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Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Iron Widow - Seele in Ketten by Xiran Jay Zhao

161 reviews

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

I think this book is more up the alley of political science students than fans of big fighting robots. Kind of disappointing after how good Iron Widow was. I finished IW in like 2 days because it was great, full of action and fast paced. Heavenly Tyrant was much slower paced comparatively and the action was very spaced out between long bits about government and politics. I thought the relationships between the characters were interesting, but the pacing just threw me off too much; I guess I’m just not a fan of slow plots. The ending was quite exciting and hopefully a third book will find a good middle ground between the action and slower paced political strategies. Looking forward to the next one. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark inspiring 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

This is more of a series review than just for Heavenly Tyrant, I just copy and pasted the one I posted on insta earlier. Work smarter not harder guys😌

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😭.

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

Wasn’t the best sequel to iron widow, which I absolutely loved, bit dull on its own but still a good read and a brilliant set up for the next book, very excited to continue the series!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark tense slow-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

I was excited to read this book because the first was such an interesting concept. But this book hits you over the head continuously with its political views. I don't mind a strong political message but this took it to another level where the story takes a back seat to propaganda style writing. I feel like it also limits some character development. The last five hours of the book are the most interesting and for a 21 hour book that kinda sucks. I wanted more of the sci Fi and fantasy and less of the restructuring government. Also the main character is still insufferable and seems to grow some only to then throw herself backwards. P.s. once my partner talked about some similarities to Pacific Rim I couldn't see past that either. Overall I will read the third one, but I hope it's more story driven. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous slow-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: Yes

I do not see the hate on this. I liked it more than its prequel, although it's still not my favourite book

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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
dark slow-paced
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark tense fast-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

the politics of qin zheng don’t make any sense. how are you an anti capitalist who is calling for the working class to rise up and overthrow the elite but are also an emperor who has absolute power in your nation? and you’re  bisexual??? i did appreciate the vaguely described pegging scene tho 🫡

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 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional 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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