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A review by rachrreads
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
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? No
2.5
2.5 STARS
I received an eARC via NetGalley from Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
In Huaxia, a war is fought against the Hunduns via giant transforming robots. These robots are piloted by a pair of teens (one boy, one girl), but the girl almost always ends up dead after the battle. Sapped of all their Qi, their lifeforce.
Months after her sister's death at the hands of one of these male pilots, Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot. Her family is excited she is finally conforming to society's notions of how woman should behave, but little do they know she has other plans. Zetian plans to kill the man responsible for murdering her sister. Things escalate quickly, as Zetian is thrown into battle with this pilot just hours after being chosen to be his co-pilot. During this first battle, Zetian kills him through the psychic link that connects the co-pilots in the Chrysalis. After the battle, she emerges with his dead body, immediately being coined as the Iron Widow.
To punish her, as well as try to tame her, the council pairs her up with the most imposing and deplorable male pilot, Li Shimin. No woman has ever survived a battle with Shimin, but Zetian will not be tamed so easily. Her initial mission was a success, now she must figure out why woman are being held back in the pilot seat.
I had such strong hopes for this book. I mean a strong female heroine who is trying to topple the patriarchy? SIGN ME UP! This, along with the influence of Chinese culture and inspiration from real historical figures from Chinese history made this one of my most anticipated reads of this fall. Unfortunately, the storytelling fell flat.
The first twenty percent of this book was absolute perfection. The buildup to Zetian becoming the Iron Widow and the framing of her life story really wowed me. I felt immersed in this fantasy story and really could feel the restraints on the women of this society. Then, everything was on fire. The plot jumped from storyline to storyline with no real resolution. One second the characters would be worried about x, and the next second z was happening.
The worldbuilding was nearly non-existent by this point as well. I tried my best to keep up with all the elemental qi signs (earth, fire, water, and metal) and what each person could do with that specialized sign, BUT NOTHING MADE SENSE. Zetian would explain that 'oh yes they can do a because they are a water sign!' and I would sit there thinking "Wait, what?" There needed to be more explanation into this, as well as how the qi is measured. At one point Zetian had x qi strength and then after two battles she had about fifteen times that qi strength. HOW DOES ONE GAIN QI? Is it training? Is it from battles? Make it make sense!
Another part of the book that I was intrigued to read about was the poly relationship in this book. I had noticed Xiran Jay Zhao mention in their tweets was that this book takes the boring love triangle and flips it on it's head. That's right, the love triangle is indeed a true triangle. The trio is all in love with each other and in a polyamorous relationship (FMM). I was so excited to read about this, but the relationships fell flat as well. I felt no connection between any of them. It felt as if Zhao added this as an afterthought and I think this book really would have benefitted from deeper character interactions. I needed to be shown their feelings, but they were explicitly told to the reader. There was a lot of showing, not telling in this book.
Finally, Zetian seemed to have one personality trait and that trait was "chaos"! It is absolutely amazing to see a strong woman character, but she had no depth to her. One second she's sad over her sister's death and is trying to avenge her and then once that's done, it's as if she forgot she had a sister? This happens many times throughout the book. She will be fighting one thing and then BAM! It's as if she has one focus and that is to cause chaos everywhere she can. Which again, is amazing, but give me more than one dimension to her personality!
Overall, I think this book could have been much better had it been a trilogy. This first book in the series easily could have been three with the amount of plot and lack of worldbuilding and character relationships. From there, the author could have continued onto the series, making it 4-6 books total. The epilogue of this book sets it up nicely for a second book, and while I did not enjoy this book I may be willing to give the second one a chance. This book left me with many questions and very little answers and my hope is that the writing and plot will improve in book two.
I received an eARC via NetGalley from Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
In Huaxia, a war is fought against the Hunduns via giant transforming robots. These robots are piloted by a pair of teens (one boy, one girl), but the girl almost always ends up dead after the battle. Sapped of all their Qi, their lifeforce.
Months after her sister's death at the hands of one of these male pilots, Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot. Her family is excited she is finally conforming to society's notions of how woman should behave, but little do they know she has other plans. Zetian plans to kill the man responsible for murdering her sister. Things escalate quickly, as Zetian is thrown into battle with this pilot just hours after being chosen to be his co-pilot. During this first battle, Zetian kills him through the psychic link that connects the co-pilots in the Chrysalis. After the battle, she emerges with his dead body, immediately being coined as the Iron Widow.
To punish her, as well as try to tame her, the council pairs her up with the most imposing and deplorable male pilot, Li Shimin. No woman has ever survived a battle with Shimin, but Zetian will not be tamed so easily. Her initial mission was a success, now she must figure out why woman are being held back in the pilot seat.
I had such strong hopes for this book. I mean a strong female heroine who is trying to topple the patriarchy? SIGN ME UP! This, along with the influence of Chinese culture and inspiration from real historical figures from Chinese history made this one of my most anticipated reads of this fall. Unfortunately, the storytelling fell flat.
The first twenty percent of this book was absolute perfection. The buildup to Zetian becoming the Iron Widow and the framing of her life story really wowed me. I felt immersed in this fantasy story and really could feel the restraints on the women of this society. Then, everything was on fire. The plot jumped from storyline to storyline with no real resolution. One second the characters would be worried about x, and the next second z was happening.
The worldbuilding was nearly non-existent by this point as well. I tried my best to keep up with all the elemental qi signs (earth, fire, water, and metal) and what each person could do with that specialized sign, BUT NOTHING MADE SENSE. Zetian would explain that 'oh yes they can do a because they are a water sign!' and I would sit there thinking "Wait, what?" There needed to be more explanation into this, as well as how the qi is measured. At one point Zetian had x qi strength and then after two battles she had about fifteen times that qi strength. HOW DOES ONE GAIN QI? Is it training? Is it from battles? Make it make sense!
Another part of the book that I was intrigued to read about was the poly relationship in this book. I had noticed Xiran Jay Zhao mention in their tweets was that this book takes the boring love triangle and flips it on it's head. That's right, the love triangle is indeed a true triangle. The trio is all in love with each other and in a polyamorous relationship (FMM). I was so excited to read about this, but the relationships fell flat as well. I felt no connection between any of them. It felt as if Zhao added this as an afterthought and I think this book really would have benefitted from deeper character interactions. I needed to be shown their feelings, but they were explicitly told to the reader. There was a lot of showing, not telling in this book.
Finally, Zetian seemed to have one personality trait and that trait was "chaos"! It is absolutely amazing to see a strong woman character, but she had no depth to her. One second she's sad over her sister's death and is trying to avenge her and then once that's done, it's as if she forgot she had a sister? This happens many times throughout the book. She will be fighting one thing and then BAM! It's as if she has one focus and that is to cause chaos everywhere she can. Which again, is amazing, but give me more than one dimension to her personality!
Overall, I think this book could have been much better had it been a trilogy. This first book in the series easily could have been three with the amount of plot and lack of worldbuilding and character relationships. From there, the author could have continued onto the series, making it 4-6 books total. The epilogue of this book sets it up nicely for a second book, and while I did not enjoy this book I may be willing to give the second one a chance. This book left me with many questions and very little answers and my hope is that the writing and plot will improve in book two.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and War
Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Process of footbinding is mentioned in detail