Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Iron Widow - Seele in Ketten by Xiran Jay Zhao

151 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 emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous inspiring fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional 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

this book is not as strong as it's predecessor, adding too many elements and plot twists that were unnecessary. however, i still found enjoyment in reading about the adventures of wu zetian and friends. the worldbuilding is still very solid, and i love zetian and i support everything she does (even if she is kinda evil sometimes). very much looking forward to the next book in this series!!!
i hope yizhi, shimin, and zetian get to live happily ever after...

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I liked it a lot! I like the Zeitian’s key character flaws actually affect the plot in interesting ways and the thorough deep-dive into the struggles of having a successful, meaningful revolution.

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