Thank you NetGalley for early access to this book! I began reading Iron Widow mostly blind to the plot and genre, I think I assumed it was a historical fantasy and happened to be wonderfully incorrect. Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale indeed. I would also add The Hunger Games undertones in that description also.

THIS BOOK HAS EVERYTHING. The diverse cast of characters is so lovable, the representation in this book is poignant and well done, and the giant robots were the cherry on top of a brave and wonderfully told story. Sign me up for the next book and anything else Xiran Jay Zhao writes it the future. Pick it up when it debuts on September 21, 2021.

Awesome things about this book~
*The characters are so lovable. Wu Zetian is the female lead we needed. She is brave and is able to overcome her obstacles even when she doesn't believe in herself. She is also slightly unhinged, which I love. Her partners are great too, but Zetian stole the show and I be thinking about her and the final scene for some time.
*You know when you can feel the author's love exuding from their book? This book exudes love ever time you turn the page. Everything is handled with such grace, the prose were easy to read without feeling simple.
*I love that this book take liberty with Chinese history. The author makes. it clear what and how they are borrowing and is so cool about it.
*I also felt this was a perfect gateway book for people that love fantasy and are too afraid to dip their toes in the wonderful world of science fiction. This book will have you obsessed with metal and science, just like the rest of us.

A few things that could have been better~
*There were times I forgot about the larger conflict because the world was very secondary to the character driven plot. Not a problem for most, but I'm a sucker for very detailed work integration.


Quality of Writing - 4/5
Pace - 4.5/5
Plot Development - 4.5/5
Characters - 5/5
Enjoyability - 5/5
Insightfulness - 4.5/5
Ease of Reading - 5/5

Overall - 4.75

You know when you start a book and then quickly realize that it may not be for you. This was me with this read. Pretty quickly the language of this read me had me pausing a lot. It immediately immerses you in a world with its technical language, and I was could not get past this. I do not know if the worldbuilding in this book works for me as a reader. It is very fast paced and I think could be a throughly engaging read all the way through for many readers, for me though I need more explicit world building to be immersed (and less jargon that takes me out). I could not get into the story because of this unfortunately and life is too short for books that you do not enjoy.

Zetia travels to avenge her sisters death.
Instead she avenges it and ends up becoming a powerful figure in the war.
Pacific rim meets the hand maids tale.
Love triangle but not really?
I'm really rooting for her partner not the rich guy.

This was a very interesting book! Unfortunately, I felt like the characters were very flat and didn't develop that much. The one character that developed a lot was Li Shimin! He was a very good character and I loved reading about him. But the main character.... she just consistently was a bad ass and I feel like that's slightly unrealistic. I would have rathered the author leaned more into the insanity of this girl instead of the feminist warrior.
It had some great Asian rep, polyamorous rep and disability rep!

This was honestly one of (if not THE) best books I've ever read. The world building is brilliant, the social commentary is deep and engrossing, but not too on the nose, the characters are vibrant and original, the prose is beautiful and heart-wrenching while still very much accessible. If you're looking for a book that deconstructs misogyny in an actually gender-inclusive way that's both fun and aesthetically pleasing while still driving a wedge through your heart with all the emotional resonance, I highly recommend this book!

Iron Widow had me at "Pacific Rim + Chinese historical inspiration" and only got better from there. Its setting is brutal, as are many of its characters - I think The Poppy War and She Who Became the Sun are actually better comparisons in many ways, though Iron Widow is marketed as YA (definitely on the more mature end) and the others are adult. It also reminds me of And I Darken. I appreciate that the author very specifically worked to dismantle the gender-binary aspects of the overtly gendered society and solved the potential love triangle with polyamory. Also, giant mechs and elemental magic. What's not to love?

I received an ARC from the publisher and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Wu Zetian is one of the most intriguing historical heroines I’ve come across over the years, and so I was intrigued by the high-concept, ambitious premise of Iron Widow, which reimagines her story and broader Chinese history in general in a completely different sci-fi world. And while this mix definitely seemed like an odd one, especially with the author, Xiran Jay Zhao, having to clarify the misconceptions for themself in multiple places while promoting the book, it works.

The book is simultaneously a love letter to Chinese culture and history, with its tributes to multiple historical figures, locations, and traditions, and a story that unpacks the eternal nature of the issue of sexism and tearing down the patriarchy. She subtly critiques both the harem system of imperial China and its legacy there, as well as the ways in which patriarchy still lingers even in the more “liberated” societies, like the debate about reproductive rights that has been in the US news consistently within the last several years. The way that is conveyed through the pilot system, with women being given up as concubine-pilots, and it typically means that while they’re able to help, their male partners use up all the girls’ life forces through the psychic link, which results in their deaths.

I loved Zetian for turning the tables on the situation as revenge for what happened to her sister. I admired her for channeling her rage against this system that was against her and triumphing, in a matter that is similar in a spiritual sense, if not in deed, to her historical namesake.

And the polyamorous rep is awesome! I wasn’t sure about it at first, but I ultimately really liked it. I really liked that Zetian, Shimin (called the Iron Demon and has a dark past of his own), and the super sweet Yizhi all care about each other, without there being any jealousy. While the romance isn’t central to the story, it’s a nice component, given the more intense elements of the rest of the book.

This book is freaking awesome and epic, and absolutely recommend this to anyone who loves sci-fi or Chinese history.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao is a stand-out, explosive debut that is sure to capture the imaginations and whet the appetites of readers searching for female revenge stories. With sci-fi being a rarer sight in the YA genre, Iron Widow takes a bold approach with its mecha anime-inspired roots along with being steeped in Chinese history.

In Huxia, boys dream of becoming ace pilots of Chrysalises, which are giant, transforming robots powered by syncing up with female concubine-pilots. It doesn’t matter that the girls die of mental strain, only that the mecha aliens beyond the Great Wall are stopped. Wu Zetian volunteers as a concubine-pilot to assassinate the male pilot who killed her older sister, only to emerge from the cockpit unscathed and with her co-pilot dead after overcoming him through their psychic link. Instead of being his One True Match and Iron Princess, Zetian is an Iron Widow, a much-feared and often silenced female pilot who can sacrifice boys instead. To subdue her, she is paired with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial pilot in Huxia, but she is not interested in being cowed. Instead, she plots to use Shimin and their newfound notoriety to survive attempt after attempt against her life until she can discover why the pilot system works as it does and stop more girls from being sacrificed for male dominance.

I found the overall story and plot of Iron Widow to be utterly engaging. Once I started reading, I had to force myself to take breaks and absorb what I read. Despite some of the darker subject matter, it’s also an incredibly quick read to breeze through. I’ve never read a mecha anime on paper before, but Zhao did the damn thing and did it incredibly well.

Wu Zetian was also highly enjoyable to read as a character. She starts off as such a bitter person willingly hurtling toward her own doom, so it’s fun to see what happens when she does obtain power and claws for control over her own agency. While she does adjust some of her perspective towards certain characters, she doesn’t necessarily grow much as a person but rather becomes so much worse. Redemption arc? No, hers is a corruption arc, and I’m along for the ride. Is she going to be in this more for the power moving forward? Will her idealized visions of the world and the girls in it truly matter in the end? What else will she sacrifice to achieve this shining future she envisions? Do the ends justify the means? Readers will have to wait and see.

I’m interested to see her future struggles with right and wrong and to realize how much more she’s willing to get her hands dirty. Plus—and this is a personal pro for me—I never had to read the line, “If you do this bad thing, then you’re just as bad as them,” and have Zetian agree with it, like so many other YA books would’ve had her do. An instant win, this.

Zhao’s descriptive writing is gripping as the story is told through Zetian’s eyes. How she visualizes the world around her, what the Chrysalises look like, the pilots’ elaborate spirit metal armor, the qi changes, and the fights against the Hunduns all made the novel colorful and the world-building thorough. Sci-fi elements blended seamlessly with nods to Chinese culture and vice versa.

That being said, because the descriptive writing is so strong, the dialogue is mostly subpar in comparison. At times, it was like reading two different writers composing separate parts of the book. For the most part, I couldn’t “hear” any of the characters’ voices as they spoke, and when they did, it wasn’t all that impressive. Fortunately, the majority of the book is told in description, namely through Zetian’s first-person thought processes. It’s like she’s speaking to you the whole time. Her inner voice is by far the strongest one in the book, and no one feels as fleshed out as she does, which is fine if you like her. If you don’t, you might not find Iron Widow all that enjoyable.

As for the other characters, I like some of them a lot as concepts, Yizhi especially. He is Zetian’s rich childhood friend who has secretly fallen for her for awhile. His pressed robes hide a torso covered in tattoos, he is bisexual and fiercely loyal to Zetian, and his father is essentially a corporate mob boss. But I don’t really know who he is. I don’t know what drives him, what his motivations are, how and why he fell for Zetian over anyone else, or if he has any kind of hidden agenda. The bare bones of him being a character are there, but there’s not much there filling in the space.

