Review : The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy #1)

Author: Marie Rutkoski

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

Release date: March 4th 2014

Goodreads summary: 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. 

REVIEW

I have been avoiding this book for a long time, because of the hype. Sometimes, I dive into that kind of book, and I wonder if I read the same book than the rest of us. However, I'll gladly say that it wasn't the case for this book, because I was compelled by the story as soon as the first pages.

Our main character, Kestrel, is an aristocratic girl who is either meant to marry or enlist before her twentieth birthday. She's still seventeen and has time to choose, but there is a lot of pressure around her choice, because her father is the infamous general Trajan, the Valorian who was the main actor in the Herrani conquest ten years ago, a territory where they now live. One day, Kestrel is stuck in an auction and buys a slave - which wasn't exactly her plan, because she already has plenty of them. However, this choice leads to a rebellion who could shatter either her world or her heart.

In the acknowledgments, Marie Rutkoski mentions that she was inspired by the conquest of Greece by the Romans, and that's exactly the feeling I got while reading this book. It was both high fantasy and historical, indeed women who weds are always to walk with an escort (Roman style) whereas soldiers women are very independent (high fantasy), I really liked that aspect of the book.

This world was very rich, mostly about culture, but we didn't see the whole picture of the Valorian empire, because this book focused on Herran. However, it wasn't necessarily a flaw, even if I hope we'll see more of the world in the next books.

For the plot, this book is clearly divided into two parts: the first about Kestrel evolving through high society, whereas the second one was politically-driven. During that second part, I was kind of mind blown, it was so very clever, and I can't wait to read the next one.

Kestrel isn't one of this typical YA heroines we see these days, like Katniss or Rose or Tris. She was trained in combat, mostly because of who his father is, but that doesn't mean she's the best at it.

"A kestrel is a hunting hawk."

"Yes. The perfect name for a warrior girl."

"Well." His smile was slight, but it was there. "I suppose neither of us is the person we were believed we would become."

In fact, she lacks of fighting skills but makes up with her strategical mind. She's such a clever girl that her father listens to her ideas concerning the army, which shows her usefulness.

However, I wasn't a huge fan of Arin as a character. In the beginning, I really liked that he wasn't called by his name because Kestrel didn't know it, he was just referred to as 'the slave'. It really showed how he was just one, meaningless, among so many others. Nevertheless, the more the story went on, the less is character was understandable to me. From the first chapter, he was disobedient. Now I ask you: if you want a rebellion to succeed and that you are undercover, what do you do? You stick to your cover, of course. Here, I thought Arin was lacking of judgment: no matter how resentful he was against the Valorians, he was to act as a slave, at least for the sake of the rebellion. But he didn't, and drew attention to him all the time! Not very clever.

Still, I liked the romance between them, even though Kestrel acted stupidly sometimes because of him. The romance didn't overwhelm the story. I could feel that they were used to each other and even cared about each other, it was obvious that there would be romance between them because of the summary, but it wasn't overdone. It was really swoony and they felt right together, but it wasn't their priority. Their countries were. They'll try to make it right to be together, but the compromise will be the most important thing for them (I hope).

I loved to read this story and can't wait to see how it goes. There'll be more politics in the next one and I look forward to see that. Moreover, I want to see more of this world.

Rating: 4.5/5