Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Ledge by Stacey McEwan

30 reviews

puddleshoes's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Xenophobia

witcheep's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This book was a disappointment to me – for three main reasons.

The first and the biggest disappointment is that the main chatacter Dawsyn is just too stupid to live. Don't get me wrong, she is almost overpoweredly competent in survival and fighting skills, but her stubborn attitude and rash decicions should have had her killed multiple times throughout the book. For example, when Dawsyn is chased for her life, she taunts her hunters, refuses an unlikely ally or tries to spite said ally in every possible way. Even Dawsyn herself thinks she is being childish in a life-or-death situation!

And then she'll have won this childish game of wills.

The ally has to save Dawsyn's life multiple times mainly because of Dawsyn's stupidity. Dawsyn counts on this: she doesn't care what her actions result in because the ally

will of course save the day

. Annoying! And this makes the ally just a doormat, trying to keep Dawsyn safe from their enemies and Dawsyn's own whims. Their romance (sub)plot doesn't add any real value to the story: I don't buy the level of their infatuation, which makes the romantic parts just cringeworthy.

The plot seems to be that Dawsyn and her ally are constantly in a hurry, but nothing much actually happens. The stakes should be very high (life and death!) but it doesn't feel like that at all. Dawsyn and her ally rush around from a hiding place to another,

manage it fairly easily, and defeat the chase parties that find them in combat waaay too easily even when they are clearly outnumbered

. While escaping and hiding, Dawsyn manages to make new powerful enemies just because she acts rash and doesn't stop to think things through (and we've come back to her too-stupid-to-live trait).

Secondly, and this is kindof just a side note... The setting of the Ledge and the Glacian captor race offer an interesting premise for escaping and finding out more about the reasoning behind this captive arrangement. At first, this arrangement and the escape seem to be filled with plot holes (things suddenly being possible when just a while ago they were impossible; new convienient things coming across all the time), but slowly these get explained better by Dawsyn discovering more about the truth of how the kingdom works. I wish the plot holes weren't there at all – don't say something is impossible just to make it doable in a minute. Why not say it is commonly known to be very unlikely to achieve instead?

Finally, another bigger issue: The political and ruling systems are unfortunately very unimaginative, rendering the setting worth less than it should be. Everything comes down to cruel monarchs and selfish nobility who want to hold on to their priviledged lives, even for the cost of the others. The lowest social classes are suffering in a world where resources are very scarce and the survival of the fittests dictates who lives and who dies – teamwork is forgotten outside of the closest family groups. The book presents the people of this world as very violent beings who only think of themselves, no matter the social standing, and that is just a very negative perspective on life used as an easy way to make opponents for the story. Reality is more complex, and I'd like to see that reflected in the people of a fantasy world.

Oh, and just to add to the annoyance of this all, the book has a bloody cliffhanger ending. 🙄

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Sexual assault, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Body horror, Infertility, and Pregnancy

rebecca_bluedragonskeep_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Classism

crinkledmochi's review against another edition

DNF at 60% 

the plot and point of the story just fell super flat after the first 15% and i really tried to enjoy it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Gore, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War

aurora4847's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Minor: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

ceredonia's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Not a bad first entry in a series. The FMC is mostly insufferable but slowly got better. The romance sort of came out of nowhere and didn't add much to the plot. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Cursing and Death of parent

emmacartlidge's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content

annaka's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

The initial premise of the book was interesting and I enjoyed how McEwan revealed the world and offered answers at a pace that kept things interesting. There was a bit too much smut/lost without you love (afte falling quickly) for my taste. Some of the inner monologue got a bit annoying for me, largely related to the above qualms. However, I remained engaged and willing to return to it until the story was finished. 

Overall I enjoyed it but would be unlikely to reread it… the issues above combined with the one below, made it a likely one time only story for me. Could be great for a different type of reader though. 


Now… light possible spoilers ahead…


I didn’t care for the ending. To me it wasn’t a good set up for the next book but rather a huge loss or a huge throwaway when everything somehow resolves in the next book’s initial chapters. The wrong kind of cliffhanger to try to entice you to pick up book two. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Slavery, War, and Injury/Injury detail

cneighbors36's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

paintergirl4ever's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Blood, Murder, and Colonisation