INSTEAD OF A LOVE TRIANGLE I GOT A THROUPLE??????? literally best thing ever - i hate love triangles lol.

overall very nice!! the dialogue felt a bit unnatural at times, and i feel like certain relationships and motivations could have been more developed. it was fairly predictable as well, but not in a way that overly bothered me.

this might sound weird but for once i’m glad we got a protagonist that is not only ruthless, but recognizes that she was treated shit by her family and that she deserves better. i know irl it is often hard to separate the hate and love you have for a family that has abused you, but wu zetian’s fam got what was coming for them and it was extremely satisfying.

would recommend to anyone who vibes with morally grey characters and a story that doesn’t overly focus on romance… but the romance that is there is very fun!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with an e-ARC to review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Honestly, I forgot to post my review about this book even though I read it before it came. I made a few TikTok's about it though, which I have linked .

So basically, I loved this book! I started reading it on a flight and was immediately hooked. That doesn't always happen for me, especially for science fiction and fantasy books so this was a huge win. I mean we start this book inside of a battle mecha, or chrysalis, how much more epic can you get. Also, this was the first YA book I ever read which featured a throuple. I think it is great that we are providing healthy (kinda, Zetian is interesting to say the least) polyamorous representation to teenage readers. This was a story about female rage and the desire to reclaim one's body, destiny, purpose. The hardest part about reading this book early has been the excruciating wait for the sequel, which I believe (fingers crossed) we are finally getting this year, 2024.

Morally grey characters are typically my favorite to read about and this was no exception. From Zetian our power-obsessed protagonist who wants to burn it all down to create something better and destroy the lie. To Yizhi the sweet-faced, mastermind rich boy and Li Shimin, the boy branded as a monster who is more than he appears. This book brought us action and conversation from the first page and kept us in its grips all the way through. Such a solid read and I can't wait to see how everything wraps up in the sequel!

GIVE XIRAN ALL OF THE STARS IN THE SKY BECAUSE THEY DESERVE THEM ALL!!! A fresh and fierce tale about a disabled girl who rises from under the destructive boot of the patriarchy and refuses to be put back there again. Can we also talk about the healthy and beautiful poly relationship. If there’s anything I gag at more its unhealthy love triangles… this gave us the REAL triangle and did it in a perfect way, I would go to bat for these three any day of the week.

Wow what an amazing debut. This story is bold and badass. I loved this so much I would probably read anything they write in the future. Will be eagerly awaiting the next book.

How did I never leave a review for this book??

It’s amazing, one of my favorite books, just blew my mind. It never slows down, the tension is fantastic, it’s feminist, it’s queer, I’m dying for the sequel!

This book is spectacular. The characters are all amazing, and the mechanics are so different from anything else I've ever read. I love the setting - books based on Asian culture are very different from what I'm used to, so I love reading about other places. This was the first book I read by this author, and it won't be my last!

What a fresh, unique new sci-fi story! I loved reading this high-stakes, witty, romantic, exciting novel.

It was a wow read for me...the main character, Zetian is so badass like I was literally simping for her throughout. The story pulled me in and just made me want to keep reading until I got to the very end

I'm so late with this post. I just need to say that this isn't hyped enough. It was such an amazing book. I can't wait to read more from them.

I have read and reread this book on multiple occasions, and every time I find new, rich details that I did not previously notice. Xiran Jay Zhao's worldbuilding is breathtaking, and I loved that the resolution of the love triangle felt natural and not at all contrived.

This is a great book for fans of Chinese fantasy, Mecha, and Pacific Rim. Would highly recommend reading this when you're in the mood for some action and strong female characters. Definitely a must read!!

This was not at ALL what I was expecting! It was way better! Sci fi mech, so cool! The chi, the mech bots, the connections, it was all so captivating. Didn't care for the romance but ah well. I also borrowed the audiobook (and own the hardcover) and boy, the names are pronounced sooooo differently than how they're spelled!!! I had to follow along for a bit to get who was talking or being talked about because I started off with reading and already had the (wrong) pronunciations in my head. lol. Heavenly Tyrant please!!

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao was the author's debut novel and wow I cannot wait to read more by this author! This follows our main character name Xitine and she was an amazing and bada** character to watch her grow from this shy to this bada** perason we see at the end of the story. After having this book on my shelfs since it came out I'm happy I waited till now to read this book it was fast pace and loved having the short chapters, and also it was queer cast of characters.
My favorite part was the twist we had towards the end because when I read it, I had my jaw dropped to the floor I was so shook by it! I would say if u guys love the hunger games tournament style & a magic steeped in posion magic systemy this book is totally for u and I'm happy to say I cannot wait to read more from Xiran and also where is book 2?? Why do I have to wait till April next year for the sequel????!
Overall rating 5/5 stars thank you to Netgalley for sending me an e-arc to read and review for you guys, also sorry it was a very late review! Better late than never!

