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Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Review of The Winner's Curse


Image result for the winner's curse
Yes, the cover looks good... until you examine it closely.

2/3
It gets two because the writing was pretty good. I read it in a few hours, so it did keep my attention.
My problem was mainly that they were in love pretty much from page one. I like my fluff (yes, I have very low fluff standards. This just wasn't good fluff) to take a bit longer than that. I had no interest in their being together because no one was trying to keep them apart. Even when people think they are, all she gets is some cold looks at parties and a handy pamphlet on how to be more discreet.
Also, Arin was such a sweet little kid in the prequel short story. Now he's all... broody. He's just not very interesting. He gains a little personality at the end (which was the sort of fluff that should have been in the middle of the story), but it was too late for me to like him.
Kestrel was... it's not that I didn't like her (I don't really have feelings one way or the other). But she didn't change. She started the book disliking slavery but not really willing to do anything about it, and that didn't particularly change over the course of it. She was also kind of weak. Even before she let Arin completely control himself, she couldn't be bothered to yell at him for things that would have been wrong even had he been an honored guest. And, to be honest, I think she should have lost the duel. She bargained for her life, not winning. That wasn't fair to the other guy (who's a creep, but still. There's such a thing as fair play.)
Basically, the book suffers from YADNS (Young Adult Dystopian Novel Syndrome). It thinks it's a serious book, and this leads it to unfortunate choices that rather ruin the happy fluff it could have been. Pity. I probably won't continue the series, because I don't really care. 

For future reference, YA authors, here's the template:
1) Create two characters. One of them (preferably the female) should have a high up position of some kind (not one she necessarily deserves; it has to do with her parents), while the other (preferably the male) should be some sort of outlaw or in some way working against her.
2) *Optional* Have your two characters meet without knowing who the other one is.
3) Somehow, one of your characters gains power over each other.
4) Slowly, the one in power grows to sympathize with the other's cause, and they begin to fall in love.
5) Through some reversal of fortune, the power positions reverse.
6) They're so in lurve that the one now in power allows the other to escape.
7) The escapee betrays the other, but then feels bad about it and saves him/her in the nick of time. Bonus points if this method ends with the two being separated somehow.

This book was fine, except that it pretty much skipped over step 4. Tsk tsk.

Oh, yes, and the automatic posting by Goodreads seems to have failed again (I have a theory; it's probably my fault that it didn't work this time). Hopefully three copies of this review won't appear suddenly, but if they do, sorry.
And tell me if the larger font is awful. I thought it was an improvement, but then, I'm half-blind.

4 comments:

  1. i like the bigger font, it's easier to read :) and lol, love the template xD

    ReplyDelete