Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Iron Widow

Very well written story that takes heavy influence from Chinese literature, history, mythology, culture etc. It's also filled with criticism of women's treatment as second class citizens. While the concept of giant mechas fighting aliens soubds silly and lighthearted this is a book with darker themes. The protagonist is definitely not a hero and that makes this an amazing read. I usually don't enjoy books written from first person view but this was an exception.

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lolajh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Women going lowkey mad and killing men > zetian I love you fr

Honestly the best development I’ve seen of a heroine becoming an anti heroine. Zetian, a morally grey Chinese disabled woman rebels against her patriarchal society, having to prove her power throughly due to being a woman and doing it FLAWLESSLY whilst criticising the patriarchal and misogynistic society that also exists in the real world. Zetian proves to be so much more powerful than any man, as

is every woman in this universe. Women in this story are so much stronger than men that they have to be used as a “battery” of chi to fuel men and make them stronger due to them being so much weaker naturally, which ends up killing the women, something that further fuels Zetian’s revenge of killing men due to her sister being one of the targets of this and being killed.

Zetian’s power is soon recognised as a major threat, so is paired up with the strongest pilot to fight together in the war that is going on. Whilst Zetian is on her rampage,

she ends up falling for the pilot she is paired with whilst still having feelings for her childhood friend back home. This love triangle is sorted out in best way by making them all polyamory

The book also describes Zetian’s challenging of the roles and expectations of women, through how she wants to present herself and also her body not being the perfect, skinny figure that is idealised. All this challenges Zetian’s connection to her own womanhood. Just about everything good is in this book. Will definitely have to reread while waiting for the next in the series to come out.

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macknificent's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

"In fact, I am what the worst kind of hope looks like. The kind that has driven group after group of girls here to be prettied into concubines. Families will point at me— this tamed, airbrushed image of me— to calm down their daughters about being sold to the army."

"One last thing,” I say over my shoulder, too quiet for my family to hear over the hovercraft churning. “Don’t think I’ve overlooked that you came to my house and almost foiled my plan, despite knowing how important it is to me. If you tip off the army in even the slightest way, I will kill myself when they lock me up, and then I will haunt you.”

What I Liked: The opening of the book was stellar! I felt like I was in the midst of a Gundam battle and somehow it had been turned into a novel! The world felt very full and the characters were complex, Wu Zetian's fury and follow through was glorious in the first portion of the book. I appreciated the constant call out of the patriarchy and how it was shown to affect every level of their world.

What I Didn't Like: Once Wu Zetian achieved her initial objective it felt like the book lost its momentum and cohesiveness. In the second half of the book we jumped from gritty & dark to sappy & thoroughly YA with no warning, rhythm or purpose. As happens with many debuts, the ending felt rushed as we tried to wrap up a lot of loose ends and set up for the next book.

We never found out the story behind Gao Yizhi's tattoos!

I enjoyed this book immensely but there are issues with consistency and character cohesiveness that I hope are improved in the next book.

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house_of_hannah's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was 100% a solid 4 star read until the last few chapters. I just cannot with that ending. It feels like it throws away everything the main characters had been saying and standing for throughout the entire book.

The beginning is brilliant. You will come to hate this world as much as Zetian does. This story revolves aroung rage, revenge, and injustice in a brutal way that makes me very surprised that this is YA. However, since the start is so strong it does feel like it drags in the middle, and becomes a bit repetitive.

I do wish there had been a bit more world building. I feel like I don't understand the politics of this world well enough, or who's running it. (Besides men) I think that may have been done on purpose due to the ending, but I definitely wanted a few more things explained than what we got.

The whole time I was reading this I was getting major Hunger Games vibes. (Movies, I have not read the books) The layers of betrayel upon betrayel upon betrayel got to be too much though. It left me with no one to root for in the end.

One of the major selling points of this book that is pushed a lot is the polyamory. It's there, and there's some good commentary about being able to love multiple people at once, but man, I wish there was a bit more of it !

Overall, prepare for a violent tale about standing up to the patriarchy that turns into a different book by the end.

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recycled_personalities's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

It’s genuinely become one of my favourite books and I cannot wait for the sequel. It takes us into a world of torturous misogyny and gives us the one girl who will fuck shit up with no regrets. And, even though it’s not the main focus of the book, the romance in it is quite literally the best I have ever read and I fear that I will never read something as good as it again. If I could give this more stars, I would.

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nicole_schmid's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The worldbuilding in this is fascinating. I don't usually like mecha anime, so I was surprised to like a book about the same big ol' robots this much. However, the book was too rushed. One amazing twist and event after the other happens and gets lost as the next hit lands. Especially Zetian's family, first amongst them her sister and motivation for getting the plot started, suffer from this. The double-twist in the end was utterly surprising. I'm looking forward to the next installment!

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nyx_stewart's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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autumnal_aura's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Villain as heroine fights for vengeance for her sisters death and to right the wrongs done to women in her culture as she becomes a co-pilot of a mech to save her people from alien invasions. MMF love triangle and surprise ending.

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