kalaclarke 's review for:

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

3.0

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I have a lot of feelings about this one. I'll start by saying I didn't re-read Iron Widow before starting this one -- and, honestly, it might have made the differences even more stark.

I enjoyed Zetian's relationship with a few of the female characters in this novel, but feel like the feminine rage that I loved in IW was tempered in this one, aside from her sparring with Qin Zheng. 

I thought her grief over both Shiming and destruction of the Palace of Sages was pervasive, which felt genuine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Pregnancy, War

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Misogyny

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, Gaslighting

Therefore, I hated how they handled Yizhi (especially his own traumatic CSA and return to being exploited at the end of Heavenly Tyrant). I hate everything about his role in the coerced pregnancy. This storyline made me intensely upset. Look, I know it was based on the Chinese Cultural Revolution, but the trajectory of QZ's role as a tyrant (and Z's role as his empress) was a lot and the political parts of this novel were extensive. I hate how this novel ended--I sat there and said WTF a bunch of times. There are other reviewers and Reddit threads that delve into QZ's and Z's relationship dynamics, toxic/abuse/submissive gray areas. I won't try in this short review other than to say, I enjoyed their fire with each other, but hate how Z only thought he wanted to dominate her. I also have weird feelings about the graphic nature of the sex scenes in this novel, which was marketed as YA (CW: safe words, kink, implied anal play, and scenes which blurred the consent / role play/ political play lines). While QZ mentions he is bi, we lose the queer joy in the romance relationships we had in IW. Oh! And let's fix Z's disability with a surgery early in the novel... Ooof. I might just pretend this one doesn't exist and re-read Iron Widow.