Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Iron Widow

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

88 reviews

autumnal_aura's review against another edition

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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annir's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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marissasa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

Wu Zetian is the most iconic female protagonist I have ever read in a book and I adored every page of her rise to power and descent to madness. She is rage-filled and outspoken, determined and unrelenting. I never stopped rooting for her to overcome her challenges, which were all imposed on her by the patriarchal government and misogynistic society. Xiran's writing is casual but powerful and it made Zetian's characterization even more distinct as we viewed the world through her eyes. On top of all this we got not one but two bisexual love interests who end up in a polyam relationship with her, each of them supporting each other and destroying everything and anything that threatens to bring harm to one of them? Yeah, iconic.

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btwnprintedpgs's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark inspiring 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? No

5.0

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aardwyrm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Lived up to the hype. And that's a lot of hype. Excellent worldbuilding, tension, and character work, tight pacing, evocative prose throughout, all the while invoking a half dozen genres and histories and inverting them all. And it even remained a YA book proper throughout, which does mean, yes, the plot beats themselves were fairly predictable and the characters sketched for their audience, but a great deal of skill goes into understanding the assignment to that degree.

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sorcha_rosa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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

This book is exactly what people are saying. It's wonderful, it's great, please read it.
The themes it deals with: incred. The character work: stunning. The balance of dark and humorous: perfect.

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storyorc's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring sad medium-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

3.0

A bold villain origin story. Zetian is like Magneto in that her grievances are absolutely valid and she has absolutely run out of mercy. So many times in this book, a hero would have found a less lethal solution, an antihero would have reached some troubling compromise with the Man, but Zetian chooses violence. It's shocking and it's fun.

For as fresh as the content feels, this book's form needed further drafts. Structurally, it resembles an RP where you have a handful of dramatic set-pieces in mind and speedrun/hand-wave everything in-between. At one point, an entire kidnapping is explained like a Cliff's Notes plot summary, teleporting us in one paragraph from the scene where the idea is hatched to them having the victim at their mercy. Converting some of the internal monologue into description of how Zetian experiences events would help us reach her conclusions with her rather than be told them.

Zetian's thoughts do occasionally touch on the nuances of feminism - for example, can a woman consider herself empowered and still rely on men? - but overwhelmingly she drives home the simple need for liberation from Huaxia's oppressive culture. She is neither subtle nor tactful in this, but she is also not wrong. I would however like to see her find value in other named female characters instead of only defending 'girls' in the abstract. Or be confronted with her hypocrisy.

I don't have any analysis on these final aspects but shout out to:

Everyone being bi unless stated otherwise
The horrifically efficient use of concubines as batteries
Rong Fu's terrifying raspy voice for a certain something at the end of the audiobook
Mecha themed around Chinese legendary creatures!
"A triangle is the strongest shape"
Inspiring me to seek out Chinese harem drama
Performing CPR on Pacific Rim's outrageously slept-on concept of drift compatibility