Reviews with content warning for Murder - Ledge

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Ledge by Stacey McEwan

17 reviews

puddleshoes's review against another edition

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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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witcheep's review against another edition

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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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aurora4847's review against another edition

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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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ceredonia's review against another edition

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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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paintergirl4ever's review against another edition

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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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ashleynp24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. I felt the action moved along the plot well, and the characters are fun. The romance is a big factor in the book as well, so watching that develop was expected but still a fun read.

I loved seeing a strong woman as the protagonist and how her relationships evolved due to her nature. A reason I did give it a 4 and not higher was I wish the book was told in her POV, not a 3rd person POV. I feel if it was from hers, we’d get to know a bit more about her relationship with Ryon, and her thoughts regarding her experiences more. I do enjoy their relationship and the development of it, but I think it could be a deeper connection between them.

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