A review by kimigautau
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

In the interest of transparency - yes, I had consumed the author's non-book content before. No, I don't really associate them with their book (whether this is good or bad is purely up to you) so my enjoyment of the book is not dependent how I like their online presence.

Anyway this made my way onto my TBR because I had remembered this described as a take on Pacific Rim - for better or worse, one of my favorite movies at the time of it's release. On that front it definitely delivers - it had the mind-controlled huge mecha I was expecting (probably could have given me more of that, thanks for the diagrams on the website btw). But there was something that came to understand as I read through this, and it is that Zetian is not as "morally gray" as most characters normally advertised using that phrase. Actually...her shade of gray is closer to black, closer to Rachel from the last book i read ("Prison Life Is Easy For A Villainess") - the things she does do not make sense to us as readers, but from her POV she will let you know that she makes sense to herself. The difference is that in comparison to Rachel who has a plan for anything, Zetian's mostly making this entire thing up as she goes.

All in all, pretty fast-paced, sometimes loses me along the breathless narration, but it is the story of a seething villainess and her giant mecha. so I guess that sounds like something I would expect myself to finish.

Originally posted to Instagram.
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