Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

40 reviews

starryorbit12's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, War, Child abuse, Classism, Murder, Misogyny, Torture, Alcoholism, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Chronic illness, Confinement, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape and Racism

macknificent's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

"In fact, I am what the worst kind of hope looks like. The kind that has driven group after group of girls here to be prettied into concubines. Families will point at me— this tamed, airbrushed image of me— to calm down their daughters about being sold to the army."


"One last thing,” I say over my shoulder, too quiet for my family to hear over the hovercraft churning. “Don’t think I’ve overlooked that you came to my house and almost foiled my plan, despite knowing how important it is to me. If you tip off the army in even the slightest way, I will kill myself when they lock me up, and then I will haunt you.”

What I Liked: The opening of the book was stellar! I felt like I was in the midst of a Gundam battle and somehow it had been turned into a novel! The world felt very full and the characters were complex, Wu Zetian's fury and follow through was glorious in the first portion of the book. I appreciated the constant call out of the patriarchy and how it was shown to affect every level of their world. 

What I Didn't Like: Once Wu Zetian achieved her initial objective it felt like the book lost its momentum and cohesiveness. In the second half of the book we jumped from gritty & dark to sappy & thoroughly YA with no warning, rhythm or purpose. As happens with many debuts, the ending felt rushed as we tried to wrap up a lot of loose ends and set up for the next book.

We never found out the story behind Gao Yizhi's tattoos!

I enjoyed this book immensely but there are issues with consistency and character cohesiveness that I hope are improved in the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Suicide, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, War, Rape, Self harm, and Xenophobia

nyx_stewart's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, War, Colonisation, Murder, Domestic abuse, Gore, Torture, and Sexism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

gryflette's review against another edition

dark sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

Come for the mechs, stay for the feminism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, War, Trafficking, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Classism, and Death

flare_ice8's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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: Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Sexism, Torture, Trafficking, and War

Moderate: Body shaming, Body horror, and Child abuse

Minor: Sexual content

arttichokedipp's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

5.0

First book of the year, first 5-star of the year.

This is everything. Everything I find wrong with YA, gone. Everything I dislike about fantasy, gone. Everything I dislike about scifi, gone. Only the good parts remain and it is so, SO good.

Particularly, for those who have negative feelings about love triangles, never fear.

I hate love triangles because things would be so easy if they ended in polyamory half the time that it would cut the book in half. This one? THIS ONE DOES. Not only does the girl get with both guys, who are totally cool with that, but they get together as well. The triangle is the strongest shape, as you'll see.

My only complaint is there's a sort of "bury your gays" situation, but I'm hoping based on the epilogue that it's not permanent.

10/10, I'm so glad I stumbled upon their YouTube videos and decided to pick up their book when it came out.

(Edited because I messed up their pronouns. So sorry!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Murder, Sexism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, and Xenophobia

Minor: Biphobia, Colonisation, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Trafficking

There is allusion to intersexism, in that it's rumoured that intersex people may exist but they're not taught about and the narrator speculates on how they may be mistreated for being born different.

louisa_pennyfeather2021's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I absolutely love this book. I feel like I could go back and read it over and over and over again. I'm in love with the main characters. I love how they interact with each other and with their world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Misogyny

lucywae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and War

eddine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

☑️polyamorous relationship
☑️anti-hero main character
☑️strong, smart, indep female character
☑️mc smashing the patriarchy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and War

jenny_librarian'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

4.5

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This is a lot. It's angry feminism smashing the patriarchy in a science fiction setting inspired by Chinese folklore. In the acknowledgements, Xiran Jay Zhao mentions that the first draft was way too dark for YA, and I have no trouble believing it. Even this final product is really dark, but it's the kind of darkness and anger that empowers, in the same way The Hunger Games and Katniss Everdeen did. I'll go ahead and claim Wu Zetian as a Katniss on steroids.

The world itself feels a lot like a videogame when it comes to the battles. I didn't completely connect with it, though, and it might be because it's so heavily Chinese-influenced that my Western brain had to struggle to keep up as I read. Which is great, because we need more of that. We need more mainstream Eastern stories that don't necessarily follow the typical Western tropes.

Talking about tropes, WE FINALLY GOT A LOVE TRIANGLE THAT ENDS IN POLYAMORY! The end of this book isn't great about it (it scared me a lot when it seemed to go down a very tired and depressing queer trope), but there's hope in the epilogue for book 2.

Also "HA!" I knew there was something about the Hunduns! Not what I expected, but a twist was inevitable.

The only thing that made me cringe (other than the misogyny) was the phrase Yizhi and then Zetian say about love being as big as one's heart. The context makes it sounds like they only mean romantic love and that would make it arophobic... And would also imply that monogamous people don't have as big a heart as polyamorous folks...

It's definitely a feminist science fiction to look out for, and I'm already waiting for the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Body horror, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts