A review by buffyreads
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

5.0

"You've been living a dream for long enough! Welcome to your nightmare!"

The Good
Zetian is amazing. I love her anger and desire for revenge. I also love how she manipulates the system and men around her to her advantage. She's a master strategist with nothing to lose. The lore is amazing. Once the action starts and we get more information I was hooked into the story. Yizhi and Zetian have such sweet relationship. He is so devoted to her and though he has a difficult perspective in life, he understands her. Li Shimin is the love of my life. Forreal. He's a mess but cares so deeply and is protective of Zetian in a way no one had been before. This book is such a "fuck you" to love triangles and I'm obsessed. I like how subtly it was built and worked up to. They each have something the other needs and complete each other. I love how this book tackles sexism, classism, and even colorism. It also shows these issues in a more nuanced way. Women have have internalized misogyny. Misogyny in men is also deeper than hatred. It's about control, dominance, and power. I also loved how high the stakes were. Ever action or non-action had a consequence and ever win had a loss. Nothing is perfectly and that makes it all the more real. There is also a twist at the end I wasn't expecting at all. I love not being able to anticipate where a story is going.

The Bad
The biggest problem I had was visualizing the fights. It was difficult for me to really imagine what it looked like so it made the battle sections very confusing and hard to track what what happening. It might be due to me never watching shows with mecha's but I often got lost reading these parts.

The Rating
I give this book a 5/5