Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

58 reviews

ender24's profile picture

ender24's review

4.5
challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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madmantha's profile picture

madmantha's review

3.75
adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was much slower than Iron Widow, not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, it felt like a very natural sequence of events coming after the events ending the last book.

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adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Love love love, "delightful to read" wouldn't be accurate, but I certainly enjoyed every dangerous turn.
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).

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A long awaited sequel, Zetian must contend not only with her entire knowledge of her world being turned upside down, but deal with the consequences of her actions at the end of the previous novel, handle the grief of loosing someone she loved, and deal with a reawakened Emperor that had been kept asleep for over 200 years. Oh, and she also now is a major head of state who finds herself constrained by the will of the returned Emperor. 

Writing this review hurts my heart. Not because that as a whole this book was disappointing. just the opposite in major ways. it expands the world and mythology. It opens up new areas of 'magic' if you will.  Its exploration of how socialism works in practice versus paper and how dismantling capitalize doesn't mean a complete destruction of the behaviors that make it so very flawed at best and oppressive to many others is remarkable. there is incredibly deep thinking social, economical, and cultural thinking. it's a good reflection on how actions and intentions effect history in ways we can't anticipate. There are scenes of action that are rightfully sweeping. The depiction of the complexity of personality, in particular when someone is powered by their own anger, and how not even 'negative' emotions are necessarily white or black promoting good and bad actions and thought process is something there's a lot of room for. 

What has me screaming with frustration and yanking down the review is that the relationship parts of this novel aren't just toxic. I am all for showing a journey through a toxic relationship and welcome it being one that carries problems from both parties. That type of storytelling would make the 'things to be admired' list. What I have a problem with is that while Zetian will have these reflections on how she knows she's reacting badly, or that the Emperor's actions aren't right, or extreme, or short sited she immediately shoves that down and acts completely contradictory in the next breath. this is a trait of being stuck in a destructive cycle, but the book NEVER addresses this or leads to a healing process. 

There is a moment of sudden revelation where she acts drastically and stands her ground but it comes so close to the ending that it almost feels too late at that point. The 'romantasy' genre is full of 'bad boy' romances, 'enemies to lovers'. This is someone who acts absolutely abusively and controlling from day one. There is understanding in only that they both realize they are angry people and flawed. But the types of problems are not equal. It's really concerning for me as someone who's older to see for so much of this book seeing a lead character constantly manipulated knowing that this will have younger viewers. 

the first book dealt with righteous anger and a relationship that was healing. It also managed to have a romance element that didn't take over the plot. That was even before the in depth world and fantastical elements that I adored. To see it go from there, to here, even if the reader isn't really led to 'cheer' for a relationship like this, to have so much focus and such a long book with this as what is preoccupying and entrancing our protagonist's life is really glamorizing it all the same. 

It really hurts to have a book that has so many brilliant points to have such backwards character development. Even a new revelation about a previous existing character that comes to light that could have had some really interesting consequences really gets boiled down to make a villain of and outcast the character. Which is also somehow worse to Zetian because it's unexpected compared to the actions of the Emperor who gets a pass because "it's just like him to do that, I don't expect less." 

I  remain curious about how this series will conclude. I will probably pick it up on release. But it's hard not to admit that something is so wonderful and so deeply disappointing on one hand and the other. 

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adventurous challenging medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

5 stars for the text, 4 for the audio

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
She also did not choose to fix her feet - the choice was taken from her. Stressing the lack of autonomy that women, especially disabled women, have, & the real world view that everyone has regarding disabilities are something to be fixed.


"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."

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havenbrown1108's profile picture

havenbrown1108's review

3.0
challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I love this author, love iron widow, love Zetian, hated about 400 pages of this book. 
Shimin is the only man left in this universe i don't hate and he was only on about 5 pages of the book, at the end, after being mutilated and tortured.
Will probably read the sequel 🤷🏼

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense slow-paced

Overall, I liked this. The beginning and end were the best organized, in my opinion. The middle really dragged. It’s not that I don’t like communist theory, not to mention communist theory inserted into fiction. I do! But tbh I’m here for the giant robot fights. 

The political range in the first book is a lot more simplistic. I get the sense that, for this book, the author had to include a lot of detail for people to understand, but it just didn’t feel like organic conversation a lot of the time. And it just went on for so long, I was like, ok we get it already!! I think a lot of the detail of the middle of the book could have been cut and it would still make sense.

Even so, I am enchanted by the world building in both this book and its predecessor. I like how the characters are evil, petty, anxious, vengeful, … just very colorful and memorable. I look forward to the third book!

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aurora4847's review

5.0
adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm not sure exactly what I expected from Heavenly Tyrant, but I was definitely happy with what it was! Especially given our current situation, reading about the struggles of leading a country-wide revolution was inspiring and oddly still managed to be escapist. I can't wait for the next book!

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blacksphinx's profile picture

blacksphinx's review

4.0
adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Heavenly Tyrant trades the blisteringly fast pace and humor of Iron Widow for a story with a wider political scope, that sometimes struggles under juggling the weight of its philosophical questions about how to best overthrow capitalism with the sci-fi plot twist at the end of the first book.

I see why this one kept getting delayed; even with the extra page count over Iron Widow it feels kind of compressed (especially with the tentative resolution of many plot points around the 75% mark as the book started laying the groundwork for the next one). I'm so glad that one of my major criticisms of the previous book has been addressed and Zetian now has female friends and allies, but the process of actually becoming friends feels squeezed for time over how much the book focuses on pros and cons of communism. Sexism is still a major theme of this book and I like the way it was handled, even if we have yet to have a true resolution here. It's not that the previous book wasn't political, but this one is extremely overt with its discussions of the class struggle and the mirroring of atrocities committed by  real-world communist governments. I think that's why I'm struggling so much with reviewing it... there wasn't enough concrete resolution of a lot of the "revolution" plotline for me to know how I feel about this book, and I'm going to need the series to finish before I can form a solid opinion on it. 

I have no idea how Zhao will wrap any of this up in one more book. Both the "smaller" plotline concerning Huaxia and the broader scope seem like they'll need way more space than just one book to resolve. 

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emotional reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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