Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Ledge by Stacey McEwan

15 reviews

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

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

brysonsmommie84's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

It’s only January, but I’ve already read ten books this year and this is the best one by far. To the point I haven’t been interested in the books I have tried to read afterwards… 

I cannot wait to read Chasm, which is book two in this series. (Hurry Library, I don’t own this one!) This is not what I was expecting, but I throughly enjoyed every minute. 

I have been following the author Stacey on TikTok since the beginning and have been so excited to read this novel. It reminded me the entire time of the 1976 movie Logan‘s Run, with Jenny Agutter and Michael York. Just add in bat-like people swooping in to steal away the people that are destined for the carousel or in this case Iskra and set it all on a snowy/icy ledge. If you like Hunger Games or Divergent, but for adults, this is for you. 

It had some smutty scenes I was not expecting, at all. Out of two hundred and seventy-one pages, I believe it’s ten to twelve pages throughout the book, roughly three percent. The first scene was pretty early into the book. So, if romantasy is your thing, there is probably enough, this only the first book in the trilogy. 

The quote from page 207 is my only true complaint about this book. Ryon and other glacians, but mostly him, use the word girl repeatedly. Can’t stand the word…

Just a few quotes I don’t want to forget:

Page 74

“The cold is not alive, but it might as well be fangs and claws, for the havoc in can wreak.”

Page 135 

“I do not need you.”

“Ah, but wanting is not the same as needing, as you so perfectly illustrated tonight.”

Page 142

“It is my aim in life to leave an impression and I don’t much care for ensuring it be a good one.”

Page 207

“You will refrain from calling me girl.” 

Amused, he gazes at her from beneath his eyelashes. “Or what?”

“Or I might decide I don’t want your hands anywhere near me.”

Page 216

“ When I first saw you, I thought you were an intolerable, arrogant maniac with a smart mouth and a pretty face. My mind is unchanged.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

typedtruths's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

2.75

this was genuinely terrible but i had a lot of fun. just don't ask me to explain the world-building because it was paper thin

▷ Representation: Ryon (mc) is brown; Esra (sc) is nonbinary & uses he/him pronouns; minor f/f side couple.

Blog • Trigger Warning Database • StoryGraph

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

➸ Trigger warnings for slavery, attempted rape, sexual harassment, blood and gore depiction including mentions of mutilation, decapitation, death of a grandmother recounted, death of a mother from suicide, multiple deaths from falling off a cliff or from a great height, imprisonment, murder, axe, sword and dagger violence, disappearance and presumed death of a child/sister, loss of autonomy (magical), mass death/massacres mentioned, poverty and food scarcity.

missmali's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Classism

kat1105's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lycheeteareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

meat_muffin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I loved this. Absolutely loved it. Blasted through, sad it’s over, am D Y I N G that the next one won’t be out for months - and on that cliffhanger?! How very dare (but I still adore you, Stacey!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

jackiepreston's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

shannanigans92's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death and Sexual harassment