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A review by ramreadsagain
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I've tried to squeeze as much good out of this book as I can, but there is too much that frustrated me about this book for me to rate it any higher.
Non-spoiler section:
- At first I thought the heavy-handedness was just a feature of the YA genre (which I don't read much of as, yeah, it's not often very subtle) but as the story developed I realised that this is definitely a 'this book' problem. There is a lot of info-dumping, and while it never feels like a slog, it has a telling rather than showing approach to the world-building.
- However, the concept itself? Fantasticly original and captivating. The overarching plot is certainly entertaining, and this was an enjoyable read. It's also got some great rep, such as Zetian being disabled due to the practise of feet-binding. The romance plots were also nice overall (but total insta-love). The author clearly feels a lot of rage and this comes through very well, and I'm mostly here for it.
Spoiler/complaints section:
- All characterisation felt quite... cartoonish? The bad guys are one-dimensional 'evil men', we have softboi love interests, and all the dialogue is quite cringe. A lot of the language felt out of place in this SFF book, with frequent use of words such as "ugh", "dork" and "um".
- The plot twists I saw coming before I even opened the book. Obviously it's rigged against women and obviously the aliens aren't actually the mindless invaders we're told they are.
- I found Zetian's lack of consistent morals very frustrating. I am not expecting a perfect main character but I believe her approach to fixing the issue of concubine deaths was very flawed. She only experiences character growth once: at first she is happy to have her family condemned to death, but around 2/3rds into the book decides to 'rescue' them and bring them into the city. She regrets this after her family is used against her and actually kills the woman who convinced her to change her mind about her family. So any character growth there is erased. In addition, the whole plot revolves around her rage at concubines dying, but happily killed the above woman, a concubine, after the woman betrayed Zetian (due to blackmail). She also delights in killing overall, murdering many people throughout the book. I understand this as a manifestation of female rage but fighting violence with violence does not align with my idea of feminism and I believe it solves nothing.
- This does bring me round to the feminism in the novel overall. As I mentioned earlier, the book is very heavy-handed in its approach, with Zetian just having "great instagram-quoteworthy feminist realisations" about 50 times with no real build up or development. It felt very faux-progressive fanservicey tbh? And don't expect any other strong female characters apart from Zetian: all women are portrayed as mindless, jealous, or stupid, apart from one woman who is the above woman who ends up betraying her anyway. Zetian only knows how to fight violence with more violence and her goal is to just become the new ruler and enact vengeance, which is not the solution the book seems to think it is.
- Zetian overall is very 'not like the other girls'; I would have loved some explanation for why she is the 'chosen one' who sees through the patriarchal brainwashing, but instead she just seems to spring onto the first page already with fully formed ideas and anger about her society. She seems to consider other women to either be mindless and deserving of their fate for not fighting back, or as innocent girls who must be saved.
Overall though, I did enjoy it in a "turn my brain off, #girlboss" way. Delving a bit deeper brought up the above issues but to be honest this was still an entertaining and super fastpaced read. Not sure I'll reach for the sequel though? I actually really think this should have been an adult novel instead of YA (and Xiran themself says it was originally much darker). I usually love a good 'unhinged female rage' book but I think perhaps the choice for this to be YA made it feel very out of place.
Non-spoiler section:
- At first I thought the heavy-handedness was just a feature of the YA genre (which I don't read much of as, yeah, it's not often very subtle) but as the story developed I realised that this is definitely a 'this book' problem. There is a lot of info-dumping, and while it never feels like a slog, it has a telling rather than showing approach to the world-building.
- However, the concept itself? Fantasticly original and captivating. The overarching plot is certainly entertaining, and this was an enjoyable read. It's also got some great rep, such as Zetian being disabled due to the practise of feet-binding. The romance plots were also nice overall (but total insta-love). The author clearly feels a lot of rage and this comes through very well, and I'm mostly here for it.
Spoiler/complaints section:
- All characterisation felt quite... cartoonish? The bad guys are one-dimensional 'evil men', we have softboi love interests, and all the dialogue is quite cringe. A lot of the language felt out of place in this SFF book, with frequent use of words such as "ugh", "dork" and "um".
- The plot twists I saw coming before I even opened the book. Obviously it's rigged against women and obviously the aliens aren't actually the mindless invaders we're told they are.
- I found Zetian's lack of consistent morals very frustrating. I am not expecting a perfect main character but I believe her approach to fixing the issue of concubine deaths was very flawed. She only experiences character growth once: at first she is happy to have her family condemned to death, but around 2/3rds into the book decides to 'rescue' them and bring them into the city. She regrets this after her family is used against her and actually kills the woman who convinced her to change her mind about her family. So any character growth there is erased. In addition, the whole plot revolves around her rage at concubines dying, but happily killed the above woman, a concubine, after the woman betrayed Zetian (due to blackmail). She also delights in killing overall, murdering many people throughout the book. I understand this as a manifestation of female rage but fighting violence with violence does not align with my idea of feminism and I believe it solves nothing.
- This does bring me round to the feminism in the novel overall. As I mentioned earlier, the book is very heavy-handed in its approach, with Zetian just having "great instagram-quoteworthy feminist realisations" about 50 times with no real build up or development. It felt very faux-progressive fanservicey tbh? And don't expect any other strong female characters apart from Zetian: all women are portrayed as mindless, jealous, or stupid, apart from one woman who is the above woman who ends up betraying her anyway. Zetian only knows how to fight violence with more violence and her goal is to just become the new ruler and enact vengeance, which is not the solution the book seems to think it is.
- Zetian overall is very 'not like the other girls'; I would have loved some explanation for why she is the 'chosen one' who sees through the patriarchal brainwashing, but instead she just seems to spring onto the first page already with fully formed ideas and anger about her society. She seems to consider other women to either be mindless and deserving of their fate for not fighting back, or as innocent girls who must be saved.
Overall though, I did enjoy it in a "turn my brain off, #girlboss" way. Delving a bit deeper brought up the above issues but to be honest this was still an entertaining and super fastpaced read. Not sure I'll reach for the sequel though? I actually really think this should have been an adult novel instead of YA (and Xiran themself says it was originally much darker). I usually love a good 'unhinged female rage' book but I think perhaps the choice for this to be YA made it feel very out of place.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Misogyny, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism