Lacking in more ways than one. It was entertaining at some parts, but the author has a lot of room for growth and it feels like this novel was published a bit prematurely, should have given the author some more time to hone her craft because some parts read like a first draft. Good ideas, execution could use work.

For once the description of a book being this book meets this book was not a let down for me. This definitely was a mash up of Pacific Rim meets Handmaids tale, I think with a little Hunger Games flare. I loved every minute of this book and the trio of main characters we follow. It was refreshing to not have a love triangle for once, and their polyamorous relationship was so natural. Although this book is for older YA I will recommend it to everyone I know!

everyone and their mothers have read this book at some point and every single one of them loved it – and for good reason. Iron Widow was absolutely incredible. just... breathtaking honestly. Zhao knows what she's doing and who she's writing for with this book and I thought it was such a better take on Pacific Rim.

This book gave me everything I wanted and more. Poly relationship, morally gray characters, dark fantasy, and and engrossing premise. I can't wait for the next book!

Iron Widow was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and I ended up loving it !

Zhao's writing was very powerful and alluring -- I really felt that Zeitan (the main character) was a real person because of how great the writing was. It made this fictional world seem so realistic and easy to imagine.

I also love that this YA book featured a polyamorous relationship! I've barely seen any adult book feature a polyam relationship, so this was great. I really liked how well Zetian, Shimin and Yizhi had great chemistry and all worked so well together, each bringing something different to the relationship. More books with this rep please!

Highly recommend !

Riveting science fiction that fans of anime will absolutely devour, Zhao's debut handles difficult topics sensitively and still manages to be a page-turner.

Iron Widow is a stunning debut from Xiran Jay Zhao that follows Zetian, a young female mech pilot, as she fights for her rightful place in a misogynistic society that is determined to keep her subservient. The pitch for this one is Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale, and that is honestly 100% accurate. Start reading for the epic battles between giant robots, stay for the slow deconstruction of this patriarchal society. And the romance! I was a bit unsure about the polyamorous relationship in this novel, but it ended up being one of my favorite things about Iron Widow. Zhao does a fantastic job of showing how all three characters fit together, and how they all support each other in different ways. I’m also always a fan of powerful women being unapologetic about how powerful they are, which is absolutely the case in this book.

The ending was a bit of a surprise, but it just made me more excited for the next book in the series! I’ll definitely be picking that one up on release day.

*Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao was so good and I'm so glad there will be a sequel! This mecha scifi story is based on the rise of Chinese Empress Wu. I didn't know I needed historical scifi in my life, but it turns out I did! To be clear, this story is set in its own scifi world with characters inspired by Chinese history.

A Chrysalis (the gigantic mecha of our story) are piloted by male and female pairs. The women concubine-pilots almost always die, but that is considered an acceptable sacrifice to battle the mecha aliens that threaten Huaxia.

Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot with one goal: to kill the pilot who murdered her sister. Before she can, she is forced into the cockpit of a Chrysalis with him and does what no one expected; she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the Chrysalis unscathed. Zetian is an Iron Widow, able to drain male pilots the same way they drain their concubine-pilots. She is paired with the infamous pilot Li Shimin, a murderer and accomplished Chrysalis pilot. She knows the pairing is meant to be her death sentence, but Zetian is determined to survive and unravel the misogynistic system that's trying to kill her.

There's so much to love in Iron Widow. Zetian is a very morally gray MC and the book's polyamorous relationship is handled so beautifully. All three characters have empathy and love for each other, and they're all morally gray characters who don't turn away from the dark parts of each other. I do wish this book was adult scifi rather than YA. I would have loved more extensive world-building and more thorough development of the relationships. This book is very dark even though it's YA. Trigger warnings for alcoholism, forced substance abuse, foot binding, rape (not on page), torture, and so much misogyny. If you're looking for a dark scifi book, I'd highly recommend Iron Widow!

I was kind of nervous going into this because I had such high hopes.