The same can be said for pretty much every other character with the exception of Li Shimin, and I really hope that more of the cast are developed more thoroughly in the next book. The only reason I got to know Shimin a little better is because of the mental pilot-bond Zetian forms with him. At times, she is able to experience his past memories, thoughts, and feelings as her own, and we get to know him more that way than through any conversations with him. Through these steady reveals, readers slowly learn how he came to be in his current predicament. Unfortunately, most of these revelations are a surprise only to Zetian; the writing takes too many pains to paint Shimin as the soft, broken, sad boy far too early, and I would’ve been more entertained if I had been able to believe he could be a threat to Zetian for at least a little while. Some of his character moments did shine, like during the cafeteria fight and the ending, but Zetian largely drowns him out along with the rest of the cast. Iron Widow is most assuredly Wu Zetian’s show.

In the event that established characters won’t be developed any further, then I’m holding out hope that the next book presents an actual, formidable villain opposite of Zetian (looking at you, Qin Huang) instead of just the vagueness of “the patriarchy.” I don’t know, mate. I’m just tired of books not having hot villains in them. So many protagonists (and friends) are fighting against these one-note, vague forces of evil now, and it’s getting old. Give evil a face and a name, and make it personal for the protagonist; it’s better every time.

Unfortunately, because so many of the other characters are lackluster next to Zetian, I also did not at all believe the polyamorous relationship between her, Yizhi, and Shimin. No one is more saddened by this than I am, trust me.

What’s tragic is I can see the ghost of it. I can see how the polyamory could’ve worked, even beyond developing Yizhi and Shimin more. I see how Yizhi and Zetian’s friendship—full of unspoken feelings—could have been written to form something deeper. How Zetian’s suspicions of Yizhi having an agenda (but also feelings) could’ve been true, shaking her faith in the validity of their friendship and lead to something that makes them work to rebuild trust. I see how Zetian’s hatred of all male pilots, including Shimin, for sacrificing their concubines could have led to her having equally hateful but messy attraction to Shimin. I could see how Shimin might have actually challenged her as an equal and formidable opponent, instead of being the yielding, broken, soft mess that he is. I could even see how Shimin and Yizhi might have fallen into this mutual attraction fueled by falling for the same girl and being forced to trust each other to take care of her in his own way despite their jealousy. Jealousy that might actually be something else, perhaps longing to have the other but thinking he is “taken” by Zetian.

I could see the outline of these many, many possibilities. Instead, it was rushed on all three sides with very little development, conflict, or earning it in any direction. Subverting a love triangle doesn’t really matter if you don’t put in the same work that a love triangle ultimately does. The plot needs Zetian, Yizhi, and Shimin to get along, hold hands, and fall in love, so they do. Zetian has a moment of being torn, wanting to be with Yizhi but knowing she has to work in sync with Shimin to survive. Her feelings for Yizhi might compromise that—but don’t worry, it’s okay. Yizhi basically says to her that her relationship with Shimin is none of his business, what she has with each of them is separate, and he can’t get jealous because hearts can be full of love for anyone. Which is a great sentiment, but man does it lead to boring relationships to read.

As for Shimin, he seems to just want to be with Zetian just because. She hasn’t died on him yet, and the plot demands it, so fall he does. Meanwhile, Yizhi and Shimin are attracted to each other because… no idea. At one point, they are slightly at odds if you squint, and the next they’re sleeping against each other, hands clasped as they wait beside Zetian’s hospital bed. The book does this half-assed thing where Zetian reveals that she suspected Yizhi is also attracted to men, so Shimin must be, too, and yeah, they’re together just because they’re bisexual—at least, that’s all the effort the writing made to justify it.

None of these relationships were sexy. There was no longing, no friction, no yearning, simply because there wasn’t time spent on any of it. Having a tiny snag and calling it conflict that results in development isn’t actually true. Also, calling a relationship “healthy” isn’t enough to make me invested. I mark these issues as consistent flaws I see in nearly every YA book. Even outside of standalone books, romances have to be established in the first book as quickly as possible, and it’s a letdown every time. There are no slowburns or realistic progressions, and with Iron Widow taking place over the course of a month, this was the time to exercise some restraint. If a triangle is the strongest shape, then please work on every side. Make me believe it and want to root for it to pan out in the end in spite of everything standing in its way.

It’s a shame because I wanted this polyamorous trio to be amazing. Instead, it was just kinda there, blocking the way to the action, plot, and world-building. The appearance of such a trio in Iron Widow does give me hope that polyamory will appear in other books across genres; I just hope they are written with more intrigue and nuance than this. I also hope the sequel to Iron Widow will give me something to sink my teeth into regarding this triangle. This can’t be all there is. It might be too late, though, and I have to accept that now. First books are for foundation, and it just wasn’t there for me in regards to the romance.

Finally, this is an extremely “stick it to the patriarchy” book, which comes with its own pros and cons. I wouldn’t comp it to The Handmaid’s Tale that the marketing is trying so desperately to do. It’s more like every post you’ve read on Twitter and Tumblr that introduces you to the evils of the patriarchy and the need for feminism without a single original thought. In and of itself, that’s not a bad thing since this is a book directed at teens. There are a lot of messages that young girls will benefit from reading that will help them realize something about the world around them, that will let them know someone else has experienced what they have and sees them in their struggles. However, girls will be the only ones.

