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A review by emilyusuallyreading
The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
5.0
What I Liked
Marie Rutkoski is one of my new favorite authors. The world she has created within this trilogy is so realistic and believable that I quickly forget it's imaginary. Rutkoski truly has a knack for grasping the complexity of culture.
How did I manage to read a thick, heavy novel in one sitting? Because I couldn't put it down. The Winner's Kiss is action-packed from the first page to the last. It's also incredibly intelligent and witty. Brains is Kestrel's biggest gift. She knows how to strategize and to read people, and even when she is brain-muddled, she has this gift. I love it. What an awesome ability to give a kick-A female protag. Usually "strong female characters" are given the gifts of fighting abilities or toughness or archery, etc - so to give a young woman the strongest mind is beautiful to me - and unfortunately rare to find!
I can't express enough how much I love the culture in this book. Between the Valorians, Herrani, and Dacran peoples, we learn intricate details about their religions, names, war histories, marital histories, naming and birthing histories... I wish I could see Rutkoski's notes of planning out these worlds. They are so real. You feel like you could visit these lands in your holiday vacation. It's incredible.
I enjoy the relationship between Arin and Kestrel. In YA lit, I tend to feel irritated by the romance and focus instead on the action, but I found myself craving more moments of bonding between these two characters. They're both flawed and intricate, and I love how they balance each other.
The relationship between father and daughter - and similarly, between brother and sister - are beautiful. I love familial relationships explored in fiction, and these met all my expectations. My heart broke over and over again.
All characters are incredibly written. I mean, super fleshed out, super believable, super likable and hateable at the same time. Every single character in the entire novel.
I also really, really like the invention of the Bite and Sting game and why can't it be real?
The conclusion really, really worked. I often finish trilogies - even the ones that I love - and feel like the writer didn't know how to wrap things up in a way that quite worked, but this one was perfect in every way.
What I Didn't Like
There really wasn't much I didn't like. The only thing that made me doubtful was that after was in the prison camp for only one month, this person was incredibly emaciated. If this person really had been eating heartily after those first few days as this person had written, then there would not have been time for emaciation. Similar with the memory issue - I just wish that this person's time in the camp had been 3 months rather than 1. (I say this because I work back and forth with impoverished areas in Kenya, and it does actually take a substantial amount of time with zero to no food for someone to become super visibly emaciated.)
However, because I can not spend too much time putting negative vibes into a book that I love, I did appreciate Rutkoski's research into amnesia - her intentions into this were so clear by Kestrel not losing her abilities, but rather her long term memories. Spot on.
Marie Rutkoski is one of my new favorite authors. The world she has created within this trilogy is so realistic and believable that I quickly forget it's imaginary. Rutkoski truly has a knack for grasping the complexity of culture.
How did I manage to read a thick, heavy novel in one sitting? Because I couldn't put it down. The Winner's Kiss is action-packed from the first page to the last. It's also incredibly intelligent and witty. Brains is Kestrel's biggest gift. She knows how to strategize and to read people, and even when she is brain-muddled, she has this gift. I love it. What an awesome ability to give a kick-A female protag. Usually "strong female characters" are given the gifts of fighting abilities or toughness or archery, etc - so to give a young woman the strongest mind is beautiful to me - and unfortunately rare to find!
I can't express enough how much I love the culture in this book. Between the Valorians, Herrani, and Dacran peoples, we learn intricate details about their religions, names, war histories, marital histories, naming and birthing histories... I wish I could see Rutkoski's notes of planning out these worlds. They are so real. You feel like you could visit these lands in your holiday vacation. It's incredible.
I enjoy the relationship between Arin and Kestrel. In YA lit, I tend to feel irritated by the romance and focus instead on the action, but I found myself craving more moments of bonding between these two characters. They're both flawed and intricate, and I love how they balance each other.
The relationship between father and daughter - and similarly, between brother and sister - are beautiful. I love familial relationships explored in fiction, and these met all my expectations. My heart broke over and over again.
All characters are incredibly written. I mean, super fleshed out, super believable, super likable and hateable at the same time. Every single character in the entire novel.
I also really, really like the invention of the Bite and Sting game and why can't it be real?
The conclusion really, really worked. I often finish trilogies - even the ones that I love - and feel like the writer didn't know how to wrap things up in a way that quite worked, but this one was perfect in every way.
What I Didn't Like
There really wasn't much I didn't like. The only thing that made me doubtful was that after
Spoiler
KestrelHowever, because I can not spend too much time putting negative vibes into a book that I love, I did appreciate Rutkoski's research into amnesia - her intentions into this were so clear by Kestrel not losing her abilities, but rather her long term memories. Spot on.