Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

461 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

linzee_carter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Death of parent

fujiopples's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring 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

4.75

so good. the worldbuilding, the character development, the feminism of it all... love!!! will be reading the next book for sureee

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, and Classism

trisniko78's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death of parent, and War

amyh86's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual assault

booksemmahasread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual content

spockrocket's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Addiction, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

d13_chels's review

adventurous challenging inspiring 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

purplebooks919's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Rape

april_does_feral_sometimes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

I loved ‘Iron Widow’ by Xiran Jay Zhao! It strikes the precise emotional tone I feel a lot because of my own life experiences! However, gentlemen might feel a little, well, unappreciated, depending on their views about gender roles. Unless such gentlemen have seen the suffering of women (and gays) under patriarchal religions and political regimes and know it is devastatingly wrong and unjust. 

This is book one in the Iron Widow series, which is certain to be banned under the emerging Nazi Trump administration. Perhaps, given the capitulation of all of the techbros, along with the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court, readers should buy a hard copy.

I have copied the book blurb:

<i>Goodreads Choice Award. Nominee for Readers' Favorite Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2021)

An instant #1 New York Times bestseller!

Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers.

The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected--she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead. 

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia . But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way--and stop more girls from being sacrificed.”</i>

I love this book and world-building, but it is sometimes difficult to understand or imagine, partially because of the horrors that the protagonists undergo, and partially because of the descriptions of invisible powers and how they work, such as qi and spirit metal. I also found it difficult to understand/imagine how the Hunduns/Chrysalises look or work. The Hunduns, which are somewhat like huge insects who are at war with humans, can be transformed into not-alive war machines when they are killed (?), the husks being renamed Chrysalises, that humans use to fight the living Hunduns.  

The social/political world the author builds her story on is a Chinese one, culturally, where girls have foot-binding forced on them. Women are given to men, most supposedly as wives, but they are really slaves, having no rights, even when they are discovered to have strong powers of qi and spirit pressure. Girls with powerful spirit pressure and qi are extorted into performing as pilots of the Chrysalises alongside male pilots with high qi and spirit pressure. However, the girls always die in the battle with Hunduns, supposedly because they weaker in qi and spirit pressure than the male pilot they are partnering, who must kill them in joining the girl’s qi to his own, to pilot the Chrysalis. So. The girls are dead after their first and only battle with the Hunduns, but no one cares. They were only girls, who are not respected in any way in this culture. 

However, occasionally, there is a girl with such high qi that she survives the Chrysalis battles with Hunduns and her male human pilot who is sucking her dry of qi. She even kills her male pilot. Such women are called, tada, Iron Widows!

This is a vicious torturous world of war, war, and more war. Readers who are sensitive will probably find the Iron Widow books too violent. Trump supporters will hate the book after awhile because of the disapproval and momentary downfall, which appears, eventually, of their beliefs about gays and females being inferior and fit only for torture, sexual enslavement and death. For myself, a victim of the American social and political patriarchy which was in force until the 21st century, it is a positive wish-fulfillment story. 

I can’t wait for the next books in the series! A mystery and a huge lie has been revealed near the end! Omg! Wow! What will happen next?????

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Classism