“Arin thought of Kestrel, and wondered if some wounds ever heal.”
If you loved The Winner’s Curse, then this sequel is going to blow you away. Everything about this book was better than the first one.
In this sequel the stakes were higher and the author balanced the political tension perfectly. Everything was also way more developed—the plot, the fantasy world, and the characters’ relationships with each other.
As I mentioned in my review of the first book, I absolutely loved how quick-witted and intelligent the main characters were. Kestrel and Arin were smart to the point of being evil. They were always plotting, weighing the odds of difficult decisions, and deciding which was more important: their roles over their separate countries, or their feelings for each other.
“Her music was angrier than she had expected. A sweet prelude that twisted away from her, and darkened, and knitted its way down into the lower octaves. She played until her wrists hurt. She played until she fumbled. The room vibrated with dying chords.”
Kestrel and Arin’s relationship grew from a “forbidden love story” into into something so painfully, heartbreakingly romantic. Their interactions were breathtaking, but also incredibly sad. I loved every scene they were in together.
The author’s powerful writing made me ache with longing for Kestrel and Arin to be together and it was so frustrating how they tried to deny their feelings for each other—but at the same time, I understood that they believed they had more important duties to prioritize. Things got so intense between them that it made me want to simultaneously pull my hair out and cry in frustration.
“Kestrel wondered what it would be like if time could be unsewn, the threads ripped out and redone. She went back to the day of the auction, that first day, that sight of a slave stepping onto the block. She imagined everything differently. This time, she didn’t bid.”
Something else I love about this trilogy is the writing. Marie Rutkoski has such a lovely writing style I could gush forever about the beauty of her prose. I usually dislike metaphors in books (see: Shatter Me), but The Winner’s Crime contains so many beautiful metaphors that were delightful to read.
“Thoughts, too, have their seasons, and she couldn’t stop what worked its way up through the underground of her mind. And what were her thoughts? What did she gather in secret, in guilt? What did she hold, and lift to the light to see better, and what did she drop as quickly as she could, as if it were hot to the touch?”
One last thing that made my day and I found absolutely hilarious: after finishing The Winner’s Crime I read the Author’s Note and could not believe that Barry Lyga assisted Marie Rutkoski with writing a torture scene. Then I thought, Of course he did. Who else would be so perfect for the task to suggest that the skin on someone’s fingers be ripped off?
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