Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

40 reviews

stillinbeta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This entire book reads like being juggled in a fighting game. It is absolutely unrelenting, both in its depiction of horrific events and its action sequences. It has the ludonarrative consonance that marks really great writing: our protaganist never gets a break, so we don't get one either. We're all dragged down the river, splitting our heads open on the rocks.

Good scifi is a mirror through which we can examine our society, and the symbolism here is so obvious it's basically just another text. The society depicted is, unequivocally, horrific. It's depicted in an unflinching style that almost dares you to look away. Nobody in the setting is obviously the "good guys," and everyone is utterly corrupted by the rotten society they've built. 

There's some cute moments too, a spoonful of sugar to help the extremely bitter medicine go down. And some really incredible action scenes. But if you're looking for something <i>light</i>, this isn't it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, War, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, and Sexual assault

alphabetmafiamember's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Chronic illness, Cursing, Misogyny, Murder, War, Kidnapping, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Trafficking, and Blood

Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Sexual content, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Addiction, Classism, and Rape

Minor: Classism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Colonisation, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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: Ableism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Body shaming, Misogyny, Racism, Kidnapping, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Mental illness, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Confinement, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Biphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical content, Sexual harassment, and Vomit

Minor: Cursing, Pedophilia, Rape, and Fatphobia

voidboy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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: Trafficking and Torture

Moderate: Chronic illness

tinyjude's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional relaxing 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? It's complicated

4.5

I support women's rights but I also support women's wrongs, which means I am a tiny bit obsessed with female powerful angry women. Zetian my queen, destroy everything! She kind of becomes a morally terrible person and I am living for it. I needed more characters doing horrible stuff.

She is definitely a character partly defined by her anger and defiance to the system. Patriarchy is lenthly tackled and criticized in this world. Even though she has her "I am not like the other girls" slightly annoying moments, she is an incredible character. I hope she is able to find and befriend many other women like her, which is what this book lacked (a lot, I dare say for a feminist book, but nothing that a sequel cannot fix). Kind of wishing she befriends now the other bitchy female pilote, I want some enemies to friends. I think they both could be fcking neat. Also, I think it would have also been good to add a few scenes with her sister in order to get a better idea of how she was, so that we care deeply about her.

I loved the worldbuilding but, most of all, A POLY RELATIONSHIP FULL OF CHAOTIC BISEXUAL PEOPLE. LETS GOOOOOO. Yizhi being the lawfully good boyfriend who makes a snack for his murderous girlfriend and boyfriend... oh, I love them. I hope we get a lot more cute and domestic scenes between them and, ehem, Zetian said she can also be attracted to women so... GIVE HER A GIRLFRIEND IN THE NEXT BOOK I BEG

Anyway, morally grey characters, a lot of murder and torture, chinese history mixed with modern technology, criticism about patriarchy and a poly relationship, very good food :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Misogyny, War, Sexism, Torture, and Trafficking

Moderate: Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Fatphobia, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

solarel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

I absolutely loved it. So rarely do I see that primal justice we crave when wrong has been done to us. So rarely do we see a woman allowed to be wrathful. 

Is it healthy? Probably not. Was it so so satisfying? Hell yes. 

I feel like this is what men must feel like after watching those war movies or something. God it feels powerful to read of Zeitan’s rise. 

That being said: I wish this was an adult book, not YA. It had potential to be more and go deeper. The romance line could have carried more weight if they had the ability to flesh it out more, beyond the YA label. Also the “girl” and “boy” phrasing felt juvenile. You’re 18 now, time to stop calling yourself a girl exclusively. And a man in his early 20s is not a boy. It was the only part I disliked. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Death, Torture, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War

Minor: Rape, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Sexual assault, Biphobia, and Trafficking

twin1's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Slavery, Violence, Addiction, War, and Torture

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

emilinkaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Zetain becomes a concubine-pilot to get revenge for her sister, who was killed. Instead of killing him outright, she ends up killing him while they're in battle, and sets off a domino affect of events that lead her somewhere she never imagined going. She ends up learning things that have been kept secret for eons, risking her life to change the world and save the concubines and their pilots, and falling in love - more than once. The only complaint I have about this book is that it ended, I wanted more!! Impatiently awaiting the second novel in this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Trafficking, Medical content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Torture, and Death

purplelake's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Body horror, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Alcohol, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Torture, Death, and Sexism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Classism, and Trafficking

Minor: Medical content, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Animal death, and Body shaming

norwegianforestreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, War, Genocide, Gore, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Ableism, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting