Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

997 reviews

kittykyryi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-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

WHAT THE FUCKKKKKK

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and War

Minor: Rape

skthind's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

i really liked this book! i loved the way it handled the mcs anger against the system and balanced it with empathy. the relationships were well written and i loved the polyamory. it got a bit fast for me in the end - i almost couldn't keep up with everything. did successfully make me VERY curious abt the sequel, though. also made me very curious abt empress wu - i may have to go read some nonfiction abt her now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Misogyny

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, and Murder

kymopolaya's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gun violence and Rape

Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

rolugomi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and War

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

melniksuzuki's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and War

caeruleum's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture

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

inirac's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence