A review by smileyblue
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I wanted to be obsessed with this book, but I found it just wasn't for me and I don't think I'll pick up the sequel. For me, the most enjoyable aspects were the relatively diverse characters and relationship dynamics. The negatives, meanwhile, were:
  1. Narrative style. First person tends to annoy me a lot especially in YA because I often find it to be artificially self-aware and on the nose, and unfortunately I felt there was was no exception here
  2. I kinda struggled to have a lot of rooting interest for Zeitan. It was wonderful to see the representation she brings, but her moral stance again felt kinda artificial, especially given the context. Some of the situations she found herself in seemed to me to be almost self-insert moments that, for me, had far too obvious. In fiction, I like my moral takeaways to be a little more unstated than they were here.
  3. At no point was I significantly surprised by any of the dramatic twists. Sometimes a predictable plot can feel satisfying. In this case, though, it felt like there was a great deal of untapped potential.
  4. The "twist ending."
    This was a deus ex machina moment in a way that, for me, didn't succeed in getting me invested in the sequel. There was some foreshadowing throughout, but it was between too weak and also too on-the-nose.  After Shimin's death, the story just becomes a sequence of convenient events. Since the twist happened right on the final few pages in the epilogue, it felt rushed, disjointed, and like it was thrown in there just to toy with the reader's emotions (but did not succeed in doing so for me). The only aspect of the ending that I found surprising was that it set up the next book for an anti-colonization bent. For a while I honestly thought it was going to be a sort of Hunger Games result, and I feel that might have been a more interesting outcome.
  5. Themes. On top of the rest of the book's efforts to explicitly tackle feminism, gender theory, consent, polyamory, and ableism, I felt that throwing
    anti-colonization
    into the mix converted the whole book into a space where every single one of the author's opinions can be justified. It's not that I think these topics are too much for one book. There are definitely ways to successfully address these issues in an integrated way. The way they were treated in Iron Widow felt, for me, a little unfocused and perhaps even preachy.
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