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A review by jordanlamagna
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
3.0
In a world with an invading alien race and giant mech chrisalises that are run by the power of a boy and girl pairing, where the girl usually dies, Zetian finds herself on a revenge quest to kill the boy that is responsible for her sister's death. However, when she succeeds at this and finds uot she is increidbly strong, she becomes known as the Iron Widow. She gets paired with a boy who murdered his entire family, but is stronger than anyone has been in generations. When that still doesn't kill her, she does her best to start a revolution to free girls from their captivity. What follows is a fast paced, emotional debut novel.
I really liked our main character, Zetian. I felt like her anger resonated with me throughout much of the book. Her quest for vengeance against the people that have held women down using fear and physical violence felt warranted and real. However, this books prose was definitely a little in your face and felt like it lacked nuance. All the information that the reader gets is just given. There's no subtlety. Also, some of the dialogue felt childish. The relationships, while very insta-lovey, had enough chemistry and interest within them that I didn't mind all that much. Towards the end of the book, I felt like everything kind of went off the rails. I didn't really understand how the mechs worked as much, so a lot of the battle scenes I felt lost in. There were certain scenes I loved, then there were other scenes that I found myself either bored or bewildered. The ending was intense and suspenseful, so I will be picking up the second. Hopefully the second is a little more carefully crafted so that the interesting story matches up to the prose.
I would recommend this book to people looking for a badass heroine fighting the patriarchy. Also, there's a polyamorous relationship. Need I say more?
TW: misogyny, femicide, rape mentioned, physical and emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, blood & gore depiction, murder, torture
I really liked our main character, Zetian. I felt like her anger resonated with me throughout much of the book. Her quest for vengeance against the people that have held women down using fear and physical violence felt warranted and real. However, this books prose was definitely a little in your face and felt like it lacked nuance. All the information that the reader gets is just given. There's no subtlety. Also, some of the dialogue felt childish. The relationships, while very insta-lovey, had enough chemistry and interest within them that I didn't mind all that much. Towards the end of the book, I felt like everything kind of went off the rails. I didn't really understand how the mechs worked as much, so a lot of the battle scenes I felt lost in. There were certain scenes I loved, then there were other scenes that I found myself either bored or bewildered. The ending was intense and suspenseful, so I will be picking up the second. Hopefully the second is a little more carefully crafted so that the interesting story matches up to the prose.
I would recommend this book to people looking for a badass heroine fighting the patriarchy. Also, there's a polyamorous relationship. Need I say more?
TW: misogyny, femicide, rape mentioned, physical and emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, blood & gore depiction, murder, torture