Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Iron Widow

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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teaforazathoth's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

Very well written story that takes heavy influence from Chinese literature, history, mythology, culture etc. It's also filled with criticism of women's treatment as second class citizens. While the concept of giant mechas fighting aliens soubds silly and lighthearted this is a book with darker themes. The protagonist is definitely not a hero and that makes this an amazing read. I usually don't enjoy books written from first person view but this was an exception.

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lolajh's review against another edition

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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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schnaucl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

I really liked it and I'm looking forward to the next one.

I'm ignorant of the historical background, and the author says in the beginning it's not really an alternate history although it sounds like it's partly inspired by a historical figure.

It's definitely based on a culture that's different from my own (I don't mean the internal and external misogyny). I'm talking about the yin/yang and five elements of the magic system. I briefly wondered why you couldn't have pilots of the same gender for example, then realized that the yin/yang balance was the explanation.

The world Zhao created is interesting and I'm really looking forward to learning more.

I was a little bit distracted in the beginning by a couple of word choices (ached where pained was the word I would have expected, for example) but it only happened a few times and I got over it.

The description of how Wu's feet were crushed was brutal. I remember seeing pictures and x-rays of a woman's bound feet in a course in college and it was horrifying. I'm glad it wasn't just mentioned at the beginning and then never raised an issue again. It makes sense that it would be something Wu constantly thinks about since it would obviously impact her daily living.

I did wonder about the "gods" even before the end. For one thing it's interesting that no one seems to pray for an individual thing (e.g. not to be sold as a pilot concubine or to do well in battle or even just to make pain stop. Maybe it's because they have proof gods are real and they don't really interfere on that level or maybe that's just another cultural difference). I really want to know what they use the husks for. Presumably the "gods" are in fact, other humans, maybe from a more advanced society.

I liked the triad of Wu, Yizhi and Shimin and I liked that there didn't seem to be jealousy once they all got to know each other, just love.

Shimin was a really interesting character and I liked that Wu slowly got to see more of who he really was. The idea that he was a beautiful artist was a nice (and tragic) touch. I'm really sorry he died. Given that this is a science-fiction book and we don't really know the rules, I don't know if he can actually be brought back or not but I have a feeling he wouldn't be the same even if he could be. But it's hard to know what the cultural/religious/psychological impact of such a thing would be.

I was glad we got to see some some boys who objected to the sacrifice of girl pilots. I think Wu thinks that revealing the truth about the pilot seats will spark a change but I don't think that's right (and given the world Zhao created, my guess is they don't believe it either). There's a lot riding on the status quo. Boys are more prized than girls, selling girls as concubine pilots brings in money to further advance boys. Boys presumably carry on the family name in a way that girls don't. I think it will certainly spark some people (of all genders) to revolt but I don't think society-wide reform is going to happen overnight. And if the knowledge that in fact they are the invaders on the planet becomes public knowledge that may cause things to be upended even more quickly. Of course, that raises all kinds of questions. It doesn't sound like the population was aware there were other populated planets which has all kinds of implications, as does the fact that it seems like Hunden are sentient and can communicate verbally as well as through feelings (something that so far has been ignored but presumably will play a role later on). I'm also curious about Yizhi's tattoos.

Interesting world, interesting characters. More please!

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pastelkerstin's review against another edition

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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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isnotacrayon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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