked lies, whispered intrigue, dangerous games and rumours will pull you in until the end. And when you close the final pages, you'll need more.
“Kestrel's cruel calculation appalled her. This was part of what had made her resist the military: the fact that she could make decisions like this, that she did have a mind for strategy, that people could be so easily become pieces in a game she was determined to win...”
As for the two main characters, I very much loved them both. Kestrel is your different kind of heroine. She's strong and proud and cunning. Even devious, sometimes. She's an excellent piano composer, and loves dresses. She's a warrior, but her strength is not the physical kind, it's her mind. She's a strategist. She does not excel at combat fighting. She can admit where her strengths lies and where they does not. I completely and utterly adored this main heroine. I loved how different she is than your typical kick-ass girl with no fears, yet she's not less strong, sometime even more so I'd say.
“Arin wondered if she would lift her eyes, but wasn’t worried he would be seen in the garden’s shadows.
He knew the law of such things: people in brightly lit places cannot see into the dark.”
Arin is great main hero. He's complicated, torn, broken yet still fighting. And I could connect to him and understand everything he did. I won't tell you much because that would possibly mean spoilers, but I can tell that even through everything, there is still something in him of the dreaming boy he once was. A spark that could ignite a revolution. Somber and conflicted, Arin is the god of lies.
“Arin smiled. It was a true smile, which let her know that all the others he had given her were not.”
The romance was slow burn, very much forbidden love. Now, that I have finished the book, I can safely say that it will be one wild addictive ride of love, politics and war combined together.
The world-building: It's clear that the author focused more on the characters than on the world-building, and I'm perfectly fine with that. It's very captivating, intriguing and questionable.
One of the things that strikes me as pretty different is the fact that Kestrel is on the side of the powerful empire. The 'bad side', actually. It was intriguing to see Kestrel struggle with, to find the balance between, what Valorian society taught her and what she knew was right, and what was not. Struggle with the blindness of other nobility around her. How she could both love the people closest to her, yet sometimes feel guilt, shame.
It's also interesting that the conquering empire – Valoria, is the originally barbaric one, a brute force. And the conquered nation – Herran, is the advanced, creative, civilized one.
It was intriguing to see how Kestrel's world, the life of Valorian nobility in colonized Harran, was built upon theft and lies, made up rules with no real history. No meaning.
“Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.”
Forbidden love. Desperation. Politics. Rumours. Hate. War. It all artfully comes together in this novel, until you can't pick one from another. There is no black and white.
Kestrel was born to the oppressor side, to the empire which thrives for more power and glory. Empire which knows how to take, but not how to make. Yet, even some of the bad guys have light to them, and the good ones shade.
This book raises lots of important questions, in my opinion. When one has no freedom, does one even live? And does happiness means freedom? When you live an oppressed life for far too long, life without a free will, what happens when you suddenly have a choice. Would it be revenge? And would it all be justified then? In what lenghts would you go to achieve freedom?
It all blends together. But the biggest question of this book, is the one of freedom. Of free will. And what happens when you have none.
“The truth can deceive as well as a lie.”
Overall, The Winner's Curse is a delicate high fantasy, with very much historical feel to it, and very little (none) fantasy aspect. It's political intrigue, dangerous game full of rumours and war, tension, romance and the meaning of things if you dare to look deep enough. I loved it to pieces!
“The Winner’s Curse is when you come out on top of the bid, but only by paying a steep price.”