Reviews tagging 'War'

Iron Widow - Seele in Ketten by Xiran Jay Zhao

199 reviews

miggyfool's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Wow, this series cranks to 100 with every addition. An interesting remaining of a sci-fi flavored history. These characters are flawed and some i love and some I love to hate. Excited for the next addition 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

dokushoka's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging inspiring tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, War

Moderate: Slavery, Medical content, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury

d13_chels's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Police brutality, Death of parent, Pregnancy

le3713's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I read Iron Widow over two years ago, over two years ago, so it's hard to compare the books with one much fresher in my eyes, but this didn't captivate me as much as the first did. There were some additional female characters that I enjoyed, and it asked thought provoking questions about how political change happens but there was a lot that was hard to swallow without as much "fun" as the first book. The last section of the book

where things take a much stronger sci-fi turn and they discover the truth about the Heavenly Court was a big tone shift and felt like a different book, if also somewhat predictable. But I definitely want to know what happens next after they land back on earth.

Read this if you like VERY morally ambiguous characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, War

utvarahellkite's review against another edition

4.5

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I did not believe this series could get any more unhinged. I'm terrified and impressed. Bravo. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, War

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

reads_mad's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Ok the beginning and end of this book are fantastic but the middle is way too fucking long. We spend what feels like an eternity only spending time with Zetian & Qin Zheng, navigating the relationship between the two of them and them learning how to govern. We could’ve spent half as much time on this and it would’ve been way better. Seeing the fallout from the end of the last book and how that transitioned into learning how to govern and navigate a new nation and culture I liked but we spend so much time with all the ins and outs of that and a lot of useless detail that I really did not enjoy. I also found Qin Zheng to be insufferable. He is a well written character, that’s not the problem. The problem is that he’s just very hateable and it took way too long for him to get (what I saw as an inevitable conclusion) which was Zetian betraying him and her going back to Yizhi and Shimin.  I also didn’t like how they were basically only entirely new characters except for Zetian. I didn’t like how Yizhi and Shimin (for overly contrived plot related reasons) were relegated to minor/entirely absent characters when I thought they were the best part of the first book. The beginning and ending fourths of the book I really like but that middle half was ROUGH. I would recommend if you liked iron widow to read this one as well but be warned: this one might test your patience and resolve to keep reading (as it did mine)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, War, Classism

smaller_fries's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny informative inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism

Moderate: Eating disorder

fronk10's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, War

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I really enjoyed this book! Great cast of characters who all suck in their unique ways. 
It's definitely a slower read than the first book, because it's much more concerned with politics, but I once I started to get antsy the plot always kicked in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder, War

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Classism

Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Transphobia, Vomit, Lesbophobia

linblythe_pub22's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, War

Minor: Confinement, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Classism