While Iron Widow doesn’t take the stark “all men are evil” route that The Gilded Ones does, it does not add anything new to the conversation that I’ve been seeing in modern YA books lately. Books that want to be so feminist and pro-woman and anti-misogyny so badly that they overlook the other half of the conversation. At no point do these books, including Iron Widow, add in their message of the patriarchy hurting girls that, news flash, it also hurts boys, too. It hurts boys, here’s how, and here’s why we can all benefit from tearing it down—and that doesn’t even include those outside the gender binary.

Rather, Zetian’s internal manifesto is all about how terrible girls have it across the board from sexuality to careers to motherhood to their inherent value all because of the patriarchy. She’s completely right, and these are good talking points to have. Zhao establishing Zetian as a victim of foot binding as a way to physically symbolize all of these problems with misogyny and how they can affect women for life is a brilliant touch. However, the book’s primary focus is still the type of one-sided feminism that emphasizes women, by and large excluding men save for being the source of the problem. Feminism is for everyone, and for once, I would like to see a feminist, girl-power book remember that boys will benefit from crushing the patriarchy as well. Perhaps, though, this will be a growth point for the sequel to cover, at least a bit. Zetian’s outlook on Shimin changed once she learned more about his circumstances and perspective, so maybe the idea that boys are just as trapped in this institution will strike her more definitively in the future. Or maybe she won’t give a shit, her revenge being all that matters, and will only make exceptions for Yizhi and Shimin because they’re her boyfriends, to hell with all other boys. Only time will tell.

Iron Widow at least does show many instances of the patriarchy at work in large and small ways, from its solely sci-fi/fantasy issues to things that feel a lot more applicable to real life, like women being conditioned to take up less space. The showing not telling was a high point for me, to the point where I felt that many of Zetian’s internal musings on these topics could’ve been cut because they become repetitive and unnecessary. She doesn’t have to tell me every time how bad girls have it in her world; I can see it playing out before me, but she has to explain each instance and both her bitterness and fury about it at every turn. I fear if you cut most of this, you’d lose almost a third of the book.

Ultimately, Iron Widow stands strong as a sci-fi action novel with fantasy elements, good world-building, interesting twists, and a powerfully written main female character. Where it suffers are the little areas in between, areas that I think can be corrected and fine tuned with more authorial experience on Zhao’s part. This book has a compelling beginning that starts to drag a little around the midway point of the book. It decides to focus on the PR part—hair, makeup, fashion, establishing celebrity personalities to gain rich sponsors—we all thought was cool in The Hunger Games but which those books wisely sped through and didn’t linger on. This part took us away from the Hundun action for a while and was weak on political intrigue and relationship-building, so I was glad when it did finally wrap up because the ending was all sorts of fun and shocking.

I am very hyped for Iron Widow to come out for others to read and experience and to see where Wu Zetian’s vengeful legacy will take us next. I’m also going to keep an eye on Zhao as a writer because, despite some issues, she seems to have a lot of great ideas and room for growth to tell even bigger and better stories in the future. I’m looking forward to it.

I really enjoyed the concept and the plot of this book. It was the execution of the details that fell flat for me. I was always waiting for more information on the different kinds of qi, descriptions of the setting and the seemingly plot relevant clothing, more on the character's relationships, particularly the romantic ones. I adore Zetian and her boys, but it felt like much of their character growth and feelings for each other happed off screen. I really liked the ending. It was a little trope-y but not in the way I expected.

All in all 7.5/10

This book surprised me in every way possible. While it was a strongly feminist book, it was not overwhelming. Reflecting the story on modern day perspective, it pushed feminism while also recognizing the inherent issues with politics/politicians and how those issues help lead to a misogynistic world view. But besides all the technical terms, this book was a fantastic fantasy novel that was very well written and whose plot, characters, setting and world were extremely well thought out and developed as the book progressed. I loved seeing the inspiration from Pacific Rim and The Handmaids Tale, but loved seeing how the author put their own spin on it. Our main heroine starts out with a 'all men are bad and i need to bring this world crumbling to it's knees' mind-set which slowly gets influenced and developed as the book progresses. Her character growth alone would have been enough to pack into one novel but to be able to do that, build a well written world, and develop all the other characters in the book is mind-blowing. I am one of those readers that had a very tough time actually imagining the story if there aren't enough details given; I always end up nitpicking all the issues and small holes in the world. Imagining this book was no issue for me, I could literally almost feel what it felt like to get in the cockpit and actually be the pilot. I felt like I was living it myself. The plot twists always kept me guessing and craving more and I am so beyond excited for book 2.

This is not a good book. I don’t mean it’s not well written, because Xiran Jay Zhao is a master of their craft and has exploded into the publishing world with a stunning and ambitious debut. But if you’re looking for a story filled with light, joy, and lawful “goodness,” this book is not for you. The protagonist, Zetian, would not describe herself as good, either. She chooses violence over peace, anger over quiet, rebellion over submission, vengeance over forgiveness. She is not the type of person you’d normally want for a role model, but it’s easy to understand how she got there, to commiserate, and to root for her success. Her journey is one I cannot tear my gaze from.

Iron Widow takes place in a sci-fi world inspired by ancient China—complete with misogyny and foot binding—but with giant, human-controlled mechas, called Chrysalises, that take the shape of mythical creatures. In this Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale, the world is under attack by aliens referred to as Hunduns, and humanity fights back by adapting their technology for themselves. Of course, only men are “strong” enough to pilot the Chrysalises, and women serve as co-pilots who often die after a single battle. Thus, the male pilots are viewed as celebrities and the females are treated like concubines, disposable and unimportant.

Enter: Wu Zetian, determined to avenge her sister, who was killed by one of these pilots. Nothing, not even love, will stop Zetian from her mission, though her quest for vengeance is just the beginning of her story.

A Fascinating Magical-Scientific System

Normally, I’m hesitant about a magic system (or, as the author put it in an interview, a “magical-scientific” system) that works differently depending on whether you are a male or female. The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan functions this way, in which the male side of the One Power (a.k.a. magic) is called saidin and the female side is called saidar, and they work slightly differently (saidin is described as a fight to use and saidar is about “surrendering”). Unfortunately, such a magic system doesn’t make room for non-binary identities. What if you’re neither male nor female? What if you’re both? What if you’re somewhere in between?

To my delight, Wu Zetian poses this exact question in the first chapter, wondering what would happen if a male took the lower “yin” chair in a Chrysalis and a female took the higher “yang” chair. It was at this point that I buckled my seatbelt, because I knew I was in for a ride.

The magical-scientific system plays off Chinese medicinal elements like qi (life force) and acupuncture to power the Chrysalises. The mechas also have powered up forms that are obviously inspired by anime, and I can’t get enough of them. The Hundun vs. Chrysalises battles are a slice.

An Anti-Hero I Can Root For

You can tell from the summary alone that this is a feminist story, and I’m here for it. The oppression is real in this world, with females being treated as second-class citizens at best and slaves/concubines at worst. Zetian’s family are horrid towards her, and it’s no wonder that she doesn’t care whether they will be punished for her crime. She does some horrifying things in the name of equality, but it’s hard not to root for her, considering no one would bat an eye if a pilot murdered her in front of them.

The Disability Rep!

“WHAT?” I yelled at my e-reader as I got to the part where Zetian describes her grandmother forcing her to walk, barefoot, over ice and snow when she was five years old, and then breaking her feet so they folded in half. Forever after, Zetian has what are known as “lotus feet,” a mark of social status in her culture, and she can’t walk without pain. What a terrifying custom, I thought. I wonder how the author came up with it. Later, I discovered that Zhao didn’t come up with it. Foot binding and lotus feet are literally something that upper class people did in ancient China, and that makes it even more horrifying.

As a disabled person, I love seeing disability rep in fiction done well, and Zhao nails it. Zetian’s feet are not the center of the story (so many stories with disabled people are all about their condition, and I’m tired of it—I don’t want to be completely defined by my condition and appreciate reading about people like me going on adventures). At first, Zetian walks with a cane, and later, due to another injury, she’s in a wheelchair for much of the time. She experiences physical and emotional struggles due to her condition, including frustration when people help her and when she’s unable to do simple things, like walking, on her own. Her joy at being able to “walk” with no pain when she pilots a Chrysalis is tangible.

This was a book I thought about for days after I finished, and will think about for days to come. It’s an action-packed, breathtaking science fantasy story, and I highly recommend it, as long as you don’t require your protagonist to be a dainty do-gooder. Wu Zetian won’t stop until the world is on fire.

Hello new favorite book alert! This book was satisfying on so many levels, full of vengeance, love, acceptance, bisexuals, mehca robots, and MORE VENGEANCE. Zetian volunteers to be a concubine-pilot to assassinate the male pilot responsible for her sister's death. There, that's the plot and the inciting incident all in one. What she gets is a new partnership with a more powerful pilot with dark demons of his own.

I'd love more sci-fi like this that blurs genre boundaries unabashedly, that allows for love triangles to resolve into polyamory, and introduces the reader to plot twists they won't see coming. One word: badass.

Zetian has been forced to make herself smaller all her life. She, much like her feet that were broken and made tiny, has had to shrink away, to be woman-like, to fit the mold of every other woman in her world. And as a woman, she has two destinies: she could marry or she could become a concubine-pilot, destined to die as soon as she’s sent out to battle, her life literally drained away by the male pilot. But after her sister is sent to the front and killed, Zetian has only one goal: revenge. She will find the pilot who killed her sister and murder him, and nothing had better get in her way.

I received an advanced reading copy of Iron Widow in exchange for an honest review.

Iron Widow is a young adult novel by Xiran Jay Zhao. It’s loosely inspired on Empress Wu, who was the only woman empress in China during her time, but brings in aliens, mechs, and a whole lot of other elements. Yup, we’re dealing with mechs here, which is why I’m thinking this could be a cross between fantasy and science fiction too.

Writing this review is difficult after finishing the book. I finished it maybe over an hour ago and my mind has not stopped screaming since. There’s a lot that happens in this book, and I’m probably going to write up a pretty chaotic review, so buckle up.

Before starting on the review, I should give you the trigger warnings for the book (which also helpfully showed up in the first pages before the book started). There’s trigger warnings for abuse, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, misogyny, and torture. In terms of the subject matter, definitely be careful before opening this book, just because it can be a bit heavier than the young adult books you’re used to. This is definitely a book for the older young adult crowd, in my opinion, but I can say that, as an adult, I absolutely loved this book.

Yeah, I loved it. From the very beginning I was drawn in by Zetian and her rage, maybe because it felt so familiar. While Zetian’s world is so different than mine, what girl hasn’t had that feeling of helplessness, of anger, when faced with a society that continues to perpetuate misogyny and violence toward women? But Zetian acts on her feelings, and she’s really as strong as steel as she goes forward with her plans.

Zetian is pretty much the definition of a morally gray protagonist, maybe even of an antihero. She has tremendous values: her goal becomes to help save other girls from dying, prevent what should be preventable deaths. But she knows that she can’t achieve these goals without shedding some blood and breaking some bones (preferably those of others) in the process. But there’s something just so compelling about her. I loved stepping into her shoes, witnessing her thoughts and emotions, and just understanding her as more than a character, but as a person. She was dark, but she was also perfect.

Iron Widow is also the first book I’ve ever read with a polyamorous group, and while I can’t claim to have much experience with that, I can say that I really enjoyed reading about it. Every character was so utterly different from the others, but together, you could really see how they all balanced each other out. It’s pretty obvious who the characters are, but I won’t go into it in case you want to be surprised when reading the book.

How have I only talked about the characters so far? I haven’t even begun to touch the plot, and WOW the plot. Not only does the author here do a deep dive into her characters and their motivations, but the plot is also incredibly relentless. A lot is happening on every single page of this book, but I thought Zhao did an amazing job of balancing both elements to give us a story that might have been packed full of character, but also of plot. There were times when I actually made verbal exclamations while reading this book, sounding out a tiny shriek, or just a bunch of curse words, when different things happened in the story. Did I also stay up late into the night reading the last bit, unable to do anything else until I’d turned the last page? Yes, yes I did, and even now, as I prepare this review after 1am and schedule it to post later in the week, I don’t regret it. It was spectacular, and I could not have gone to bed without finishing it.

I whole-heartedly recommend Iron Widow, but do caution you to be aware of the subject matters and potential trigger warnings. But I think Iron Widow is the perfect novel for anyone who loves seeing mechs in anime, morally gray characters, and women characters who are full of enough rage to do something about the system. Or fans of Code Geass too (have any of you guys watched that? It’s one of my favorite animes!).

Iron Widow will be released on September 21. You can pre-order your copy from Penguin Teen here.

Iron Widow is everything it's promised and more. The mecha-myth hybrid of a world feels viscerally real within chapters of its introduction. The characters, too, are a mix of glamor and danger. Through our lead, Wu Zetian, we feel in aching detail the contrasting experiences of class and regional struggles (increased tenfold by her being a woman) with the heady celebrity of the revered pilots. But most central to the propulsion of this story is pure, white-hot rage. As she learns these injustices are based on lies and a false sense of superiority, Zetian will cut down everything in her path to force those in power to pay for what they've done.

This book surpassed all of my expectations for it. The world that Zhao created is such an unexpected mix of elements, but it blends well together to make this familiar yet intriguing world that I want to explore more of. As a Chinese American, I adored the historical and mythic references she made in the text that lent to creating the aesthetic and atmosphere of the book. The characters are all so dynamic and I love every one of them. They stand apart from each other and compliment each other so well. Their devlopment also never overshadows what is going on in the plot. The plot is so twisty and left my riveted after every turn. I cannot wait for the sequel!

WOW! This book is my new obsession. There, I said it.

