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A review by _abii__
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Iron Widow is a sci-fi retelling of the first empress of China Wu Zetian.
the story is placed in ancient China where many atrocities were committed, most of them by the army, which is a point this book touches heavily. due to this atrocities as well as society viewed women in those times the character is fearless full of rage wanting revenge for the system she was forced in.
“My village elders say girls shouldn’t touch these heavenly devices, because we would desecrate them with, I don’t know, our wicked femaleness or something.”
feminism is a very important topic of the book, and while many have stated that it was forced, i think in the context of an environment such hostile as ancient China it’s pretty well develop and not there for shock value at all. chinese society till this day is very ruthless.
“There’s no one the masses are more obsessed with railing at than the women who dare to stray from the docile ideal of wives and mothers”
our main character is raging and that leads to a lot of thoughts that we can call female rage. which later translates to her defying the army and society in itself. you will find a lot of quotes blaming other women for subjecting themselves to the men in their lives which at first glance defeats the whole purpose of feminism. however zetian is not perfect and this train of thought is one of the aspects that makes her human, society has always taught her to underestimate other women and compete with them and that’s exactly what she does in the beginning, she learns from her mistakes and acknowledges the reason behind these thoughts.
Xiran Jay Zhao does an excellent job at portraying this rage and at developing this character into something greater something complex and someone who the reader might love or hate.
my favorite aspect of this book is the characters dynamics with each other, specially between our loving trio who (spoilers) end up all in a poly relationship at the end. the way their relationship evolves is very intricate and very gradual and i loved every second of it. when they planned to find out the army secrets together ? slay that was so hot
this book biggest fail is the battle scenes and the world building. the battle scenes were confusing because we didn’t get a good established world building. i think the author assumes that everyone knows mythological things from ancient China and i think that’s where the problem lies. it wasn’t well explained what were chrysalises, how the qi actually works you just kinda were discovering as the story went and it was confusing.
“Despite their best efforts, I find myself worthy of happiness.”
just to note that i was so proud that the main character found happiness among all the mess that transpired. you can have rage but still be happy !!
on a different note none of these characters are good people BUT they are good characters. the author really slayed with this. some of y’all cannot tell the difference but i (an intellectual) can !!
in conclusion this is a good average book and i will be awaiting the sequel bc i was very much mad about that final lmao *he* was my fav character but anyways.
the story is placed in ancient China where many atrocities were committed, most of them by the army, which is a point this book touches heavily. due to this atrocities as well as society viewed women in those times the character is fearless full of rage wanting revenge for the system she was forced in.
“My village elders say girls shouldn’t touch these heavenly devices, because we would desecrate them with, I don’t know, our wicked femaleness or something.”
feminism is a very important topic of the book, and while many have stated that it was forced, i think in the context of an environment such hostile as ancient China it’s pretty well develop and not there for shock value at all. chinese society till this day is very ruthless.
“There’s no one the masses are more obsessed with railing at than the women who dare to stray from the docile ideal of wives and mothers”
our main character is raging and that leads to a lot of thoughts that we can call female rage. which later translates to her defying the army and society in itself. you will find a lot of quotes blaming other women for subjecting themselves to the men in their lives which at first glance defeats the whole purpose of feminism. however zetian is not perfect and this train of thought is one of the aspects that makes her human, society has always taught her to underestimate other women and compete with them and that’s exactly what she does in the beginning, she learns from her mistakes and acknowledges the reason behind these thoughts.
Xiran Jay Zhao does an excellent job at portraying this rage and at developing this character into something greater something complex and someone who the reader might love or hate.
my favorite aspect of this book is the characters dynamics with each other, specially between our loving trio who (spoilers) end up all in a poly relationship at the end. the way their relationship evolves is very intricate and very gradual and i loved every second of it. when they planned to find out the army secrets together ? slay that was so hot
this book biggest fail is the battle scenes and the world building. the battle scenes were confusing because we didn’t get a good established world building. i think the author assumes that everyone knows mythological things from ancient China and i think that’s where the problem lies. it wasn’t well explained what were chrysalises, how the qi actually works you just kinda were discovering as the story went and it was confusing.
“Despite their best efforts, I find myself worthy of happiness.”
just to note that i was so proud that the main character found happiness among all the mess that transpired. you can have rage but still be happy !!
on a different note none of these characters are good people BUT they are good characters. the author really slayed with this. some of y’all cannot tell the difference but i (an intellectual) can !!
in conclusion this is a good average book and i will be awaiting the sequel bc i was very much mad about that final lmao *he* was my fav character but anyways.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, War
Moderate: Violence, Sexual harassment