Reviews - Iron Widow | The StoryGraph

22.3k reviews for:

Iron Widow

Xiran Jay Zhao

4.13 AVERAGE

hopeeades's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

gingerbreadbaby's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark tense slow-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

leslieyu's review against another edition

4.0

um okay. i was wondering about when the ‘guilt’ and ‘pain’ that pilots felt during their attacks against the hunduns was gonna come to play but i’m completely satisfied with intergalactic colonialism that this has turned into? but like. oh.

also wow i didn’t know throuples got this serious. see i was a little sus on yizhi and shimin but i’m glad they committed. was admittedly a little off put by it but when i started thinking about them being zetian’s concubines i was all for it. also a lot of people in this universe are going to hell.

also this emperor thing is throwing me off a bit because he seems a little unhinged and idk about all that. but maybe zetian kills him probably not though bc she’ll need him for whatever she’s got brewing against the ultimate evil humans who are gods? misogyny really knows no bounds like it’s crazy. tbh wish there more of girls killing boys but i am anticipating that in the next book.

only negative thing ab this book is that the language throws me off at times. why are we using the word ‘skies’ as a swear and then the next sentence has fuck or shit in it.

one last thing is that zetian is really funny. like okay melodramatic evil queen

cocopom's review against another edition

3.0

Bookclub read: The beginning was kind of gory.

I didn’t really understand the relationship between the MC and rich boy at the beginning, they knew each other in the forest and saw once a month and that’s how they know each other. I felt like that aspect was really like pushed because the mc didn’t have like any body around her except her family. throughout the book, she did her mission and then she killed her sister’s murderer and then she just like stayed in the system and she was like complacent or didn’t really have a goal or motivation or trajectory like she was just playing in their hand and like trying to become rich or famous. I felt like there wasn’t like a big goal that we were following. Also like the love triangle, the guys were really not that into each other like one had a crush and the other barely knew the other’s existence and then she like both, but I felt it was only because they were like the only ok men she ever met. Like there wasn’t really any chemistry. Then in the end, her becoming the Empress and killing her family like I was not suprised that she killed her family. But I found it like disappointed that like she was like fuck this system and then she became the same system. It’s just that like she was at the head. Also the plottwist was that they were the colonisers of that planet was a good one but a bit predictable.

For the writing I felt like it was really YA but like YA explained really basically and there was spots of like oh yes remember I’m a feminist and then the story continue.

Also, I felt like her sister was really like a plot device that was brought up and like forgotten according to what was happening in the story.