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A review by bookish_penguin
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
3.0
How-HOW can a book start so well and end so bleh?
One amazing thing I have to post out before my rant: This book gave me enemies to lovers AND friends to lovers AT THE SAME TIME *mind blown*
Now, the complaints!
The feminism started so fun and refreshing and then it became a bit repetitive and then it became a lot of excuses for not being all that feminist in the name of feminism.
The action started so invigorating and new and then it happened again. And again. And really what exactly are they fighting? Is there ever a bigger cop out than having an Alien invasion bad guy? No need for motive. No need for nuance. Just KILL. And then repurpose the bodies to fight them… yikes. Fun! But yikes.
The romance? Eh…Yizhi was MY guy! Yeah, yeah I get a point of this book was no love triangle, but let’s be real, Yizhi deserved better than both of them. And it wasn’t really like he was all that great either.
Meets a known murderer-“I’m a fan of your work.”
See’s his girlfriend laughing manically over someone she just murdered-HoRnY
Actually I kinda loved the morally grey (read: evil) characters. Just maybe not together?
This book really did have a lot of fun elements, but after page 250 I was kinda done. I might be back for the sequel? Honestly I might read the book just to hear about foot binding. I have a morbid fascination with that. Like WTF people!! How was that ever going ti be a good idea?!
A good debut that fell into every debut writing mistake, but still a lil’ fun.
One amazing thing I have to post out before my rant: This book gave me enemies to lovers AND friends to lovers AT THE SAME TIME *mind blown*
Now, the complaints!
The feminism started so fun and refreshing and then it became a bit repetitive and then it became a lot of excuses for not being all that feminist in the name of feminism.
The action started so invigorating and new and then it happened again. And again. And really what exactly are they fighting? Is there ever a bigger cop out than having an Alien invasion bad guy? No need for motive. No need for nuance. Just KILL. And then repurpose the bodies to fight them… yikes. Fun! But yikes.
The romance? Eh…Yizhi was MY guy! Yeah, yeah I get a point of this book was no love triangle, but let’s be real, Yizhi deserved better than both of them. And it wasn’t really like he was all that great either.
Meets a known murderer-“I’m a fan of your work.”
See’s his girlfriend laughing manically over someone she just murdered-HoRnY
Actually I kinda loved the morally grey (read: evil) characters. Just maybe not together?
This book really did have a lot of fun elements, but after page 250 I was kinda done. I might be back for the sequel? Honestly I might read the book just to hear about foot binding. I have a morbid fascination with that. Like WTF people!! How was that ever going ti be a good idea?!
A good debut that fell into every debut writing mistake, but still a lil’ fun.