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Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Alcohol
The characters are AMAZING. Wu Zetian, our protagonist, is what every morally grey character aspires to be. They're strong and inspiring, but also flawed and deeply human. There's a character who comes from another time period, which is one of my favourite character archetypes - I always find it funny to see them adapt to modern living🤭. There are so many notable side characters actually, all of whom are well developed and complex!! And kind of horrible I'm ngl, but well written🙂↕️
The world of the books is an affecting reflection of our own, and themes of class disparity, corruption within politics and gender discrimination are explored. Lowkey scary to think about, but I only see the thematic elements becoming more relevant as time passes🫠. And speaking of worldbuilding, it's so cool?? There are illustrations in the beginning of Heavenly Tyrant which definitely helped me understand, but simply put: it's a sophisticated version of Transformers. And there are technically dragons tehehe.
It's queer!!! Very queer, we get sapphic rep, a polyamorous relationship and the mc is nonbinary. The science behind this is too complicated to explain but queer = just better in every way, if you get it you get it🤷♀️
I would compare this series to The Poppy War, in terms of themes and protagonists. Which is a super reductive statement as it's entirely its own entity, and they're different in a lot of ways!! But if you like one I almost guarantee you'll get on well with the other. The Iron Widow books aren't quiteee as brutal as tpw series either (ALMOST there tbh, but it is YA so a little less harsh in the details) so I beg you not to let this comparison deter you!
Sooo to summarise, Xiran Jay Zhao is an actual genius and both books are brilliant. They're rich in social commentary and balance action, character introspection, tender moments and political scheming perfectly!! Please just read them😭.
Graphic: Misogyny, Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship
Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Classism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Rape, Self harm
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War
Graphic: Misogyny, Classism
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Pregnancy
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexism, Police brutality, Murder, Classism
Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault
i enjoyed how the main character got to have female friends in this book - especially cause book 1 didn’t really have any. i wish they had more fleshed out storylines but at least they were there
the relationship dynamics that have been set up for book 3 are incredible. it’s like a love triangle but one of the sides is two boys: 2v1 style
the last 50 pages of this turning into hard space alien sci-fi is not what i was expecting or really what i wanted but the last chapter + epilogue really slayed so i can’t complain too much
spacial processing continued to be an issue. every fight i was like: huh? what? what’s happening? where? what?
cannot wait for book 3 - hopefully the publishing date doesn’t get pushed back again
Graphic: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, War, Classism
Graphic: Misogyny, War
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail