Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

54 reviews

estelagois's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Confinement, Death of parent, War, Alcoholism, Blood, Torture, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

Moderate: Pregnancy and Vomit

dice_reads's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, War, Torture, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, Sexism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Death, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Eating disorder, and Fire/Fire injury

pastelkerstin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

(Definitely look at content warnings for this book. It is dark. So dark that I'm questioning whether it should have been marketed as adult instead of YA.)

Here are two facts about my experience reading this book:
1) I fundamentally disagree with the moral framework for justice that the main characters use (revenge as the response to injustice).
2) I found this book gripping despite that.

Some people hold the view that to like a book with flawed characters means that you agree with everything they do, but I think that's a ridiculous way to view fiction.

Yes, I think Zetian's methods are unethical. But no, that doesn't mean that this book ruins the perception of real-world feminism. Zetian is flawed, hypocritical at times, and cruel. But it's also very clear that she became this way because of the deeply oppressive misogynist society she lives in. She's the monster the world forced her to be if she wants to survive. She's not your perfect feminist icon, who is a good example for children, because she is a fictional character in a very specific world with very specific circumstances, some of them based on actual historical (and on-going) women's rights issues, and some of them entirely fictional. Let female characters be fucked up sometimes!

That's all I have to say on that. Additional thoughts: I wish this book slowed down more often to give you a bit more breathing room between so many tough scenes. I also think those "breaks" could have been used to flesh out the relationships more. I was definitely rooting for these three, but a lot of their falling for each other seems to happen in the in-betweens that we don't get to see. Nevertheless, I think having more canon polyamorous relationships in traditionally published books is really important. The polya rep is one of the main reasons I read this book. I think polya triads where everyone is dating each other allow for very interesting character dynamics.

Another thing I struggled a bit with was not letting the combination of traditional and at times conservative elements and futuristic sci-fi tech break my suspension of disbelief. Some parts of this world seem so very old and then others are so futuristic. I know this is deliberate. It's what makes this world-building pretty unique. But it can feel a bit disorienting at times.

All right, that's all. I'm very interested to see where the sequel will go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Addiction, Bullying, Misogyny, Torture, Grief, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, War, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Medical content and Child death

Minor: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Biphobia

allonormativity/implied asexual erasure, implied intersex erasure, implied transphobia

colonisation, genocide

macknificent's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Suicide, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, War, Rape, Self harm, and Xenophobia

nicole_schmid's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War

Minor: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

annir's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Confinement, Death, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Child death, Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, and Kidnapping

marissasa's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, War, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

gumiyimi's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Gun violence, and Racism

Minor: Rape and Suicidal thoughts

aardwyrm's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexism, Sexual assault, War, Bullying, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

verk's review

adventurous dark sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, Sexism, Emotional abuse, and Death

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Blood, and Addiction