Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

86 reviews

jessicax941's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, War, Cursing, Violence, and Bullying

Moderate: Death, Alcoholism, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Genocide

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

arachan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A sucker punch of a book.  I had to space out my reading of this because Wu Zeitan is righteously furious at the misogyny, classicism and general oppression of her existence, all beautifully and immersively written.  It's hard to handle in addition to current events.

Cannot recommend highly enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Violence, and Slavery

fraxisle's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, Murder, Violence, Alcoholism, War, Sexism, Addiction, Xenophobia, Misogyny, and Confinement

Moderate: Alcohol, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Classism, Child abuse, and Body shaming

Minor: Body horror, Chronic illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Child death, and Bullying

nebulasaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Classism, Cursing, Grief, Gore, War, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Violence, Sexism, Murder, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Misogyny, Blood, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting

sophiamoonlight's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

Okay one thing I had to look up because I didn't know this part of mythology, but otherwise an amazing piece of literature. I love it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Bullying, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, and Alcohol

sailorplutoid's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, War, Murder, and Misogyny

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Rape, and Torture

Minor: Child abuse, Colonisation, Ableism, Bullying, Child death, and Sexual violence

In chapter two you learn

Xeitan's family have been binding her feet the whole time, and she has had difficulty moving outside of the mech

. The concubine system

is vague enough to not be slavery, but it's selling their daughters off for war. so pretty bad

mustnotblink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Wu Zetian's anger is not beautiful. It is the kind of rage that leaves no burn scars because there is nothing but
blackened bones left in its wake and could destroy worlds with the sheer size of it. I love her because of that rage - her internal monologue and unhinged choices helped - but it is her rage that resonates so greatly for me. The fact that she is able to combine that rage with a giant mecha makes me seriously jealous. 

Xiran Jay Zhao is very good at including bits of humor that in no way detracts from the seriousness of the topics the book is mainly focused on. If I tried to share my favorite examples of this the review would never get posted because there are too many to choose. 

This book also has a true love triangle and I utterly adore it- all three characters loves and supports each other - including their flaws - and the sheer rightness of such relationships could clear my skin & water my crops for years. Yizhi and Shimin are not just paper doll men - they each each have very distinguished personalities
and goals that make their affection for Zetian & each other a much more dynamic read than 95% of love triangle' romances. As a bonus they both Stan for Zetian as much as I do! Let them all have a little murder as a gift.

The multiple twists towards the end are well done and have me vibrating with excitement about the sequel. It has only taken one book to make me a lifelong Xiran Jay Zhao fan! That being said this book hits on some very tough topics so please check out trigger warnings ahead of time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, War, Alcoholism, Classism, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Body shaming, Torture, Gaslighting, and Ableism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

thebetterstory's review against another edition

adventurous funny fast-paced

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

3.0

This is a fun YA book, just don't expect too much from it!

The story touches on the concepts of sexism, racism and homophobia, but it doesn't really have much new to add to the conversation. (A friend I talked to about it said that it felt almost like it was name-dropping social justice concepts rather than tackling any in-depth, and I agree.)

There are some cool touches, and I particularly like that its main character is allowed to be genuinely power-hungry and violent to the point of cruelty in a few places, as that really is rare in a female lead. The sheer level of vitriol she has toward societal sexism is also pretty great. (In particular, I loved the part where she

strangles the fake "child" version of her abusive copilot in retaliation for what he's done to other women.

I was also really disappointed that it's a book literally about sexism, yet Wu Zetian doesn't form a meaningful relationship or even have much of a conversation with any other women. It ironically contrubutes to the sense that the dead or distressed girls who show up to motivate Wu Zetian are just story props.

The pacing moves so fast that there really isn't much time to get attached to anyone or anything. The relationship that builds up between Wu Zetian, Li Shimin and Yizhi is definitely sweet, but we don't really get a lot of downtime or quiet moments with them to give us a chance to get attached. It felt like the novel speedran their relationship progression into a throuple, which wasn't at all necessary when there's a sequel coming out and they could have used that time to stretch the romantic tension out longer. But I am ecstatic to see poly in a YA book at all. I hope others follow suit.

