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Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Violence, War
Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic
After months of laughing at people describing this book as polical (bro did you even read the first one), I do actually see why this one gets called that (it's still silly).
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, War
Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Classism
Qin Zheng is an incredibly complicated villain, and I still hesitate to call him a villain. He's an absolutist with strong moral convictions and absolutely identically matched to Zetian in his hunger for power. Their constant push and pull for the upper hand is a constant theme, and they're so damn intense that it was hard to put down the book.
I am disappointed to see that some people expected this series to center romance in its storytelling, or think that Wu Zetian needs to work towards redemption. Idk man, open the schools. Teach literary analysis. Learn subtext.
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, Pregnancy, War
Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual assault
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, War
Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Medical content, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Alcoholism
Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, War
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy
what I got: a bizarre and entirely-too-long political manifesto with seemingly no grounding aside from “this is what I want to do,” definitely sexual assault on more than one level, characters that felt wildly different from the first book, and just a whole lot of “what’s even happening here”
I liked-but-didn’t-love Iron Widow, and enjoyed it as an action movie popcorn style read. Heavenly Tyrant falls so short of even that. It’s a hundred to two hundred pages too long, lacking in motivation, and the plot is somehow even flimsier than Iron Widow. Just very disappointing all around.
(will probably still read the third book when it comes out tho)
Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, War
If you're unaware of #PegAmendment & you're listening, or reading a first or second edition hardcover, check out Xiran's review or socials.
"Every oppressor, through their denial of humanity, sows the seed of their own destruction."
Did this book do anything that I anticipated? Not really. Did it address the issues from the end of book 1? Yes. Was I left satisfied? Mostly? (I found out about halfway thru that its a trilogy, not a duology like I thought.)
"It’s incredible, how someone could be gone from this world, literally whisked away from the mortal earth, yet leave so many pieces behind."
Adressing the giant antlers in the room: this is an extremely toxic relationship - like an intervention should be called, but he'd kill anyone that intervened, & they'd just work it out with hate sex on the bodies. I saw at least 2 reviews about the lack of disability rep in this book - which is the opposite of the truth. Zetian spends at least half the book in a wheelchair & still has chronic pain. Spoiler
"If being on our knees was natural to us, why would they have to put so much effort into holding us down?"
Representation: Bi MCs, sapphic side character relationship off-page, disabled MC, all Asian MCs, nonbinary side character
"I mourn the people we could have been if a different world had shaped us."
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, War
Moderate: Pregnancy
there is so much to say about this. while i knew from the start of the "mystery" of the gods and huaxia exactly what the reveal would be, it still felt really triumphant to get to that point when it was revealed. i loved that this book delved so much deeper into the world and lore, and i look forward to seeing the rest of the planet and beyond develop in the next instalment.
i liked the way power and the different dynamics that come from acquiring different levels of power were portrayed. while a lot of this was accelerated progress and required a decent amount of suspending disbelief (it is sci-fi, after all), i thoroughly enjoyed reading this entire book. i'm so excited to see where this goes next!
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Colonisation, War
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Grief
Minor: Pregnancy
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual content, Pregnancy, War
Graphic: Genocide, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War, Classism
Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Medical content, Death of parent, Sexual harassment
Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Pregnancy