From the Bookshelf of The Wide Web of Friends in YA Books…

The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy, #1)

Marie Rutkoski

Start date: April 1, 2014

Finish date: May 1, 2014

Why we're reading this: The author is doing a Q&A with our group!!
[close] The author is doing a Q&A with our group!!

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Jun 03, 2014 Millie rated it really liked it

The Winner's Curse follows Kestrel, the General's daughter and her unusual decision to buy a slave for a ridiculous price. The story is set in a land which used to belong to the Herrani but since has been taken over by the war loving Valorians who now use the Herrani as their slaves. Kestrel purchases a young Herrani slave and has a very unusual relationship with him to the suspicion of the Valorian society. This novel is full of balls, duels and war strategies, combining many elements of fantat The Winner's Curse follows Kestrel, the General's daughter and her unusual decision to buy a slave for a ridiculous price. The story is set in a land which used to belong to the Herrani but since has been taken over by the war loving Valorians who now use the Herrani as their slaves. Kestrel purchases a young Herrani slave and has a very unusual relationship with him to the suspicion of the Valorian society. This novel is full of balls, duels and war strategies, combining many elements of fantatsy, dystopia and historical fiction.

I thought the first few chapters started off a bit slow with the author taking a long time to explain events with much needless detail. However, as the story progressed and the world was described more - I became extremely intrigued. I will admit that building of the setting is mainly based around the country's past and history rather than the present and I think this constant feed of historical knowledge kept me more interested than the plot. The book wasn't necessarily fast paced as I felt at times that after reading one chapter I would have to put the book down to digest all the new information that was just provided. However, after about 3/4 of the way through, I became absolutely hooked and couldn't place the book down.

The character building in this book was great. I believe the author created their personalities really well not through the dialogue but through their actions. The little mannerisms and movements of each character revealed tiny details which came together to make well built and likable characters.

The ending of the book was not a shock as the author makes clear from near the beginning that this is going to happen - this still doesn't mean it had twists and turns. The plans that the characters were making changed every page due to a setback and I think this is what really made it gripping; the fact that you are aware that there are millions of possible outcomes and you want to find out which one it is. I very much liked the elements of war strategy in this book as it added another depth to the plot and left you wondering what the best move is.

The very end was quite satisfying and I would be happy enough to just read it as a standalone without feeling the need to finish the trilogy. There is definitely room to write more books and I would love to know more about the characters and world but I think this ending was great with it not being the perfect 'lived happily ever after' but not the current cliche of killing a character off.

Overall, an action packed novel which skillfully combines many genres and can be read in the trilogy or possibly on its own. Great characters but sometimes slow and heavy at points. ...more

Like · see review

Jul 06, 2014 Caitlin rated it liked it

Some books are hard to rate. This is one of those books. It was good. I enjoyed it? The Winner's Curse just didn't do much for me. It was well written but the feels didn't dive deep. I never connected with the characters like I expected or needed to as a reader. But it wasn't bad, either. I didn't feel for the characters and what went on between them but I didn't hate them. Was I glad I read it? Sure. Will I read the other ones? Yeah. Like I said, it was good. ...more

Like · see review