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gomango 's review for:
Iron Widow
by Xiran Jay Zhao
This book was recommended by a friend and I wasn't familiar with XJZ outside of this work. Iistened to the audiobook and the narrator was excellent.
It features queer, poly, people with disabilities who aren't white. Yes. Love this. Let's read about people who aren't cis/white/het/etc.
This book gets three stars because I liked it. I didn't really like it (4 stars) or love it (5 stars). It was fun reading and I wanted to know what happened next. Some things I didn't like could be specific choices aimed at making the novel YA. I probably would have liked it more had I read it as a teenager.
XJZ has room to grow as an author and I'm looking forward to seeing how the second compares.
Here are my main criticisms:
1. I like reading books from authors with Asian heritage, like Ken Liu, Fonda Lee, Nghi Vo, RF Kuang, and Liu Cixin. This book has Chinese... flavour? It misses something these other authors have that makes culture integral to the story. You could take this story, change the names and dress styles of the characters, and it wouldn't have made much difference. (I did Google it to better understand the historic references, which was interesting). It reminds me more of Brandon Sanderson's Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. I was hoping for something more, here. (I am super open to other perspectives on this. Happy to be wrong or have missed things.)
2. Lack of other female characters. Zetian is a Strong Female Character fighting the patriarchy...with other feminist men? The two other female pilots have different complex attitudes (cool), but why is Zetian the only lady woke to patriarchy? There are missed opportunities here.
2b. Lol @ Zetian being 18, mostly uneducated, and a fully formed social scientist amongst the brainwashed ladies. Fun and unrealistic.
2c. Why is Zetian brash around everyone else except the two other female pilots? It seemed inconsistent to me. I had many eye rolling moments at Zetian while reading. On reflection, I do like how her anger is a strength and weakness.
2d. Nitpicky for a fantasy/sci-fi/YA novel, but that is not how someone moves on from suicidal ideation and depression.
3. Saw the Big Twist coming almost from the start.
4. The narrative style reminded me a bit if ACOTAR ("I'm so gritty and dark, I did this to survive, also, sex") and The Empyrean. One I hated and one I loved, so I will split the difference on this.
Tl;dr - A fun contemporary read that lacks some of the sophistication that could have given the book the incisiveness the author seemed to be looking for.
It features queer, poly, people with disabilities who aren't white. Yes. Love this. Let's read about people who aren't cis/white/het/etc.
This book gets three stars because I liked it. I didn't really like it (4 stars) or love it (5 stars). It was fun reading and I wanted to know what happened next. Some things I didn't like could be specific choices aimed at making the novel YA. I probably would have liked it more had I read it as a teenager.
XJZ has room to grow as an author and I'm looking forward to seeing how the second compares.
Here are my main criticisms:
1. I like reading books from authors with Asian heritage, like Ken Liu, Fonda Lee, Nghi Vo, RF Kuang, and Liu Cixin. This book has Chinese... flavour? It misses something these other authors have that makes culture integral to the story. You could take this story, change the names and dress styles of the characters, and it wouldn't have made much difference. (I did Google it to better understand the historic references, which was interesting). It reminds me more of Brandon Sanderson's Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. I was hoping for something more, here. (I am super open to other perspectives on this. Happy to be wrong or have missed things.)
2. Lack of other female characters. Zetian is a Strong Female Character fighting the patriarchy...with other feminist men? The two other female pilots have different complex attitudes (cool), but why is Zetian the only lady woke to patriarchy? There are missed opportunities here.
2b. Lol @ Zetian being 18, mostly uneducated, and a fully formed social scientist amongst the brainwashed ladies. Fun and unrealistic.
2c. Why is Zetian brash around everyone else except the two other female pilots? It seemed inconsistent to me. I had many eye rolling moments at Zetian while reading. On reflection, I do like how her anger is a strength and weakness.
2d. Nitpicky for a fantasy/sci-fi/YA novel, but that is not how someone moves on from suicidal ideation and depression.
3. Saw the Big Twist coming almost from the start.
4. The narrative style reminded me a bit if ACOTAR ("I'm so gritty and dark, I did this to survive, also, sex") and The Empyrean. One I hated and one I loved, so I will split the difference on this.
Tl;dr - A fun contemporary read that lacks some of the sophistication that could have given the book the incisiveness the author seemed to be looking for.