Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Iron Widow

Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

51 reviews

cristina_margarita's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

I with always root for feminine rage so Zetian was someone who was easy to get behind. I really appreciated how her initial mission was over so quickly & so much of the book was her constantly pivoting & honestly going a little power mad.

The relationship development was so amusing to me because as a reader it was fairly obvious where it was heading but the characters are so oblivious.

I couldn’t answer a single question you asked me about the chrysalises or the war; but the vibes were excellent!! I look forward to the sequel & the author’s inevitable book about the French Revolution.

This book majorly gave the hunger games for me despite them being so different

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xapoptosisx's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-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

This book deserves way more than 5 fucking stars genuinely like it deserves everything. I genuinely have am left speechless after reading it it was so so amazing and I just encourage everyone to read it at once.

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cathwolfiereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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mlllll's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious relaxing sad 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? No

4.25

I really enjoyed The Iron Widow. It was compelling enough to keep me entertained as a reader throughout the story and to entice me enough to read the sequel. I do think the latter half of the book is a bit rushed.

Someone else wrote how the writer didn't add any measurements of time so it's hard to fall in love with the relationships portrayed because you don't know how slow or fast they developed and I do agree with that criticism. If time measurements would have been given, it would have helped make the relationships more believable.

That said, Zhao manages to create really loveable characters who you want to root for even though they aren't the most morally just ones and as someone who usually sticks to the morally white ones, it was interesting to see how I loved the characters that weren't morally white.

Lastly, Zhao created an amazing love triangle, honestly. One that developed very naturally and, in my opinion, wasn't written in a fetishizing way, which is often the case when polyamory is involved, unfortunately. This was also the first YA novel or novel in general that I read that included a poly throuple because it's still really underrepresented, so a shout-out to the Zhao for including that as well.

So all in all, this wasn't a perfect book but I did really enjoy the romance aspect of it, which I never in a million years thought I'd say about a "love triangle" cuz I hate those. The latter part was a bit too rushed but overall I loved, loved, loved the enormous fury that the main protagonist has. Is it a healthy way to cope ... I'll leave that up to interpretation but as a woman, her fury is so recognizable. It's this all-consuming feeling sometimes that always has to be kept under lock and key but she lets it out instead. And I freaking loved it.

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souriete's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is one that I should not like, yet I loved it. I prefer humorous or at least light-hearted relaxing reading. This is dark and full of anger and violence, some of the violence perpetrated by the main character. But I totally understand the anger the main character feels, and instead of letting that anger eat at her internally, she does something effective with that anger, starting with avenging the death of her sister. She does some pretty morally reprehensible things, but her victims are instruments of a system that systematically destroys all women within it.

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