I haven't hidden the fact that I've been struggling to read this past few months but wow, Iron Widow blew me away and I couldn't stop turning the pages! It was impressive, amazing and I cannot wait to pick up book two when it comes out! The wait is going to be really long, but I'm so excited to find out the rest of the story. I also need to buy myself a physical copy because even though I was lucky enough to get an e-ARC, I want this beautiful cover on my shelves. The story is even better than the cover which is not often the case in YA Fantasy books (in my opinion). A lot of new releases have disappointed me over the years but Iron Widow completely changed that.

This book is set in a world where girls are being sacrificed as "concubines" to Pilots in order to fight off mecha aliens. Zetian, an 18 year old girl offers herself up after the death of her big sister but she has a deadly plan to get revenge. She wants to kill the famous and popular pilot responsible for her sister's death. I feel like saying more would spoil some of the twists and turns of this book but all you need to know is that this was an incredible story and you need to read it!

<i>(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley) WOW! This book is my new obsession. There, I said it.

I haven't hidden the fact that I've been struggling to read this past few months but wow, Iron Widow blew me away and I couldn't stop turning the pages! It was impressive, amazing and I cannot wait to pick up book two when it comes out! The wait is going to be really long, but I'm so excited to find out the rest of the story. I also need to buy myself a physical copy because even though I was lucky enough to get an e-ARC, I want this beautiful cover on my shelves. The story is even better than the cover which is not often the case in YA Fantasy books (in my opinion). A lot of new releases have disappointed me over the years but Iron Widow completely changed that.

This book is set in a world where girls are being sacrificed as "concubines" to Pilots in order to fight off mecha aliens. Zetian, an 18 year old girl offers herself up after the death of her big sister but she has a deadly plan to get revenge. She wants to kill the famous and popular pilot responsible for her sister's death. I feel like saying more would spoil some of the twists and turns of this book but all you need to know is that this was an incredible story and you need to read it!

<i>(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

This is a fast paced and addicting read! The MCs are all fantastic. It follows a young girl set on revenge against her sisters killer. She lives in a world invaded by aliens that they fight by connecting their minds to giant transformer type weapons. It relies on their qi and a partnership between a male in the yang seat and a female in the yin seat. The male is in control and the female is essentially giving him her qi. There is a risk the female will lose herself so entirely she dies. In this tale our fearless MC joins with a powerful pilot and kills him, effectively avenging her sisters death. What’s fun about this story is that she gets her revenge right away and we can immediately focus on the bigger picture. Luckily her rage at the system and her position as a young woman is as strong as ever so she continues to fight back. I’m a sucker for several things - morally grey characters, powerful women, dark moody men. I will say I do not like reverse harem books. But I also don’t like love triangles. And I do feel like the romance fit within the plot and wasn’t overdone.

The first half of this book was pretty good and then I sadly began to lose interest for the second half. The pacing seemed all over and the characters sadly fell short for me as well.

This book had potential to be great, but it just was not doing it for me.

Iron Widow is the debut novel of author Xiran Jay Zhao, one with a pretty killer hook: what if you had a young adult novel that's a cross between Pacific Rim, A Handmaid's Tale, and the story of the first/only female Chinese Emperor in history? Not that adding giant mecha into tales based on dark but real historical events fails to work often (see Tochi Onyebuchi's fantastic "War Girls"), but still the combination of all these things could easily have gone pretty poorly - being boring or tone-deaf at worst. That is absolutely not the case with Iron Widow.

Instead Iron Widow is an absolutely tremendous piece of YA Sci-Fi, placing its tremendous heroine in a misogynistic world that she is determined to not let consume her. The book deals really well with issues of patriarchy and misogyny and how it's reinforced by both men and complacent women, while also featuring a girl who will absolutely not bow to anyone and will not take such treatment without the possibility of getting revenge. Oh yeah, and there are giant mecha, pacific-rim style, a strong love triangle, and a plot very much inspired by Chinese history that all meshes together really well, up until it ends on a hell of a cliffhanger - this is the first book in a duology, and I will look forward to the concluding half.

Trigger Warning: Suicidal Ideation, References to Sexual Assault (not on page), Abuse by Family Members, Alcohol Addiction, and Torture.
--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
The alien Hundun ships launch their assaults constantly on the world of Huaxia, and the only way to defeat them is through the power of Chrysalises, giant transforming mecha that channel their pilots' qi into tremendous power, which can only be piloted by one male and one female pilot together. Of course the mental strain of copiloting tends to kill nearly all girls - the concubine pilots - pretty much immediately, but who cares about that, right? The male pilots are the celebrities to be admired, not the girls.

