Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

635 reviews

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: Yes

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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challenging dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

(written review to be added)

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adventurous 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

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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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adventurous dark 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

Absolutely recommend, the characters and the vibes were immaculate. But i did think sometimes at the expense of the plot, idk i think somethings could have been much clearer, <SPOILERS>
like the torture scene? We just jumped into that? I wanted more info? Like i wanted to be there when u made the plan but suddenly u just,, had him? Ok

You cannot appease someone into loving or respecting you’


‘Just because you have the capacity to do something for someone, doesn’t mean you have the obligation to’

‘This body of mine is not big enough to contain the scale of emotion coursing through me. How could I feel a rage like this and not be able to tear the sky open and scorch the Earth’ 

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dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The premise and characters really drew me in, but the story accelerates a bit at the end and loosened my connection to the characters at the same time. I'm curious to know what will happen in the next book, but skeptical that I'll sympathize with the characters' decisions.

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