Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Ledge by Stacey McEwan

7 reviews

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

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

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

Minor: Sexual harassment, Confinement, and Alcohol

jayremps's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Classism, Gore, Violence, Grief, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement

amre23's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Violence, Slavery, Blood, Kidnapping, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Genocide, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Minor: Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Child death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Torture, and Classism

soniajoy98's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, Cursing, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Child abuse, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide

Minor: Cannibalism, Torture, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Physical abuse

magiquek8ball's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book took me longer to finish than I expected because I had to keep taking breaks. I loved and felt so there with the characters, that whenever something happened I needed to literally walk away and come back.

Based wholly on those breaks and when in the book I needed to take them, I can say that this book is perfectly paced and the ebbs and flows of the plot are as soothing and intoxicating as the magic in the pool of Iskra. I’ve never wanted to pick back up a book so soon after finishing it.

One of my favorite things about this book (aside from the characters) is the language used both in and out of dialogue. When the characters are talking to each other, not only does their individual personality come through but it really feels like a fantasy book in the cadence of their speech. I was constantly aware that I was witnessing something magical and of-another-world. Despite the true, heartwarmingly, human moments in the book, there was nothing pedestrian about it because of the words the author used in those moments.

Throughout this book, I got a sense that Stacey McEwan was sharing her wishes for the world. Some were small and simple like a man with huge hands who loves a woman with a sharp wit and

being able to shove entitled men into gaping holes in the earth

. Others were huge; the type of hopes we have but rarely know how to chase. Things like making the world “A Better Place” where people are not forced to go without freedom and comfort so that others may benefit, bluntness is welcome so long as it’s used without judgment, and differences are used as strengths to join forces against those with their heels on the backs of others. I loved being in a world where these wishes became plans and actions and I thank the author for sharing it with me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, War, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Classism, Racism, Confinement, and Sexual harassment

As a fantasy book, the -isms that are mentioned act more as a metaphor for ones that exist in our world. I found them powerful and thoughtfully done, but they are there.

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

1.75

Content warnings: sex, suicide, violence, blood and gore, confinement, kidnapping, murder, threats of rape, child death, injury detail

Thank you to Angry Robot for the physical ARC of this one in exchange for an honest review! 

I’ve been struggling with how to write this review since I finished because I’m hugely grateful to AR for sending me an ARC, especially because it’s so rare for me to get physical ARCs given where I live. Unfortunately as you can tell from my rating, this was not my cup of tea. This sounded like a really fun, enemies to lovers romantic fantasy which I was so on board with and I was so excited to see how the author’s humour translated into a book. But I found the worldbuilding to be pretty nonexistent (please explain the existence of a mage who turns up to heal people whenever the plot needs it) or badly written and the pacing off. It takes more than a third of the book to get off the mountain and the journey becomes very monotonous. At times, it felt like a tool to tell Dawyson (and thus us, the reader) things about the world. The whole book is very much “worldbuild entirely from telling not showing” which is the exact opposite of the books I tend to enjoy the most.

The above I can forgive as personal tastes, as I do think this could be something that might appeal to SJM fans? (Though note I say that having never read her books, but I imagine they could be something similar). And I know the heavy immersive worldbuilding I prefer is not for everyone! But more than the above, there were several moments that really…raised my hackles? The main love interest, Ryon, being an animalistic half beast Black man? 😬😬😬 This is a highly overused and problematic trope in media. Particularly given he is for much of the book, the only person of colour around - in fact on first read through, I thought he was the only one until page 284. When I went back to check I did notice a brief mention of another character’s darker skin colour. 

There were also several very…TERFy lines around genitals and womanhood that I did not like? It was rather odd. One of these I could have excused as me just looking too deeply and feeling touchy as I read but there were multiple throughout the text and they just added up and left such a feeling of distaste in my mouth which is obviously not the feeling you want when reading. For some examples, implying that to reach womanhood you have to have a period. Or referring to “parts that make me girlish will never know your touch again” as if our genitals make our gender. Of course all of these lines wouldn’t even exist if Ryon didn’t constantly infantilise Dawyson by calling her “girl”… They all come up in her responses to him calling her this.

So yeah, l wasn’t a big fan of this unfortunately! But thank you again to Angry Robot for the ARC! 

Oh God I thought I was finished but I just remembered they almost had sex after Dawyson just drowned and Ryon had to resuscitate her. WHAT. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Gore, Violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape