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A review by kelsyer
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
dark
funny
tense
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
Plot/story: 3
Writing: 3
Characters: 2.5
Theme: 4
Enjoyment: 3
Re-readability: 2
The premise of the story was interesting. I have been looking forward to reading this for a while. Sadly I think that the most interesting parts were dangled in front of me, just like in a movie trailer: angry female character, action scenes, polyamory! (Possibly Pacific Rim would have been an exciting calling word for me, but I haven't seen it. It did have massive Hunger Games vibes for me and of course the Handmade's Tale, as promised.)
There are two wolves fighting within me.
On one hand, supporting feminine rights and wrongs, rage against the system and oppression, taking back power, funny one liners, raging quotes that I feel in my soul, a love triangle that actually is a triangle.
On the other hand...
If a nation of people has been suppressed for centuries, the main character have little contact with outsiders (she learns the concept of gravity from one of them and to learn how to use a future Google search bar), how the hell does she grow the balls of the size of the moon to take back the power? More importantly, how does she instinctively know how to do something that has been never done before (to your knowledge)?
I can't help but compare it to the Poppy War trilogy. I am sorry, but the Vermilion Bird and fiery "superpowers", added that the books have been read within 3 months to each other, an easy comparison comes up in my head.
Rin was preparing to go to the school for years. She was training to become a soldier for another year. Then boom, powers.
Here? It seems like a freaking divine intervention.
I get what the point of this book is, we fairly early on know about it (it is in the description after all!). Sadly we don't expand out from there, Zeitan's character doesn't develop depth besides the fact that she is Fury in a human form, who is angry, mad and pissed of. Sometimes horny. (And just want to be loved.)
"Women will hate you for carrying yourself with the kind of domineering confidence they wish they had; men will hate you for scrambling their minds and luring their thoughts toward places they know they shouldn’t go. But their hate will scorch so hotly under their skin that they won’t be able to look away or stop talking about you."
Yes, a man said this, a man who knows how the people's minds work and who was great at it.
And you know what? If this "domineering confidence" he talks about means that I snarl back to anyone, put down other women as weak and stupid, unvalidating parts of womenhood, raging against the system that supressed everyone, all the while somehow being the perfect vengeful killing machine yet "charming" and mysterious and "not like the other girls" female character? I don't want to be confident or domineering. Which might be a reason while I didn't connect with Zetian.
For a long while I was thinking that Iron Widow reads like a parody or even a fanfiction where we don't know the original story (because of the lack of world building in this book), but I realized that it reads like a diary of a young woman. Only keeping the things that she believes are flattering or making her look good/badass/smart/powerful and a lot of the information that we receive are not a dialog that we can "see" happening, just her summary of what she thinks we need to know. That's actually genious in a way.
Sad that everything happened so fast and it wasn't a question of why, rather the action of DIE!, because while I do understand that the system is bad, very closely mirroring our life, and there are lies woven into everything, I don't care about the characters or the world. And I don't care that probably the worldbuilding comes in the second book, because (as far as I know) it's a duology.
Is this my sign to not buy the trophies before reading and loving the story? Because I see a pattern developing in this past 3 months alone.
Writing: 3
Characters: 2.5
Theme: 4
Enjoyment: 3
Re-readability: 2
The premise of the story was interesting. I have been looking forward to reading this for a while. Sadly I think that the most interesting parts were dangled in front of me, just like in a movie trailer: angry female character, action scenes, polyamory! (Possibly Pacific Rim would have been an exciting calling word for me, but I haven't seen it. It did have massive Hunger Games vibes for me and of course the Handmade's Tale, as promised.)
There are two wolves fighting within me.
On one hand, supporting feminine rights and wrongs, rage against the system and oppression, taking back power, funny one liners, raging quotes that I feel in my soul, a love triangle that actually is a triangle.
On the other hand...
If a nation of people has been suppressed for centuries, the main character have little contact with outsiders (she learns the concept of gravity from one of them and to learn how to use a future Google search bar), how the hell does she grow the balls of the size of the moon to take back the power? More importantly, how does she instinctively know how to do something that has been never done before (to your knowledge)?
I can't help but compare it to the Poppy War trilogy. I am sorry, but the Vermilion Bird and fiery "superpowers", added that the books have been read within 3 months to each other, an easy comparison comes up in my head.
Rin was preparing to go to the school for years. She was training to become a soldier for another year. Then boom, powers.
Here? It seems like a freaking divine intervention.
I get what the point of this book is, we fairly early on know about it (it is in the description after all!). Sadly we don't expand out from there, Zeitan's character doesn't develop depth besides the fact that she is Fury in a human form, who is angry, mad and pissed of. Sometimes horny. (And just want to be loved.)
"Women will hate you for carrying yourself with the kind of domineering confidence they wish they had; men will hate you for scrambling their minds and luring their thoughts toward places they know they shouldn’t go. But their hate will scorch so hotly under their skin that they won’t be able to look away or stop talking about you."
Yes, a man said this, a man who knows how the people's minds work and who was great at it.
And you know what? If this "domineering confidence" he talks about means that I snarl back to anyone, put down other women as weak and stupid, unvalidating parts of womenhood, raging against the system that supressed everyone, all the while somehow being the perfect vengeful killing machine yet "charming" and mysterious and "not like the other girls" female character? I don't want to be confident or domineering. Which might be a reason while I didn't connect with Zetian.
For a long while I was thinking that Iron Widow reads like a parody or even a fanfiction where we don't know the original story (because of the lack of world building in this book), but I realized that it reads like a diary of a young woman. Only keeping the things that she believes are flattering or making her look good/badass/smart/powerful and a lot of the information that we receive are not a dialog that we can "see" happening, just her summary of what she thinks we need to know. That's actually genious in a way.
Sad that everything happened so fast and it wasn't a question of why, rather the action of DIE!, because while I do understand that the system is bad, very closely mirroring our life, and there are lies woven into everything, I don't care about the characters or the world. And I don't care that probably the worldbuilding comes in the second book, because (as far as I know) it's a duology.
Is this my sign to not buy the trophies before reading and loving the story? Because I see a pattern developing in this past 3 months alone.