Wu Zetian cares. Disliked by her abusive family for her refusing to cowtow like women are supposed to, Zetian hates the way the world refuses to let women, especially peasant women like herself, have their own lives - basically giving them the choices of letting their family sell them to the army as a concubine pilot or to sell them to a rich family to be a wife and child raiser. She especially hates the way the system killed her sister, who was the one-time concubine to celebrated pilot Yang Guang, and killed the first time she entered a Chrysalis.

And so Zetian hatches a plan: she will let herself be sold as a concubine for Yang Guang herself, so she can get close to him and kill him in revenge. But Zetian could not have anticipated that how well her plan for revenge would go, and how it would give her the possibility in a Chrysalis of her own to enact her revenge on the whole system instead of just one male pilot. Assuming the men in charge or her fellow pilots don't kill her themselves first out of cowardice.....
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Iron Widow comes with a foreword by the author making it clear that the book is inspired by the real life story of Wu Zetian, China's only female ruling emperor. And so the reader should know going in that certain things are going to happen or aren't going to happen as the story is told from Zetian's perspective, from which we see the whole book.

And yet that doesn't matter because Zetian is such an absolutely compelling protagonist in the girl who refuses to let a misogynist society tell her how to behave or what to do, regardless of how wellmeaning they might be. Her abusive family forced her to bind her feet, and insist upon her being subservient to an abusive father and negligent mother, and care not one bit for the possibility of her own death - or the death of her sister. The rich boy she's been sneaking out to see means extremely well and actually does love her, but Zetian sees how returning that love would force her to a place of inferiority, and won't accept that for herself. For Zetian a society that makes people like her mother knuckle under and accept the abuse, that binds the feet of girls unwillingly, and that makes them send off their daughters to death for money is utterly intolerable, and she will not stand for it....even if all she can manage is a small act of vengeance that gets herself killed in the aftermath.

But naturally this book doesn't let Zetian die off (again this is based on a historical tale of her becoming Empress) after her first small bit of vengeance, and in doing so it puts Zetian in more often horrifying situations which only fuel her righteous rage. The women who survive their male pilots are considered a threat? Zetian doesn't care and will show them how stupid they are - violently if necessary...after all those male pilots are the ones who are willing to kill their female copilots without compunction. The two women who have survived and become "perfect matches" for male pilots have opposite mentalities - one is violent and possessive of her man, while the other is passive and always willing to accommodate the world, and Zetian can't accept either view for the way it insists that her existence needs to be tied to a single man. Even when Zetian winds up in a love triangle, she finds herself unwilling to rely too much on either man....and things only work out because both guys, in their own very different ways, are well-meaning, not to mention care for the other guy as well (resulting in a very nice resolution). This is a book about Zetian's revenge and desire to tear down this system, and Zetian is just absolutely compelling in the process.

The rest of this world and its characters are also for the most part compelling. There are obvious secrets behind how the Chrysalises work and who the enemy of the humans really are, but the book pulls off those reveals extremely well. The misogynist army commanders who have total disregard for women, and who are rich and spoiled and corrupt are totally believable - as are the horrifying acts they perform in their attempts to maintain the status quo (see above trigger warnings). The rich chauvinist media mogul father of one of Zetian's potential loves is similarly believable, as are Zetian's desires for how to use him to her own ends. The only weird thing that threw me out of the narrative was that the book uses Chinese names and characters from multiple periods of Chinese history, both before and after the original Wu Zetian, and that could occasionally throw me off as I remarked "hey it's that guy/girl!" (one use of Sun Wukong is just silly and distracting)*. Still, it all adds up to a plot that swerves in satisfying directions as it features a girl trying to take down the patriarchy, leading up to an explosive but satisfying cliffhanger ending.

*It is possible this reaction is that of a White American guy who is used to similar things happening with fantasy based on Western History and doesn't remark about it, mind you. But I don't really read much historical-based fantasy in general, and the Sun Wukong bit I'm pretty sure most people would find kind of silly.*

Highly recommended and I can't wait for the sequel.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

9780735269934

400 Pages
Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada / Penguin Teen
Release Date: September 21, 2021

Fiction, Teens, Young Adult, Sci Fi & Fantasy, Futuristic

Zetian is 18 years old and is joining the army as a concubine-pilot. She is seeking revenge for the death of her older sister. When she is presented to her first Chrysalis pilot, Yang Guang, she kills him using her mind during the flight thus giving her the name of Iron Widow. She is then assigned to the Iron Demon in hopes he will kill her, but her strength keeps her alive and proves she is his equal. Now the army leaders need to find a way to control her.

The book is fast paced, the characters are well developed, and it is written in first person point of view. I loved the fierceness of Zetian. She knows what she wants and is not afraid to get it. She wants women to be recognized for their worth. She fights for women’s rights and equality. Who doesn’t want that? I likely recommend this book to anyone that likes the Handmaids Tale.