LUCKILY I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED. Badass story - great representation. It had it all. Quickly became one of my favorites.

I will read anything that Xiran Jay Zhao publishes and I can't wait for book two!!!!!!!!

This is what happens when you publish #ownvoices books (especially in SFF). You get a story with a rich and diverse cast of characters and it's effortless. None of these characters are thrown in for the sake of diversity. They belong there and they always belonged there. THIS should be the standard.

With that out of the way, this was a thrill to read the whole way through. I admit, it took me a minute to figure things out at the very beginning but I quickly figured out what was happening and I held my breathe from then on. There was constantly something happening. I struggled to put the book down to go and do adult things so naturally, I finished this in 3 sittings. Problem solved.

I'm really excited to see how the characters figure out this next hurdle! It was refreshing to have a set of characters that were simply to understand. They were neither bad, nor good, but somewhere in between and I loved that about them.

This book makes me feel hopeful about this next generation of writers.

“But I have no faith in love. Love cannot save me. I choose vengeance.”

IRON WIDOW is, without a doubt, one of the most fiercely feminist and deeply imaginative books I’ve ever read. It’s a young adult novel that has the fast-paced action and high-pitched emotionality of the genre, but with an incredible depth in both characters and world-building that’s less common.

The story follows Zetian, a young woman from a small village who has little opportunity to free herself from the life prescribed by the oppressive patriarchal culture that surrounds her, and yet possesses an intensely ambitious drive to overcome her circumstances that burns hot within her. I won’t get too much more into the plot here, but it involves massive mechas fueled by pilots’ qi (life force) used for fighting ginormous aliens, a pilot system built on the deaths of girls, a competitive boys-club-esque army that feeds on media attention, and a years-long war escalating into an all-out battle with surprising ramifications, all laced with the strategy and politics of the powerful in Huaxia.

The result is a stunning blend of science fiction and fantasy with an utterly badass lead inspired by the only female emperor in Chinese history. Zhao uses this structure to explore powerful themes of celebrity and infamy, addiction and recovery, power and self-determination, disability and assistive tech, dependence and agency, surviving trauma and enacting vengeance, sexuality and purity culture, gaslighting and the power of believing in yourself, and the infinite depths of love. Without spoiling too much, it’s a deeply queer book that embraces polyamory when so many authors have chosen to have two love interests compete. I just! I love it so much!

Once you pick this book up you will not want to put it down; the pace is non-stop and every page has something new to devour. I absolutely cannot wait for book two to come out later this year. Thank you to Penguin Teen for the eARC!

“You’re not some thing to be kept or taken, and love isn’t some scarce resource to battle over. Love can be infinite, as much as your heart can open.”

Content warnings: violence, abuse, beating/torture, imprisonment, death/murder, suicidal ideation, sexual assault, addiction

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House for this advanced copy of Iron Widow in exchange for an honest review. In Xiran Jay Zhao novel of Iron Widow, we meet 18 year old Zetian. The author describe this book as Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale and that description had me hyped to begin reading. Zetian is paired with Li Shimin, who is the strongest male pilot in Huaxia. In order to complete her mission and tear down a world filled with misogyny, she must use her wit and strengths to overcome. What I really enjoyed in this novel is the poly relationship, it flowed so naturally. And how kick ass Zetian becomes and stands up against so much wrong doing.

I love the representation in this story. Both with a Chinese lead character and a strong female lead. I very much appreciate the lgbt and polyamorous representation as well. It’s much needed. That said, the story fell a bit flat for me at times. I found that explanation for the conflicts was lacking, at least from where I noticed. I also felt like the world building could have been stronger. It was an enjoyable book, but not a series I can see myself continuing.

