Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Iron Widow - Seele in Ketten by Xiran Jay Zhao

68 reviews

dark emotional tense slow-paced

Yeah, this book still wasn't really for me, but I think I respect what it's trying to do more than book 1. IDK how to describe this, but book 1 was more of a fast paced book that had a slightly more popcorn/dramatic/almostly thriller-y edge to it (it was dark at times, but it was more on the entertaining side of things), where this book slowed down a bit and focused more on politics and the difficulties of actually changing things, particularly with a revolution that seemed to be to be reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution or other reforms throughout Chinese history. It still had the dramatic sounding edge to it (Zetian has the tendency to phrase things in a melodramatic way) though, which still rubbed me the wrong way occasionally. Oh, and there's still a lot of very modern/gen z sounding parts to it, which didn't bother me so much, but I can see that throwing other people off. 

I did like the perspective on revolution and its brutality, although I can't really comment on how it interacts with/is changed from real Chinese history. So I guess know that there's a lot of very direct talk about communism and the theory behind it in this book. I'll add on here there were a fair bit of speeches and slogans and stuff like that, which were treated like they were brilliant by the characters that I didn't think were particularly impressive. They might also come across as preachy to some people, but IDK, I kind of feel like they come with the territory of being a (mainstream) book directly about revolution. Like, that will involve a lot of speeches, slogans, and teaching people about theory.  If you don't want direct speeches and do want to be confused, read Rakesfall or something instead. 

The characters, including the MC, continue to be more on the morally grey/unlikable side of things, which isn't what I typically prefer. Zetian in particular also spends a lot of time under the power of the new emperor and having both a lot of power
because she's the empress
and very little, because she could easily be executed or punished by men. She does actually make some female friends though, and gets even more committed to trying to improve the status of women in general instead of just herself. The polyamorous elements of the last book weren't really here much, instead there was more of a like, dark romance adjacent sort of romance plotline a decent ways in (adjacent because it was pretty tame/relatively consensual, all things considered, but I think it was going for that sort of dark appeal still), which also wasn't my favorite (I mean, I'm never really a big fan of romance/sex scenes even with wholesome relationships, and uh, this wasn't that). But I also didn't particularly like the polyamorous parts of book 1, so that wasn't a huge difference for me.

I got curious and looked at some goodreads reviews for this book, and a lot of people didn't seem to like the direction change after book one (fair enough), but seem to be going out of their way to find moral reasons to justify their dislike of this book (which I find a bit questionable) (the funniest was the people complaining that the MC getting a surgery to repair her bound feet was an example of the magically healing disability trope, because 1) it wasn't magical healing and 2) I'm pretty sure there were Chinese women who actually did reverse the binding of their feet...) 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark 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

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging 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

Full RTC! This book should come with a seatbelt or something because more than a few of those twists were full-on rollercoaster vertical drops. Also I found myself most emotional over a character who doesn't even really appear in the book. (I'm FINE T-T)

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark 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: Yes

Incredible sequel to Iron Widow with all the spirit and power of the original. Seeing Empress Wu come into being and learning how to temper her fury, without losing any of her lethality, was such a delicate balance that the author maintained masterfully. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings