Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Iron Widow

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Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

100 reviews

r3ader's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This was... an experience. A book that is filled with pure female rage and feminism. A book that shocks you, that makes you angry, sad and happy. An ending making you wish to be able to read the next book INSTANTLY. Still, something was missing for me to give it the full 5 stars.
I'm looking forward to part 2 and seeing how it will all play out.

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mermaidadjacent's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

One of my favorite books I have ever read. I'm obsessed with the characters, the story, the world, the dialogue, everything. I will be re-reading this and I cannot wait to read the sequel.

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evan_prus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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clovetra's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

XIRAN JAY ZHAO THE GENIUS YOU ARE.

i have no clue why i didn’t read this earlier but boy did i love this book!!!!!!

disabled rep in the form of both zetian & shimin? check. feminine rage? check. great dialogue? check. world building that makes sense? check. a love triangle that doesn’t feel forced and is resolved in an interesting way? check. loveable anti-hero as a protag? check. grungy elements that make this YA book feel like it’s pushing the boundaries of YA fantasy? check. check check checkkkkkkk

god i loved zetian. honestly she’s up there as one of my fav protags from literature. i always love a female protagonist who pushes against society’s rules and transcends beyond what is expected of her. plus she felt so rational, and i love that her character development wasn’t focused on her letting go of her rage!!!!! let women be angry and murder lots of men (in fictional books)!!!!!! i really enjoyed the plot and all its progressions and developments. the action scenes felt so real, and although i found it really hard to picture things such as the chrysalises & spirit armour…. i was having way too much fun to let the fact i didn’t have a super clear picture affect my experience reading this.

i’m not a fan of love triangles tbh and they fucking piss me off but the way this one was handled….. chefs kiss. yet again XIRAN JAY ZHAO YOUR MIND. i wish the “resolution” of the love triangle (iykyk) was a bit more fleshed out and had time to breathe before the ending, and i hate when books are such a clear set up to a sequel. babes give me some form of resolution my god!!!!!!! but honestly with how much fun i had i can’t really complain, but i imagine those who read this when it first released would be fuming about the ending. it felt rushed. defo didn’t feel like it came out of nowhere but….. idk it felt Too Fantastical. the ending defo follows zetian’s established personality and motivations, but it feels like it.. wouldn’t be possible in universe. possible as in… yeah that could happen logistically…. but in reality would it be able to work? idk.

but god this book literally scratches every itch i love in a book.

in less than 400 pages, xiran jay zhao has cemented themselves as one of my favourite authors. plus they get bonus points for being a fellow nonbinary baddie. cant wait to see what chaos zetian causes in the next book 😼

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leftovergarlicbread's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book was so angry and raw and you could just FEEL the passion that this was written with. I loved the characters so much they were so interesting to read about i LOVED the parallels they drew between Zeitan and Shimin.

I absolutely LOVED that this turned out to be a corruption/go all the way down the path of revenge. It added a rather dark tone to tue book at the end and i ate it UP!! I fucking love when characters shlnap and completely lose it. Also seeing Yizhi shift from timid rich boy to "screw a cabin in the mountains, let's rule the fucking world" was SO WELL DONE. It creeped up so slowly until it finally hit and uou saw it all at once.

I only have rather minor complaints. Mostly in the form of little threads left unanswered. Like, what did Yizhi's tattoos mean? What happened to the Nine Tailed Fox chrysalis? I have some more thoughts but im writing this on my phone at 6 AM, i might come back and add more later.

COMING BACK TO ADD MORE!!! I've also been looking at some other people's reviews of the book and found myself agreeing with some of their points. I saw a lot of people talking about how the writing did feel a little immature and would simply tell instead of show in a lot of situations. I do agree with that. I found that the writing didn't take away from the reading experience for me, but i do definitely feel like a more refined writing style would have absolutely benefited the story.

The critique I saw that i did really enjoy was someone talking about how this is a feminist story. This is a story of how women get systematically oppressed through entirely artificial reasons and the men who create them often go entirely unpunished and even benefit from these actions. Despite this, all of the supporting characters are men. By that I mean all of the characters on Zeitan's side are men. ALl of hte other women in this book are mean, or spiteful, or traitors, and are just not supportive at all. Every other female character plays a somewhat antagonistic role in the story, and all of Zeitan's true allies are men; which feels a little antithetic the main themes of feminism and female empowerment of the book. We see so many women who were so thoroughly beaten down by the system and we never see any of them break free from it or try to. It's only Zeitan who "escapes" and I feel like if we got to see her influence inspire other women to try and change things or at the very least question their role in the world and their position in society that they fully accepted. It gave Zeitan this very strong "not like other girls" presence that I feel like didn't work out quite like the author was hoping.

Overall though I did have a good time reading this, the twist at the end was very interesting, and I will be reading the next book when it comes out!

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abnormal_shadow's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was hands down the best thing I read in 2024 and I am currently in the process of rereading this book because I loved it that much. If I ever catch the author in person, I'm giving them all my money and I'm also fighting them to the death because of the way that they made me cry.

They give me a throuple which is everything I've ever wanted in a love triangle story ever and then they immediately take it away and I just cannot handle that and I am breaking down (LI SHIMIN MY BABY BOY I LOVE YOU AND IM CRYING)/hj

but I would absolutely 100% no doubt about it recommend this book. If you want to read the best thing to come out in the past few years absolutely you should check this book out.

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