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Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, War
Moderate: Bullying, Gaslighting, Colonisation
Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, War
Moderate: Pregnancy
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Blood, Gaslighting
The Wu Zetian from Iron Widow is non-existent. She is in a position of power, but still questions every decision and does not stick with her convictions. She will say one thing in one chapter, but then completely second guess it in the next. Yizhi feels like a bad fan fictional version of himself. Some of what I loved most about Iron Widow was the poly relationship with Yizhi, Shimin, and Zetian. Shimin is not anywhere in this book other than the last 50ish pages or so. Even then, he isn't really present. Yizhi plays a background character to the plot as he serves as Chief Secretary to Qin Zhang. He does not share any real meaningful moments with Zetian because it "wouldn't be proper."
Now the elephant in the room is the romance. This isn't an enemies to lovers. This is a weird-Homestuck age black romance out of necessity for survival. Honestly, I think Qin Zhang may have loved Zetian by the end of the book. But, he does a poor job of communicating it as she constantly reminds her that he could end her life.
I will likely read the third book. If nothing else, because the cliffhanger made me angry and I want to know what happens. But this is more of a "I am angry and need to know how you are further massacring my faves" rather than a true excitement to read.
TLDR: Yizhi, Shinmin, and Zetain deserve a softer third book, but they likely won't get it because their situation is too fucked up for them to reasonably get together.
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Pregnancy, War
Minor: Body horror, Miscarriage, Abortion
Well I think the plot of watching her go through having woken up Qin is really interesting I also don't like it at the same time... Or I guess wished that it had happened differently, as there were several aspects I just wasn't a fan of. I liked some of the political stuff but wish it had focused on a few topics instead of throwing like 50 topics at us, or had gradually put them in. But I also get why, given how they were written in. Also
Overall still enjoyed the book, and looking forward to the next.
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, Classism
Moderate: Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail
In all honesty, this could have been cut in almost in half and it probably would have been a much better read. The first half was just mostly unnecessary. The prose was getting so bogged down with all of the political explanations and issues being brought up. All of them are important issues and deserve to have their own space and be fully fleshed out, so when they are all forced into one space, it gets to be overwhelming, heavy handed, and then overly boring.
I was very close to DNF-ing this in the first half because of all of that and though the second half did get better, I don't know if it was necessarily worth it.
I did not know going into this that it was going to be a longer series. I was definitely under the impression that it was going to be a duology and would end with this book, but instead this one ends on a pretty big cliffhanger. This didn't bother me too much because I like longer series, but it definitely should have been marketed and noted as such so readers would know ahead of reading the book.
Finally, the actual plot and substance of the book is much different than the first one, which is fine, we were warned about that, but I feel like it literally took away everything that was good about the first one and just left this mess here instead. I loved the polyamorous relationship in the first book, but this one took both of those love interests out almost completely. I expected Li Shimin to be absent because of the events at the end of the first book, but Yizhi was still around and I definitely expected to see more of him and Zetian together than what we got. Instead, Yizhi was strictly a background character and couldn't even hold Zetian's hand or hug her at any point in the book. He also did something absolutely heinous and I don't know if even I can forgive him for it let alone Zetian.
Instead we have a new guy, the long ago emperor Qin Zheng who is kind of morally grey and starts off by hating Zetian. Now these are usually my favorite types of love interests and I did enjoy their romance, but I still felt too distant from it. I never knew how the characters actually felt about each other and kept second guessing if they even liked each other or if it was just because they were basically forced together. I don't know if that was the point or not, we'll probably have to finish the series before we know that for sure, but it was just a little too distant for me to fully get into it.
Anyway, I was very much looking forward to this book after the first one and I'm sad that it let me down so much. I do think I'll try to read the next one though whenever that comes out.
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
I missed the interaction between Yizhi, Shimin and Zetian, which had real chemistry; Qin Zheng is just not as strong a character, he feels underdeveloped, and I didn't get a clear idea of his psychology. I really enjoyed the fleshing out of the world and its history and the way qi works - I would have liked more interaction with the hunduns, I thought that part near the beginning was particularly strong and engaging, but I suspect that's coming in the third novel, which I definitely will be reading.
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, War
Minor: Medical content
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Violence, War
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Child death, Sexual content, Torture