The Ledge by Stacey McEwan review

2/5 Stars

In a place known as The Ledge, a civilization is trapped by a vast chasm and sheer mountain face. No way can anyone escape the frozen wasteland without befalling a deathly drop. They know nothing of the outside world except that it is where The Glacians reside – mystical winged creatures who bring them meagre rations to survive, in exchange for a periodic human sacrifice.

Dawsyn, axe wielder and the only remaining member of her family, has so far avoided the annual culling, but her luck has run out. She is chosen and ripped from her icy home, the only world she knows. No one knows what will happen to her on the other side, at least Dawsyn. Murdered? Enslaved? Worse?

Thankfully, the fates align and Dawsyn manages to escape their clutches with the help of a half-Glacian called Ryon. But trust does not come easily, and she keeps a trained axe to his throat while they journey together down the slopes. But who’s to say that the life below will be any better than the one she has run from?

I didn't have a lot of expectations when I went into this book as I hadn't seen many reviews on it, however, it seemed so interesting and like nothing I had ever read before so I just had to pick it up. Unfortunately, it fell flat with me and I didn't enjoy myself at all when reading it. I did like the first couple of chapters when we were still on the ledge and we were being to the characters and the setting and it had so much potential. However, as soon as she left the ledge it went downhill for me. The new setting didn't interest me and I couldn't imagine what it looked like which I think is a writing issue. I didn't care about any of the new characters and even Dawsyn started to annoy me and I started to dislike her as a character.

I half enjoyed the chase scenes on the slopes as I liked the suspense of whether or not they will be caught however I hated the scenes with Dawsyn and Ryon alone as they were boring together and had little to no chemistry.

The writing got even worse when they reached the bottom of the slopes and I started to skim-read at times as I didn't care about the characters or the plot.

Overall this book was not for me and I'm not sure who to recommend this too as I can't think of who might like this.