Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

308 reviews

justinewalker's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Whoever wrote in their review “I support women’s rights and wrongs” put it perfectly 😂❤️ This is action packed almost from the start with a pace that never slows down once it picks up. Bloody and iconic. The main characters aren’t good people but no one is in this story. Everyone is some shade of grey, but the main characters work to destroy the systems of oppression that subjugate women. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, and Colonisation

sultrytartreviews's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

A million stars if I could!! This books was so fricking good. I’m glad I waited for book two to be out because the ending is a huge cliff hanger.
Any potential reservations or questions I had about the plot/world building were answered by…not directly being answered. Basically, it’s ok to not know because it turns out our MCs don’t really know anything either. And I’m ok for going along with the ride in book two. The fast pace of the story kept me from looking too closely at anything that could have derailed be early on, so I appreciate that tactic.
Feminine and queer rage combine to create a fire no one can dampen. I am obsessed and I cannot wait to read more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

FMC has bound feet and details the gruesome details, care required for them, and the pain associated with them

lastcomment314's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

This book is intense. It's a whirlwind, with vivid writing, and it does not hold back. I love the main characters and the different flavors they each bring to the book, and even though many of the choices they make are morally dubious, that's kinda the point of the book, and everything the characters do is consistent with who they are and what they care about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War

keyaunnalb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, War, and Classism

yoanneke's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

In various ways it's all I could ever want in a fantasy novel. Cool setting, kick-ass main character,

two boyfriends who just so happen to be into each other as well.

But there were still some parts I could not entirely get into like the

mech fights. I did like the take on them, but somehow every time those fights happened I kind of zoned out and I can't really put my finger on why.

Also feel like some of the pacing was a bit off in parts. However, I will definitely be picking up heavenly tyrant as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Misogyny, Sexism, and Abandonment

reviewsandreadathons's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, and Alcohol

comaduff's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This is the only book ive reread in probably 3 or 4 years. I did it in preparation for Heavenly Tyrant. It was just as good the second time. I could write good things forever. I especially love the morally grey main character. Thats my favorite parts. 

Main theme of the book:
I support women’s rights, but more importantly i support women’s wrongs!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Blood, and Medical trauma

scripturient's review

dark reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

That was one hell of a ride. It is unapologetic female rage, which I really enjoyed, it is inspired by Imperial China's only female Emperor, which is also super cool, and

it has a love triangle that resolves into a throuple which was AWESOME

. I don't ever want to read that in any other way.
I felt the ending was a bit rushed, almost as if there was no real resolution at hand, so we had to go for more broad angry violence, which felt a bit empty. But overall a great read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence

rlpdean's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

https://rlpdean.wordpress.com/2025/01/19/iron-widow/

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Alcohol, War, and Classism

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

This is the book that got me back into reading as a hobby; I devoured it in less than 24 hours. It's also the first book I'm reread since diving back into reading, and I was nervous. I've read about 250 other books since then... would this still stand up to my memory of it?

The answer turned out to be mostly yes! It doesn't hurt that I recently bounced off of two other YA-ish-female-rage stories and I could compare and see how much better this one is (even on a sentence level). I love how Zeitan is a wrathful, manipulative thing who is fueled by spite. I also loved how singularly focused she was on women's position in the unjust pilot system. She never lost sight of the constant disregard and loss of female life, and even was able to pull her gaze back further to see that yelling at individual men was ineffective, it's the system that is rotten. And yeah, there's some cheesy bits (a character snaps his fingers and goes yeeeees at some point as the narration says the audience "gags" for a performance, which made me cringe). The blisteringly fast pace is an asset, allowing any humor that doesn't land to be quickly moved on from. The final cascade of revolutions was just as cool as it was the first time.

It's also the only book I've read, YA or otherwise, the solves a love triangle with a genuine polyamorous triad, and I can't overlook how much I love that.

And yet, there's things that stood out and bothered me that I didn't think about my first time through. There's some continuity errors. This is supposed to be

a "feminist" story, yet every female character attacks, abuses, manipulates, or tries to kill Zeitan. I understand the point Zhao is explicitly making, that the patriarchy is equally upheld by women and we are not all natural allies to each other, but not even a single female friend? She has to rely on men for the entire story?

This is also yet another book where

torture is portrayed as an effective means of getting information out of someone, when out here in the real world it doesn't work.

The extremely high entertainment value I got out of the book outweighed the parts that bothered me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Body shaming, Homophobia, Sexual content, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic