Sunday 15 March 2015

The Winner's Crime

21469060

Book Title: The Winner's Crime
Author: Marie Ruthkoski
Series: The Winner's Curse #2
Date Started: March 9th 2015
Date Completed: March 12th 2015
Genres: Romance, Mystery, Adventure
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

The Winner's Curse was so different and unique and wonderful in its romance without being typical or annoying. It had taken the politics and made that an actual threat and influence on Kestrel and Arin's actions. The Winner's Crime was most what the first book wasn't - and it makes me sad that its in a bad way. Overall, it was the abrupt changes from the last book disappointed me, but even the story itself was underwhelming.

I do really like Rutkoski's writing; it's really nice but also easy to read. Despite not enjoying The Winner's Crime as much as the first book, I still got very easily lost within the pages - and it's not often that I sit down and look up an hour and a half later thinking it had been five minutes. The style just tied in so well with the uniqueness of the first book, but I felt like it was somewhat lost amongst the reasonably level tension throughout this story.

The big big thing I loved about The Winner's Curse was how well Rutkoski had avoided being typical and having her characters pining or being just downright stupid. The big surprise for me was when halfway through the book, Kestrel and Arin started to be annoying. But I thought it's fine, they have a right to have miscommunication. But then they starting pining, and still refused to do anything about it. And then they started acting stupidly in ways that didn't affect them but their country. And it got to the point where it was more about their 'will they, won't they' dilemma than about the characters themselves and their situations - arguably at a time when their situations should've been the driving forces for the whole story.
At first there was some really nice inclusion of politics: it was dangerous and it was logical. But it ended up petering out towards the end, and it ended up only really being there for the cliffhanger. I noticed with a couple of things in this novel that were only really there as a cliffhanger - it felt like Rutkoski was picking and choosing what mistakes actually ended up having consequences at all. The threat of politics; Kestrel's principles; the time it took for Arin to have a brain and realise what was going on - it was all only there for a particular thing, but then there didn't seem to be much effort to hide its purpose (I don't even think there was a trigger for Arin's realisation. It just happened to be at this moment where things would work out like she wanted for the plot. Not how it actually would've happened if the characters were acting normally).
But to be honest I could've gone with all that and just been mildly disappointed. But then the whole book became really negative and depressing - I can't even remember a lot of the beginning of the story because of how much the second half just felt strange. Even in dark or sad books, there's got to be some sort of hope or objective to drive the characters into action. But there was nothing. No triumphs or achievements at really any point in the story; no hope for anything coming soon. I don't know what happened, but when I finished the last page I didn't feel any real tension towards what was going to happen in the next book, or any sense of a big approaching climax. I will read the next book because I'm praying this was just a couple of things getting a bit muddled, and I'm sure after that first book the end will be great.

There's only a few new characters in this book - something that surprised me a little, and also was slightly disappointing. I loved the introduction of Verex and his impact on the story, though I feel he was slightly wasted, especially considering there are so few people left that Kestrel might consider an ally.
Kestrel herself had changed a bit from the last book (or so I remember). Honestly, I was okay with that because of what likely happened in between the novels, and I liked that her principles and political understanding were still very important to her. But when they started slipping she didn't seem to try very hard to get back to herself and it actually didn't impact the plot until the very end (when it really should have).
If I'm honest, the thing that irritated me the most about the whole book was how different Arin was. Perhaps I remember him wrong, but even so the stubbornness with which he was pushing to get what he wanted, and the way he pined for the majority of the book, and how stupid he was, just wasn't Arin. Sure, he hadn't been the most practical or cunning character I'd ever read about, but he wouldn't spend so long only thinking about himself - even above his people towards the end. I was prepared for him to have changed, but his aggression with no explanation I could see, turned him into a typical YA male interest that wasn't getting what he wanted and I hated it.

The Winner's Crime was very addictive. I've already mentioned how easily I got lost in it, especially at the start. But when things started to get more and more unlikely the magic broke down a bit for me and I started reading smaller and smaller chunks.

I would widely recommend The Winner's Curse, but it's harder for The Winner's Crime. If you enjoy romance then you'll love this series, but even if you aren't someone who enjoys stories centered purely around a love story (like myself) the writing style and world building really pushed up the appeal for me. However much I was disappointed by this book, it was necessarily bad - and because of that I do think it is worth reading if you enjoyed the first novel. Perhaps just don't expect quite the same thing.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21469060-the-winner-s-crime

Friday 6 March 2015

I Am the Messenger

19057

Book Title: I Am the Messenger
Author: Markus Zusak
Date Started: February 22nd 2015
Date Completed: March 6th 2015
Genres: Mystery, Contemporary, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:


I Am the Messenger was not what I expected, but impressed me in how genuinely heartwarming it was. Ed's quest to make people's lives better through the hints he gets in the mail was a really interesting idea and I loved the way his connections to these people were more complex than just helping them and disappearing. I can see why some people might not like it because of the repetitiveness for the majority of the book - but for me I think the ending was worth it, however illogical and silly it seemed.

I absolutely love Zusak's style and it definitely translates from his masterpiece - it's more subtle here since in a way the things presented aren't quite as overtly meaningful, but it's definitely still there. Some quotes are just beautiful and it definitely made the slower parts of this book interesting. It also enhanced the atmosphere - something else I really liked about this book. There's the wonderful heartwarming feel, but there's also a underlying sense of danger if Ed doesn't do everything that's expected of him. I have to say this didn't exactly span the entirety of the book, and the laid-back attitude of the narrator for most of it made everything seem a little less serious than it might otherwise have been.

The opening chapter of this book is brilliant - but it's not what the whole book is. I think some readers have been surprised after that suspenseful, exciting first scene and then become bored with the slower development of the plot. Personally however, I really liked this story: the concept of getting little missions to help strangers was nice, and the execution of it was good. But the main issue with this novel is that it really gets repetitive: Ed gets a card with clues to people he needs to help; he visits them a few times and solves their problems; he moves on in time and as a person. Of course, each person he has to help is a little different, but there were further ways Zusak could've varied how it happened. In his defence, I liked how he did it, and I can definitely see why he did it that way (you have to make it to the end to find out), but it is understandable why some people might find it hard to come on with.
The ending was really good in my opinion though. It wasn't logical, and there isn't any explanation as to how this all happened, but I couldn't help thinking it was cool and quite clever. In many ways it wasn't a very good conclusion at all, but it hit home what the whole story was about and it satisfyingly fit with the story.

I like the characters in this book, but I wasn't wild about them. I suppose it's about the messages sent through the characters rather than the people themselves. Though I do think perhaps if I'd been closer to the characters as people rather than their part of the story.
Ed was a nice protagonist, and I think his true ordinariness (not your typical 'normal but with a hidden talent' protagonist) made the reality of the story a whole lot more important - there is a very clear idea that this is supposed to send a message to readers themselves, and Ed's character really hits home with it. I also thought he was a really realistic guy and I can think of a few people I know that face the exact problems with motivation he has - and seeing him grow so much during the book was just lovely to follow (this is also where I can support the slow pace, because it increased the realism a fair bit).

The pacing of events wasn't too bad actually; one of the positives from this idea of a constant quest is that there's always something important to the plot happening. In this respect the pacing is good; but there still comes the issue that the actual action itself becomes repetitive after the first few times.

I would recommend I Am the Messenger to fans of Markus Zusak's writing, but be aware it's very different from The Book Thief. For me it was a still just as lovely (most of the time). It does require a bit of patience, but if you're willing to really get immersed in the story I think it's a really nice read. And the ending will either infuriate you or blow your mind.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19057.I_Am_the_Messenger