A review by pengintoppa
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

adventurous tense

4.5

worldbuilding is interesting, i liked the 3 main characters. it was cool to read scifi set in china by a chinese author. some of the messaging felt a little heavy-handed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Torture, Trafficking, and Colonisation

recurring mention/description of the long-term crippling effects of footbinding. the racism/xenophobia is directed at non-han chinese ethnic groups. sexism/misogyny is a lot of the driving force of most of the plot.