The Winner’s Curse Review

The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

“We won’t talk about the fact that as much as you like to win, you’re acting as if you’re determined to lose.”

Kestrel is the general’s daughter and that means she’s privileged and rich but she’s not completely free. At 17 she has only 3 years till she makes her choice for the future either she gets married or she joins the military and neither sound appealing. When Kestrel buys a slave at an auction she’s introduced to Arin, who is different to any other slave she’s met and can beat her at her own game but Arin has secrets that will ruin quite a lot of things.

I loved the interactions/chemistry between the characters, both characters were smart in their own ways and though their relationship was not exactly forbidden it was dishonourable and I liked how Kestrel was able to stand head high in front of others when what she was supposedly doing was frowned upon. Their relationship wasn’t very vocal but slowly built through small things and symbols and it was really refreshing to read something like that. Adding to what I said before both characters were clever in such a way were they could spot things and could read each other and I think they were such a perfect match.

The history between Kestrel and Arin’s countries/kingdoms (?) isn’t pretty and you can tell this from how one side is privileged whilst the other side are slaves. The history is very important in the book and especially when there’s this drastic change midway through the book. I really loved the plot and how it was a complete change to the first half, I had this feeling throughout the second half were I wanted Kestrel to do something but then Arin to do something else which would contradict with Kestrel’s decision.

I liked the multi povs and how we saw what each of the two main characters were up to and as the story progressed this was really important. Though they never really admitted their feelings they both made big sacrifices for each other and this is shown at the ending of the book when Kestrel does something.

There wasn’t enough world building in the book to make me picture the place and surroundings however the society surrounding Kestrel was built very well. There were certain expectations to which Kestrel had to live by and as Kestrel had a keen eye she used this to her advantage.

Another thing I liked was how that Arin thought he was being real sly by deceiving people and this was throughout the novel but Kestrel saw through him and this was something that hindered Arin’s plan because in the sense of military and strategy Kestrel was smarter.  

“People in brightly lit places cannot see into the dark”

★★★★☆