The Murder Complex: Review

An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?




Okay, so any of you users of the website, Edelweiss, are auto-approved by HarperTeen, and who also are/were extremely excited about The Murder Complex, know completely how I felt when I found out that Harper had put TMC on Edelweiss. Yes, there were many squeals of excitement involved.


The thing is, I had been containing my excitement for this book for about a year and a half. That's a long time! Fortunately, my evident high expectations for TMC did not let me down! There were a few struggles along the way, but overall, well worth the read!

The Murder Complex opens up to Meadow, an almost-16 year old girl, who has been trained by her father to survive in the cruel world, trapped within the perimeter.

I enjoyed most of Meadow's character. She was caring and protective of her family. She was strongly independent. She was also pretty badass. However, one thing I struggled with was her almost machine-like killing. I mean, I get that she was trained to kill. But I wish she would have developed more throughout the book. Maybe she could have developed some emotions past Zephry and her family.

Zephry, the other main character, was my favorite character. Though he was built to kill, he still fights it, and I love that about him. He's a flawed character-he lets his emotions get the best of him. But his flaws made him perfect in my mind.

Now, the romance problem between Meadow and Zephry is what bothered me. It seemed almost like insta-love and not in a good way. It felt rushed into. Since there isn't actually that much romance in the book, I didn't lower my rating a whole bunch.

The plot of the whole novel was not entirely bad. There seemed a few plot holes, but they were only minor. Altogether, I enjoyed the pacing of the novel and the plot-side part of it. Even not very believable, I enjoyed reading it, just for the action. Cummings simple writing style also contributed to the fast-paced side of it, and I very much liked it!

Overall, I very much enjoyed reading this, even with the minor problems! It's been awhile since I've read a fast-paced book, so I appreciate the simplicity of Cummings writing. The romance wasn't my thing, but for some of you, I know you would love it! Highly recommend to ya fans of action and dystopia books!