As everyone says, this is an amazing novel just bursting with ideas, gorgeous prose, and some fantastic, at-time prickly characters. From the premise to the polyamorous anti-love-triangle, this book subverts expectations and then takes its core ideas even further. I can't wait to read the sequel.

i'm very sad rn.

to summarize, i LOVED the first 50% of this book, the world, the characters and fast paced plot were all going super well. I was having so much fun with the lush world and Zhao's flowy writing but then i slowly started feeling a bit disinterested? though wu zetian unhinged af, her personality got to a point where it was unrealistic. not only that, but there wasn't much character development going on and as someone who prefers character-driven stories to plot-driven ones, i was getting bored because i had no characters to root for.

i wish the author all the best and i will definitely be on the look for rest of their works!

2.5/5 stars

A huge thank you to Penguin Teen for providing me with an advance reader copy via Netgalley. This did not impact my review in any way.

Life is Huaxia is fueled by the deaths of girls in metal mechs call Chrysalises. When Zetian's sister is murdered by a pilot, Zetian volunteers to join their ranks knowing that she'll have a chance at vengeance before her life is sacrificed, but instead she finds her will is strong enough that she survives and sacrifices her partner her first time piloting a mech. It's an incredible story of power, propaganda, and vengeance. I cannot wait to read the sequel to see how Zetian continues to change her world.

I keep waffling… two stars, three stars? I mean it’s YA/teen and it fits the genre and target audience well; but sadly Iron Widow is mediocre at best. It comes off as a teenage soap opera that has: boxy characters, too many twists, not enough explanation of what is happening (if you’re going to write fantasy/sci-fi then expect readers to want to understand what is happening please), and is frankly obnoxious and preachy.
On the flip-side it’s also: immensely readable, fast-paced (in an omg what a train wreck kind of way), and with more over-the-top twists people are likely to love (seriously might as well have the line “Luke, I am your father” or “It was Earth all along”) written into the narrative. I know many will love it. But just like Twilight, I would bet money, it will not stand the test of time and the writing is not good enough to have any lasting power. A second read of Iron Widow will bring it to its knees for most readers as they realize it’s: contrived, poorly explained, badly written, and just rife with issues regarding its use of: feminism (which should be about equality not power), vengeance, intellect (if I’m supposed to think our lead gal is brilliant then I’m sorry to say, even with her bit of character growth, she really isn’t (what she is: obnoxious, shallow, and power hungry), and blatant male archetypal characters (her men all fit perfectly in a cookie cutter persona) which is ironic given one of the main themes is how women don’t just fit into one or two molds like the patriarchy seems to prefer us in. Oh, and there is a love triangle; although ironically the romance is very well handled and easily the best written narrative of the whole story.

If you want to get an idea of the type of attitude you will get from the lead gal here read the acknowledgements at the back. There are no spoilers. You’ll get a sense of the type of bragging and (frankly) immature tones that exist in the novel. From comments like how her (previously unsupportive) family can serve her fruit on a plate to the bragging that she now was a big multi-book deal (this is her debut novel), it’s apparent that the arrogance and immaturity of her lead girl is really a big reflection of her own thoughts and views. Obviously this isn’t surprising; all authors write from their own place in the word. It’s just unfortunate that a number of teens will gobble up the themes of hatred and revenge thinking they are just being feminist and getting retribution for what should be theirs). If you’re under 20, and love this, give it ten years, read it again and then let’s talk. I bet your opinion will have drastically changed.

Maybe this review is just a showing of my age (I realized I’m more than old enough to be the young authors mother, ack!) but I love lots of YA/teen books and this just isn’t one of them.
My suggestions to read instead of Iron Widow (and I’m sad to say that as Zhao is a young Canadian author I wish I could endorse) would include: The Last Namsara by (another fellow Canadian) Kristen Ciccarelli, Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim, or A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Iron Widow is the beginning book within a new series, where we follow a young girl called Zetian who offers herself to be a concubine-pilot in order to assassinate a male pilot who killed her sister. In killing him, she uses a psychic link to do so, allowing her to leave the cockpit unscathed and thus declared an "Iron Widow" - a feared female pilot. The story then follows on from this.

