A review by silberfederling
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Holy something, this book was a wild ride.
It's hard to summarize how it was without giving any major spoilers. But first things first, I enjoyed reading it. 
I liked the writing style and how easy to read it was. It was also easy to pick up with some breaks between the reading sessions and after a while it was even easy to remember the names of the characters even though they're uncommon where I am from.
The protagonist Zentian is definitly neither a hero nor a villain. But anti-hero does not fit either under her circumstanzes. The book really focus on her character developement and how she is caught in this war. And it also shows how she slowly accepts other people in her life while also trying to get her revenge.
And the plot had a few surprises. Especially when the end of the book got near. I definitly would read a part two of this book if it gets written and published.