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

I am sitting down to write this review moments after finishing this book just so I can shout at everyone who might see this to read this book if you haven't already. It's a masterpiece. A work of art. And I don't throw those phrases around to just any book. I have never read anything like Iron Widow. I love how we were given this historical-inspired book but in a sci-fi world. It's not something I've really seen much of and I'm honestly so here for it.

Some of my favorite things:
The relationship dynamics.
The FREAKING FIGHT SCENES.
The Chrysalises (because I'd very much so like to get inside of one).
The complete and total badass that is Wu Zetian.

Like I don't even know how to form a properly set up review because my mind is completely and totally blown by finishing this book. Don't sleep on it - go read it for sure.

Everyone should read this!!! Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for a review.

I'd like to first preface this review with a thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC of Iron Widow. I'd also like to disclaim that as Iron Widow officially debuts on 21 September, 2021, this review is based upon my reading of an uncorrected proof: text and illustrations may or may not be final. Once the book is out for this whole godforsaken world to see, I will update this accordingly.

••Mild Spoilers will be indicated with the two dots••

There are so so many wonderful things I want to say about this illustrious debut novel—and I certainly will—but I want to get through the critique I have for it first.

••My first qualm was with the exploration of the relationship between Ruyi and Zeitian. Ruyi's death is what propels Zeitian into the world of Hundun fighting, yet there were moments in which I felt the weight of the two sister's relationship wasn't emphasised enough in order for the reader to truly embody the pain Zeitian felt in wake of her sister's death. We are given glimpses into their life together through Zeitian, yet they are brief and fleeting in a novel full of mecha-mayhem. Ruyi is mentioned several times throughout Zeitian's narration, typically through her death sequence, her parting words with Zeitian or small moments of suffering at the hands of their family. Personally, I would have liked to see more grounding, more personal moments between the girls. There were very few and once again, were rather fleeting.••

••It is also unclear of just how exactly Ruyi dies. Yes, we are told through Zeitian, but we never experience her death exactly. We are never propelled into Ruyi's experience.••

I think the above could've been solved along with the next critique I have: we are often told in writing to show not tell. I believe its important to have a balance between the two. Zhao, while the book does have instances of show over tell, leaned a bit more so on the tell side. It doesn't minimize the pacing of the book, but it does leave us with a bit of a flat image to piece together in some instances. There are DEFINITELY moments where tell was used in which show simply wouldn't have worked, but there were also instances of the opposite; tell was used where show would've done a much better and more fluid job for the writing style.

••For example, there is a moment in the novel where Zeitian questions Yizhi's and her own sexuality. I am happy that she normalised it so well, yet was a little disappointed that we are only told of what she observed and not given a little snippet in time, a vivid imaging of a moment in which Zeitian started thinking the way she did about Yizhi's sexuality.••

There are many moments with Yizhi (and other characters) that are tell more than show and once again, while it didn't throw off the pacing, it flattened an otherwise vivid sci-fi retelling.

I would have loved to prick into Zeitian's mind in a way that doesn't always spell clarity, that doesn't tell us what is going on through her mind of experiences directly but through fluid, imaginative descriptions of it. Sure, you can say something like "My eyes were racked with pain" (thats not a quote from the book fyi) and that might work in certain settings, but in many cases it's just more interesting to say something like, "It felt like thousands of tiny hair thin needles were pricking my eyes". That way, we as the reader, are better able to imagine just what type of pain the eyes are feeling and not just that they are in pain.

The only other thing I would have really enjoyed being included was a map or diagram of Huaxia and beyond the Great Wall as well as a better understanding of how male pilots are scouted.

Whew, okay, thats enough of that. Let's get into the juicy GREAT stuff about this stunning novel.

First and foremost, I absolutely adore the multifaceted personalities these characters are given. They are three-dimensional rather than archtypes (even if some characters seem to be that way at first, they aren't) which is always appreciated amongst a plethora of archtype characters.

Wu Zeitian is not the typical heroic, humble, humility ridden female protagonist. I love it. She is not unwilling to use what she has to her advantage and I can truly see the influence of her historical countetpart through this examination of moral ambiguity. She makes harrowing mistakes and she learns and grows and sharpens her fury slowly from rash to calculating. The descent is subtle, yet impactful in its most brazen and riveting moments.

Gao Yizhi is a legend. I wish we saw more of his talents and thinking patterns as well as a bigger exploration of his background (maybe in book two? 👀).

Li Shimin needs a hug. Several long hugs where he is the little spoon. He is such a wonderful character. He is heroic in a stupidly sacrificing way and like the rest of the characters, is NOT some archtype. ••This is a nerd not a bad boy. Also Zhao bullies the hell out of him. #StopShiminAbuse.••

The next thing is the tech. Now, because the story is told from one perspective, its difficult to get a guage of tech outside of what is used in defense against Hunduns and related hard/softeware. Yet, even then, I felt at some moments that the tech wasn't as riveting as you would suspect it to be for a sci fi story of this caliber. This may seem like a negative, and maybe for some it is, but in my personal opinion, it was an exploration of slowly learning and understanding the tech available to the characters. What they have access to is limited for a purpose we do not yet know and I am damn excited to find out more of.

The action scenes are written wonderfully which is to be suspected from a fellow weeb.


I felt Zeitian's pain as my own and the pain of my sisters, friends and our mothers and foremothers. How many times I have been blamed for the looks men give me when I'm minding my damn business, the way my opinion is devalued, the way I wouldn't even be spoken to directly, the fear of physical pain. I felt the pain of being a women before I even know what a women was. Zeitian felt it too and she took it by the reigns to turn it into a whip.



I ADORE scifi, so I was gonna read Iron Widow regardless, but knowing that there was going to be polyamory explored, acknowledged and normalised in it, I was enamored with it long before I ever knew there was opportunity to read it.

Why I Read It: Like many other people that flocked to this book, I am a fan of Xiran Jay Zhao's YouTube channel, since her Mulan 2020 video. I find her videos both informative, focusing on Asian and especially Chinese history and culture, and entertaining, breaking down movies and shows that I enjoy with casual cool shade (also she's always dressed to the nines). When I heard she was releasing a novel loosely based on Wu Zetian's rise to power I was curious; however, I wanted to see what it was about before picking it up because I didn't want to pick something I wasn't going to like, at least based on the synopsis, even if it was written by a content creator I liked. So upon reading the synopsis I thought the book had promise, with speculative elements being compared to Pacific Rim and a feminist aspect akin to The Handmaid's Tale. A diverse science fiction with a badass female lead that wants to take down the patriarchy. Yes please!

What It's About: In a world ravaged by colossal monsters, giant mechas called Chrysalises are operate by a male and concubine pair. These concubines are female soldiers given to male warriors that enable them to operate their chrysalises, usually at the cost of their own life. Upon hearing of her sister's demise, Zetian offers herself up as a concubine pilot to the solider that used her sister. When Zetian emerges from the chrysalis unharmed and her male pilot is dead, she is branded as an Iron Widow and paired with the strongest pilot in the army. Her act of vengeance is only the beginning though, as she seeks to topple the entire system.

Cons: There was so much that went wrong that I don't even know where to start. Let's begin with the minor stuff, the writing itself. The pacing of this book was rather rapid but after awhile I began to notice that nothing really happened except for at the beginning to initiate the plot. Then everything comes rushing through the door at the end with an out of left field Deus ex Machina event. On top of that the dialogue was modern and rather juvenile, which are things that don't normally bother me even if I notice them but it further highlighted Zetian's juvenile behavior. If those were the biggest issues I had with this book than I might have been irritated but willing to overlook it, but these are all small potatoes compared to the larger issues in this book.
Now lets get to what I hated about this book: the "romance" and the "feminism". This book was marketed as a polyamorist romance, and the author mentioned that she received pushback from the publishers for not creating a love triangle. As someone who 9.9 times out of 10 hates the love triangles present in books, I was eager to read something that pushes against this trend; however, what is actually in the book I wouldn't consider polyamory, let alone good polyamory. The reasons I don't consider this polyamorist are because the two male love interests have only about two scenes together, which is hardly enough to build a relationship on regardless of how much chemistry they have (which is none), and Zetian's treatment of the guy she spends most of the book with, which is the more egregious offender. She is just abusive to the solider for most of the book, even as he is having nightmares and it dawns on her that he is on the same position as she is, all she does is spew hurtful comments and treats him dismissively. On top of that, he never does anything to warrant this behavior from her, so this just paints her in a pretty bad light and as an individual that possibly lacks empathy.
This ties into the other aspect of this book that was heavily marketed and greatly let me down, the “feminism”, and Zetian is at the forefront of this issue. Zetian is not like other girls (that's almost a verbatim line in this book) and the entire narrative keeps beating you over the head with that. She's not vapid, like those other girls (gets into a catfight with a girl at the start of the book after critizing a girl for putting so much effort into her appearance). She's not meek, like those other girls (constantly yells and throws tantrums if she doesn't get her way (which is almost all the time because this society is sexist and evil) and destroys all who challenge her). She's not weak, like those other girls (is the most powerful fighter to ever exist). For someone who makes it clear her main goal is topple the patriarchy, she sure seems to hate women. Not only is this a dated trope that should be put to rest, the narrative seems to double down on it by how Zetian treats other women. Zetian is clearly an angry feminist, which is okay as there are valid reasons for her to be angry about the treatment of women; however, her view of what a "proper feminist" seems to be is that women should always be aggressive (in other words exhibiting more masculine traits). To those who aren't that way, she is very condescending and hostile towards them. Seriously I can't recall a single positive interaction with any woman on page, not even with her dead sister whom she's supposedly doing all this for (so there was also fridging, another harmful trope that uses women). There was one woman, Xiuying, that Zetian tolerated but, without going into spoilers, in the end she is treated just like the rest of the women. It's kind of amusing that when Zetian meets other higher ranking concubine pilots one of them treats her the same way she everyone else, and she's shocked and angry (but she cannot have an epiphany about her behavior because that would mean she isn't always right and perfect as well as requiring her to exhibit empathy, which she seems to be incapable of throughout this book). In fact, Zetian is arguably a villain.
As I've already discussed at length she has no remorse for (sometimes unwarranted) abrasive behavior and no empathy towards those in similar positions to her. She commits a lot of murder throughout this and still possibly she is the righteous one. Okay, so she's adapted Light Yagami's brand of "justice", which certainly does not bode well for anyone. The sad thing is there are multiple examples of the extreme misogyny of this world that rightfully warrant an angry response, but there's something about the writing that fails to convey a deep-seated anger and instead comes off as childish petulance. Maybe this is because very little is given of Zetian's backstory and she has no connections with anyone except for one of her love interests who kisses the ground she walks on. Ultimately, Zetian doesn't remotely achieve her goal of destroying the patriarchy, she just gains personal power and there is no reason for me to believe she isn't going to keep her sexist, gender essentialist views.

