Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Iron Widow

It's a fun power fantasy but I'm not really sure I'd call it feminist since it doesn't exactly pass the Bechdel test and the main character barely has any relationships with women. Also, I called all the plot twists but maybe that's just because I'm also a writer who is writing about colonization and sexism. Also weird how Zetian can't forgive anyone but her boyfriends for anything but has done some pretty frequently-seen-as-unforgivable things herself. I did enjoy it though. Anti-heroes are fun and the boys are interesting.

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merlynnefae's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book and it made me want to learn more about the history that the book is based off of. I enjoyed the strong female representation and resilience of the main character and her refusing to give in and that she kept her morals throughout the book. However at the same time, I feel like there is character development both with her and several of the other characters while she's still remains true to her roots. So good character development while staying true to themselves.

I'm also not a big fan of mech stories, but this held my interest throughout and I found myself wanting to continue this story and find out what happened.

Please do rig to your warnings before reading this book. But overall I did enjoy.

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bluvixen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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bookishmk's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I loved this book so much! Finally, a book that is brave enough to not back down. It both lays out the experience of and defies the horrible nature of patriarchy and the brutal treatment of women and girls. Thank you to Xiran Jay Zhao for making this book exist. Will be one of my favorite reads ever. The plot and world building is fascinating but what I enjoyed most was the perspective of the main character, their thoughts and actions. Vengeance is satisfying.

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nocturna_of_space's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-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

2.0

Does Iron Widow pass the Bechdel test? Pretty sure no....

A main character that wants to watch the world burn can work but it didn't work here. Zetian lacks any kind of empathy to an almost comical degree. She just kills everyone with no regard for any extenuating circumstances around their actions. I almost thought she might change but then she kills the parents of children that are being held hostage and then kills her whole family in short order. Her whole reason for wanting to kill the dude at the start of the book is because her big sister was killed by him. Fair enough, but like.... she doesn't have a name. The big sister who's so important to Zetian has no name except 'big sister.'
I honestly thought Shimin and Yizhi had a better love story than Zetian with either of them. And I think that's mostly due to the idea that they maybe had some conversations off-screen or something. I really wanted to like the love story in this book. Especially as a poly person. But my god... there was no soul in it and almost no chemistry between Zetian and either of the boys.
Zetian is really just... not like other girls I guess...
I will be looking up what happens to Shimin and Yizhi. I hope they live happily together for the rest of their lives. Also 2 stars for the inclusion of the boy you torture someone with and the boy who welcomes you home with pastries afterwards. Even I have to admit that was great.
Edit: I was just informed that the big sister does have a name. It’s mentioned off hand in the first chapter I think? And then never again.

If you liked this book, all the power to you. It just wasn't my thing. Which is sad, because I really thought it would be.

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the_frenchie_history_nerd's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

What a great YA book. Definitely for older teens (15/16+), but an accessible read to all reading levels as long as they're old enough. It's a fast-paced, tense, dark and fun read for sci-fi/fantasy readers. Don't expect LOTR world building, but Xian Jay Zhao's first novel still defends itself pretty well on this front.

Iron Widow's characters definitely aren't good people, but they're still loveable in some sort of twisted way. Zetian is a villainous figure that you're probably gonna learn to love despite her cruel nature.

This book is just as good on a second read, and I can't wait to start Heavenly Tyrant!

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blacksphinx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is the book that got me back into reading as a hobby; I devoured it in less than 24 hours. It's also the first book I'm reread since diving back into reading, and I was nervous. I've read about 250 other books since then... would this still stand up to my memory of it?

The answer turned out to be mostly yes! It doesn't hurt that I recently bounced off of two other YA-ish-female-rage stories and I could compare and see how much better this one is (even on a sentence level). I love how Zeitan is a wrathful, manipulative thing who is fueled by spite. I also loved how singularly focused she was on women's position in the unjust pilot system. She never lost sight of the constant disregard and loss of female life, and even was able to pull her gaze back further to see that yelling at individual men was ineffective, it's the system that is rotten. And yeah, there's some cheesy bits (a character snaps his fingers and goes yeeeees at some point as the narration says the audience "gags" for a performance, which made me cringe). The blisteringly fast pace is an asset, allowing any humor that doesn't land to be quickly moved on from. The final cascade of revolutions was just as cool as it was the first time.

It's also the only book I've read, YA or otherwise, the solves a love triangle with a genuine polyamorous triad, and I can't overlook how much I love that.

And yet, there's things that stood out and bothered me that I didn't think about my first time through. There's some continuity errors. This is supposed to be

a "feminist" story, yet every female character attacks, abuses, manipulates, or tries to kill Zeitan. I understand the point Zhao is explicitly making, that the patriarchy is equally upheld by women and we are not all natural allies to each other, but not even a single female friend? She has to rely on men for the entire story?

This is also yet another book where

torture is portrayed as an effective means of getting information out of someone, when out here in the real world it doesn't work.

The extremely high entertainment value I got out of the book outweighed the parts that bothered me.

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