I was really excited to see the authors take on this sci-fi fantasy tale where we see our characters having to fight against these aliens in order to save the world. However I would describe Zhao's writing style as frankly thoughtless.

Throughout the entire novel, there are several conflicts which are not explained at all. Neither is the technology thats being used to fight in these conflicts. After finishing this book, I was left with so many questions surrounding the world politics as this was also not explained.

A lot of people seem to love the main character, however I found Zetian and all the other characters to be incredibly surface level. They all remind me of the cast from Throne of Glass, where we are told a lot about them but not shown. The romance was instalove which is my least favourite trope and just was completely unrealistic. Although the poly rep was nice to see, all relationships were rushed.

No character building, no world building, underdeveloped sci-fi elements- frankly a let down!

a solid, solid debut! i love the author's voice, the moral-gray-ness of the main character, and the inclusion of the poly trio! it was something extremely unique, and very anime-esque as well. i especially loved watching the main character's development through the story, and the way she reacted to the society around her.

The whole Iron Widow experience felt like being on the biggest, baddest and loopiest rollercoaster in the world. The constants twists and turns and loops pretty much gave me whiplash the entire time, there was literally never a dull moment while devouring this book. I appreciated how fast-paced the whole thing was, if I hadn’t suffered a book slump half-way through this, it would’ve been so easy to get through it in a day or two (but alas). However, the high speed of its pace is one of the things that prevented it from reaching its full potential as a fully decked out Sci-fi novel.

There were a lot of things I loved about Iron Widow but there are also aspects of it that I found lacking, which I feel can be remedied in the second book. There were moments that honestly felt very The Hunger Games-y for me (minus the battle royale-style death matches), particularly the scenes wherein Zetian and Shimin had to campaign to rally for people’s support and the whole flamboyance of their dressing up and dramatics. And that’s one of the issues I had with Iron Widow: it relies too much on shock-value to distract the reader from looking too deeply into its lack of depth.

As much as I liked Zetian as an MC (which I really did), I felt that her agenda lacked cohesiveness and proper building to make her more convincing. Her anger at the patriarchy is 100% justified, while foot-binding is no longer done in current times, there’s still an underlying bias towards sons and male familial figures now; and her need to topple, dismantle and destroy it is absolutely bad-ass (it was especially fascinating seeing not just toxic masculinity, but the reality that women tend to be pitted against one another by men/authority figures). However, how this anger came about, where it came from and how it grew to complete hatred wasn’t touched upon, which was the missing piece in completing Zetian’s character. (Xiran Jay Zhao tried too hard into making Zetian “not your typical girl” without giving us the hows and whys.)

One of the things that drew me to reading Iron Widow was the promise of a poly relationship, I’ve personally never been a big fan of love triangles because 1) I either get second lead syndrome or 2) just want the three of them to end up together. And you do get the best of both worlds in this book. I just wish we’d gotten to see the romance develop more between the three, it was kind of surprising how quickly Shimin and Yizhi got together and in turn, got with Zetian as well. I think that the relationship between them could have benefitted from a POV from either men (seeing as this book was written in TPP, it could’ve been done).

This was definitely more of a plot-driven book than anything else, Xiran Jay Zhao gives highlight to the battle sequences and odes to mythical Chinese beasts in the form of Chrysalises, which I have to say, were incredibly detailed and the whole co-pilot system, while crude, was fascinating. Comping this book to Pacific Rim, except a bit more brutal, was the right move. Though I will say, ever since seeing the Shang-chi film, I couldn’t help imagining the Hunduns as Morris, which made them less threatening and more aww-worthy.

Iron Widow, all in all, was a great reading experienc, it just lacked certain aspects to it that could’ve made it better, more convincing. And after that crazy af ending (which the author gets plus points for because holy crap, did NOT see that coming), I will definitely be picking up book 2 and hoping for the best.