Happily the plot always has enough going on to keep things interesting, and the leads are just likeable enough to keep you invested in what happens to them. There are twists and turns aplenty, some of which I guessed and some which still surprised me. The setting is also obviously incredibly cool, what with the fusion of Chinese history, mecha and sci-fi, and the prose is serviceable and easy to read. The book is also helped along by not taking itself too painfully seriously, even though it dips into dark territory sometimes.

Overall, Iron Widow's not the best YA I've read this year, by a long shot. But it is conceptually awesome, easy to read and a lot of fun. Just check your expectations before starting and you won't be disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Torture, Alcoholism, War, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Domestic abuse, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Xenophobia, Body shaming, and Physical abuse

The main character's had her feet bound, and it talks a bit about how they did it, the pain it gives her and how her rotting feet smell.

lolajh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Women going lowkey mad and killing men > zetian I love you fr

Honestly the best development I’ve seen of a heroine becoming an anti heroine. Zetian, a morally grey Chinese disabled woman rebels against her patriarchal society, having to prove her power throughly due to being a woman and doing it FLAWLESSLY whilst criticising the patriarchal and misogynistic society that also exists in the real world. Zetian proves to be so much more powerful than any man, as

is every woman in this universe. Women in this story are so much stronger than men that they have to be used as a “battery” of chi to fuel men and make them stronger due to them being so much weaker naturally, which ends up killing the women, something that further fuels Zetian’s revenge of killing men due to her sister being one of the targets of this and being killed.

Zetian’s power is soon recognised as a major threat, so is paired up with the strongest pilot to fight together in the war that is going on. Whilst Zetian is on her rampage,

she ends up falling for the pilot she is paired with whilst still having feelings for her childhood friend back home. This love triangle is sorted out in best way by making them all polyamory

The book also describes Zetian’s challenging of the roles and expectations of women, through how she wants to present herself and also her body not being the perfect, skinny figure that is idealised. All this challenges Zetian’s connection to her own womanhood. Just about everything good is in this book. Will definitely have to reread while waiting for the next in the series to come out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Slavery, Rape, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, War, Sexual content, Child death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Xenophobia

pastelkerstin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

(Definitely look at content warnings for this book. It is dark. So dark that I'm questioning whether it should have been marketed as adult instead of YA.)

Here are two facts about my experience reading this book:
1) I fundamentally disagree with the moral framework for justice that the main characters use (revenge as the response to injustice).
2) I found this book gripping despite that.

Some people hold the view that to like a book with flawed characters means that you agree with everything they do, but I think that's a ridiculous way to view fiction.

Yes, I think Zetian's methods are unethical. But no, that doesn't mean that this book ruins the perception of real-world feminism. Zetian is flawed, hypocritical at times, and cruel. But it's also very clear that she became this way because of the deeply oppressive misogynist society she lives in. She's the monster the world forced her to be if she wants to survive. She's not your perfect feminist icon, who is a good example for children, because she is a fictional character in a very specific world with very specific circumstances, some of them based on actual historical (and on-going) women's rights issues, and some of them entirely fictional. Let female characters be fucked up sometimes!

That's all I have to say on that. Additional thoughts: I wish this book slowed down more often to give you a bit more breathing room between so many tough scenes. I also think those "breaks" could have been used to flesh out the relationships more. I was definitely rooting for these three, but a lot of their falling for each other seems to happen in the in-betweens that we don't get to see. Nevertheless, I think having more canon polyamorous relationships in traditionally published books is really important. The polya rep is one of the main reasons I read this book. I think polya triads where everyone is dating each other allow for very interesting character dynamics.

Another thing I struggled a bit with was not letting the combination of traditional and at times conservative elements and futuristic sci-fi tech break my suspension of disbelief. Some parts of this world seem so very old and then others are so futuristic. I know this is deliberate. It's what makes this world-building pretty unique. But it can feel a bit disorienting at times.

All right, that's all. I'm very interested to see where the sequel will go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Addiction, Bullying, Misogyny, Torture, Grief, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, War, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Medical content and Child death

Minor: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Biphobia

allonormativity/implied asexual erasure, implied intersex erasure, implied transphobia

colonisation, genocide