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danielles_reads 's review for:

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
1.0
adventurous dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
What is this book 😭😭😭😭

I feel like this review is going to be all over the place because WOO BOY this book was SO unsatisfying. Tbh I wasn’t that bothered for most of the book (I thought the book was heading for a 2.5/maybe even 3 rating), but the ending was SO completely terrible it downgraded my enjoyment of the book all the way down to 1.

  • Zetian is UNHINGED to say the least. She is so angry at everyone and everything and she LITERALLY SAYS “It is not me who is wrong. It’s everyone else.” like FUCK. She is CONSTANTLY victim blaming, like it’s oppressed people’s fault for not “questioning” what they’ve been told their whole lives. (What makes her so different?) I’m pretty sure she hates women/womanhood more than she hates sexism, because she has zero female friends and relies on men for the entire story, no matter how many times she tells herself she can’t depend on men.
    And she fucking KILLED Xiuying, even after she confessed that she only killed the Vermilion Bird/Shimin bc the army threatened her children. Like EXCUSE ME? Zetian just hates women. She also KILLED HER ENTIRE FAMILY LIKE WHAT?? I was pleasantly surprised by the “maybe if your family was economically secure they’d be different” storyline, because yes! Doesn’t excuse their terribleness but maybe they could be better. But bc this book cannot do anything with nuance, that was completely dropped and Zetian kills them (along with the ENTIRE CASTLE??) with zero remorse. And I really don’t understand what drove her to want to take over and become emperor at the end??
    It was sooo random and violent and merciless and just WHAT THE FUCK?!?! THIS IS NOT FEMINIST!

  • I don’t understand Yizhi. He was a softboi simping for Zetian the entire time (who knows why), who suddenly went VIOLENT at the end like wtf?
    The narration hinted that he was uncomfortable with his dad, but it never seemed like he hated him or anything. But he decides to randomly kill him off of one line? And decides to “rule the world” with Zetian, like WHAT?!?! I can’t. (Plus, I’m sorry, but that video scene with Gao was soooo juvenile like come on, I know it’s YA but a man in that position would definitely want more from Zetian than a video of her naked like ??) Also the way Yizhi weaseled his way into helping Shimin with his alcoholism and LIVING with him and Zetian was so absurd and way too convenient for the plot.

  • Shimin’s entire storyline was just straight up misery that I swear the author was having fun torturing him. And Zetian’s response to his torture was so callous and made me dislike her from the beginning. Their romance was so weak and unbelievable.
    Then torturing An Lushan was just… why?? But An Lushan torturing Shimin was so barbaric and disgusting that it disturbed me and I had to stop reading for a bit.

  • The world building in this is SO POOR. I still don’t understand how qi worked, the recharging seemed so random (do they need two weeks or not??), none of the rules for the different types were explained, battle points were brought up but never explained, and I don’t understand how someone can fight and control a Chrysalis while fighting in a mind realm at the same time. God, the mind realms. I feel like they told us barely anything, especially near the end when they got repetitive and started showing us the same tortuous scenes from Shimin’s life over and over again, like I GET IT. That time could have been better spent on literally anything else. Also, the politics of the army is never explained (apparently there was a whole conspiracy at the end that felt like a complete 180), and the history is so undeveloped the only thing we know is that a dude named Qin Zheng used to be a powerful emperor. I also really don’t understand how a world can be both so modern and so backwards at the same time. I find it funny that the author keeps reminding us the book takes place in a futuristic world, because it really doesn’t feel like it. Like foot binding ended in China in the early 1900s. That’s a long time ago! What is so different about this world that they continued to do that even with modern conveniences like tablets? WHY DOES THIS WORLD HATE WOMEN SO MUCH?? Zetian says more than once that the army is screwing themselves over with this nonsensical hatred of women (“Do they honestly fear girls more than Hunduns?”), and I do find it hard to believe that they are struggling so much in a war and refusing to do anything to change the balance. She also ponders the possibility of other Iron Widows before her, but of course that storyline went nowhere lol.

  • One of my pet peeves is books that reveal a huge twist in the last second, and this book did that to the EXTREME. Like literally on THE LAST PAGE there was a twist that changed the entire story. I get that it’s setting up a sequel but it felt so lazy and rushed.
    The idea that Hunduns are actually natives to the planet and humans are invaders is a really interesting one though.
    But with the way this book went I don’t trust the author will be able to handle it with the nuance it deserves. 🙃

  • The gender binary is so strong in this book I actually couldn’t believe it was written by a non-binary/genderqueer person. It could’ve been so much more interesting if it explored gender in a more nuanced way. It seemed like it was going to in the beginning with the yin-yang butterflies, but nope. All women are oppressed and accept their oppression (except Zetian), and all men are evil and oppress people (except Yinzhi and Shimin). Nothing in between.

Just UGH. Do not recommend this book.
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