Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

29 reviews

madeleinemae05's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

Devastating and I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, Torture, Suicide, and Slavery

phibi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

I can't remember the last time I read a novel so voraciously. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and I adored the characters and their relationships. A truly unique premise and story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Suicide

bookdevourer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Death

kipiekie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Child abuse

Moderate: Torture and Murder

Minor: Suicide and Sexual assault

atlas_shruggs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

FUCK MY LIFE I NEED THE SEQUEL NOW PLEASE

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, War, Torture, and Suicide attempt

angel_hardy's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

goosegrimm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

Really direct and engaging, I very much liked the author's voice. They are very skilled at getting you inside of the heads of the characters. Well worth the read and I am excited to see how they develop. I am impressed that this is their first work of published fiction and yet they've managed to create such an engaging world. Highly recommend for fellow readers of Tasymin Muir's work and people who appreciate a dark story.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, Abandonment, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Blood, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

Be warned, this book is serious when talking about institutionalized misogyny and all of the ways it can be taken to its extremes. There is ALOT of death in this book. It is treated as seriously as death and violence should be. If you are sensitive to violence, especially gendered violence, please review the content warnings carefully before picking up this book.

missindyrose's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and War

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape

queenmackenzie's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Unlike anything I’ve ever read before, Iron Widow is vivid, fun, and full of feminist power. I loved it! I was first drawn to it by the cover, and then I read the blurb and thought it sounded fantastic. Closer to the time I was going to pick it up I saw a few reviews by fellow bloggers, and one of them talked about how much it felt like anime, and went into detail about that. Now, I have nothing against anime but I don’t watch it, really, so I started to get worried that this book would go over my head. That I’d miss what it was trying to do, so when I did start reading it was with some hesitance. I needn’t have worried, as you might have guessed by my opening line! I can see exactly what that review meant, especially as I could visualise it all so well, and I think it’s perfectly adaptable to a visual medium – I’d love to see a film or series of Iron Widow. But reading it was just as exhilarating. The first 30% or so, I will admit, went a little slowly, with the author setting up the character of Zetian and the world she lives in – a futuristic China or China-adjacent society plagued by giant mechanical aliens called hunduns, where young men with high qi are valued as pilots of Chrysalises, battling robots made out of the husks of hunduns and attuned to one of the five elements: fire, earth, metal, water, or wood. Women, on the other hand, are valued only as a source of qi, there for the man to drain her of all she has to offer, a worthy sacrifice in this never-ending war. 

Zetian lives on the frontier, near the Great Wall, and knows the only thing her family value her for is sacrifice: either as an obedient wife to another cruel man, or as a concubine to a pilot, as her big sister became. And she is ready to take up the role of concubine, because she has finally found a reason to throw away her life as everyone has been pushing her to: she will avenge her sister, who died not by the hands of her pilot, the second strongest in current existence. Zetian is a difficult narrator sometimes, because she has not had a very happy life, and she is angry and full of hurt, but I was one hundred percent behind her and while I did not enjoy her pain I revelled in her journey to power and loved the strong message the author put forth through her. 

‘How do you take the fight out of half the population and render them willing slaves? You tell them they’re meant to do nothing but serve from the minute they’re born. You tell them they’re weak. You tell them they’re prey. You tell them over and over, until it’s the only truth they’re capable of living.’

Once I understood the setting, the character, and the stakes, I was fully in, and I found it hard to put the book down. It’s fast, and I loved the action, but I also loved the moments in between when Zetian is coming to terms with her situation and the time she spends getting to know the two boys she finds herself with – yes, dear reader, this does sound like the beginning of a love triangle, and I was apprehensive, but without spoilers let me just say I was delighted by this situation. And I was delighted by the two boys as well; Yizhi is the rich scholar who has known Zetian for three years, visiting her in the forest near her home in secret, showing her the notes from his studies, and giving her an escape. Li Shimin is the highest ranking pilot, but he’s also a convicted murderer who killed his entire family and is only alive because of his qi level – as it turns out, though, he’s more than he appears on the surface and when his and Zetian’s wounded souls collide they might just find a way to survive a world that wants to silence them both. I loved both Yizhi and Shimin, and the way they both support Zetian on her revenge rampage. Top notch. 

At first, I let the character driven aspects take focus for me, and the world and the tech system became background, but as the story progressed and I understood it more it became one more fascinating thing for me to discover; the fashion aesthetics, the mystery of the hundun and the way their bodies become the very weapon humanity uses to fight them, the mysterious gods who occasionally provide blessing and technological advances in exchange for metals, the legend of the great Emperor, most powerful pilot in history, who is believed to have frozen himself in the heart of a volcano, awaiting the cure to his illness. This and other little details all pulled together to create an intriguing setting, and led to a fantastic and shocking finale, with a final twist that almost made me scream. I don’t want to give too much away, but the final page and the reveal it brings elevated the entire book to an even higher level, and I am now dying to read what comes next! 

It’s hard to place this book into a single genre, and I think that’s part of its strength: it can fit into teen because of its young protagonist, it’s got a lot of sci-fi elements, leaning especially towards dystopia, but it also has the feel of a fantasy in some ways, with the mechs and the qi-flow blurring the line between technology and magic. Also, as mentioned before it will definitely appeal to fans of anime and manga. If any of those things sound exciting to you, I urge you to pick it up because it’s a game changer and an incredibly fun read with a powerful message.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Sexism

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual assault and Suicide