The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy, #2) by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy, #2)

by Marie Rutkoski

4.5 stars

Reading this book was exhilarating. Mainly due to the absolutely beautiful writing, it felt like I held my breath from beginning to end, and now after having finished it I still can’t breathe freely.

There was a lot of pulling and letting go. I was, more often than not, at the edge of my seat, waiting for the pressure to dissolve, only to be surprised by how the writer managed to make everything go wrong. This type of game between Kestrel and Arin (that made constant appearances throughout the first installment) was unrelenting in this book too. They both try to catch each other’s attention without actually wanting to accomplish it; they’re always on the verge of fessing up, painfully aware of how important it is for the other one not to know their secrets, but they can’t really help themselves. They’re very high on each other (and need constant hits to survive) and the hesitant, reckless behaviour through which they try to convey the message entails potentially horrible consequences for them both. And still, everything always seems to come back to the other one.

“She felt each cool, small, hard nail. The silence inside her was like those nails. What it held down was something sheer: a feeling like fragile silk, billowing up at the sound of his voice.

If she and Arin were to talk about what they had been talking about, that silk could tear free. It would float up. It would catch the light, and cast a colored shadow.

What color would it be, Kestrel wondered, the silk of what she felt?

What would it be like to let it go, let it canopy above her?”

Not many of the books I’ve read clearly show how someone, taught to see the world a certain way, questions those tenets’ reasons to exist. This just helps illustrate how well developed Kestrel’s character is throughout this book.

“There was dishonor, she decided, in accepting someone else’s idea of honor without question.”

The plot-line was also worked upon and well developed. The turn of events were surprising, but nothing was completely mind-blowing. As much as I’ve grown to care for Kestrel, I can’t really say I wasn’t expecting her to get caught at some point. Her father fooled me though. He really convinced me he was gonna stick to her side, and I was sad to see that I was wrong.

Still, I really did enjoy it. What they have is one of the purest, most real relationships I've read of. I'm reading the last one for sure.