The Winner's Curse by
Marie Rutkoski My rating:
4 of 5 stars I didn't have high expectations when I flipped the first few pages of The Winner's Curse. From what I read on Goodreads, it was supposed to tell the love story between a Herrani slave and a high-born Valorian mistress. Now if this was set in Ancient Rome/Greece/etc., I would've read it with lowered eyebrows. But then again, maybe not, as love stories of this kind usually end up being maudlin (hello, Christian Historical Fiction). The reviews on Goodreads didn't help, showing memes of balls, love scenes from teen films, and whatnots. All these set in a high fantasy world? I didn't think so.
But I gave the book I try (after all, I gave Red Rising a chance and I enjoyed it), and whoa, the reviewers were right. The love story was tolerable—well more than tolerable, to be fair. No icky moments between mistress and slave. Instead, the whole love thing was understated, like a current that could explode any minute. While there was no "explosion" (and I was actually a little bit disappointed haha), I guess we have Book 2 for that. Thank the Herrani gods for trilogies.
What took my breath away though, was the author's exquisite world-building (thanks Goodreads reviewers for introducing me to this term). It was an excellent "retelling" of the Greco-Roman period (after Rome conquered Greece), a period in history which I'm unabashedly biased toward. I loved the author's little details on the Valorian (Roman) and Herrani (Greek) cultures—these only go to show how much the author loves her history and how she can create an entirely new world out of this fascination.
Final rating: 4.5 stars
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