Pros: The one positive thing I can about this book is the worldbuilding was mildly interesting and as someone for whom "mecha" or "giant robots fighting" or not buzzwords, I found the Chrysalises to be a fascinating concept and wanted to know more about them and their role in this world. I also appreciate the authors attempt at using them as a tool to demonstrate the issues plaguing society, but I clearly don't think that was executed well and found the Chrysalises to be underutilized.

Finishing Thoughts: Despite my initial hype and hope for this book it turned out to be so bad on so many levels. The worst parts of this book were unfortunately the parts that were pushed forward when marketing this book, the “feminism” and the “polyamory”, with one being nonexistent and the other being portrayed in a more dated and problematic than not kind of way. The sad thing is what Zetian is fighting for is a noble cause, and fury is warranted at how these girls are viewed and treated, but she goes about it in a way that is so destructive, childish, and selfish that I can't find myself feeling sympathetic or rooting for her. I want to make it clear that my fundamental issue with feminism in this book isn't Zetian's aggressive behavior, it's the lack of basic decency she gives to literally all other women. Upon completing the book, and even as I'm writing this review, I'm not sure if she is meant to be the hero of this story because she consistently demonstrates sociopathic tendencies in high stakes situations. This would have been far better marketed as a villain origin story. Even with all that said (this is my longest review to date) I could still say more about the failure of Zetian as a character, and how badly written the side characters are and how they feed into gender essentialist views, and how so much of this world doesn't make sense, but I will end things here. Needless to say I won't be continuing the series and this is very likely going to be the worst I will read in 2023.

This book was great. I loved the sci-fy pieces of this book. There was also excellent representation in this book. I would recommend this read.

Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao is an absolute tour de force, an electrifying and thought-provoking novel that ensnares readers with its compelling tale from the very first page until the exhilarating climax. Set in the captivating world of Huaxia, a society where women are bound by rigid roles, destined to either marry or serve as concubine pilots for male Chrysalis pilots, the story follows the indomitable Zetian on her journey of vengeance, unearthing the dark underbelly of corruption that permeates her world.

Zhao's worldbuilding in "Iron Widow" stands as an unparalleled masterpiece. With artful finesse, she artfully weaves elements of Chinese history and tradition into a breathtakingly futuristic landscape, conjuring a captivating and immersive atmosphere that transports readers to a familiar and refreshingly novel realm. Themes of misogyny, racism, and homophobia are interwoven with a stroke of brilliance, seamlessly meshing with imaginative concepts like Chrysalises to breathe new life into the narrative and push the boundaries of storytelling.

"Iron Widow" shines as a radiant gem, drawing readers into a compelling saga of resilience, empowerment, and the triumph of the human spirit.

What an incredible book with an incredible protagonist. I loved the bisexual representation, and I can't wait for the sequel!