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.

When I saw Pacific Rim mentioned as a comp title for this novel, I jumped on requesting this from NetGalley. The main character sounded like she was ready to stir up some trouble, and I wanted to be around to see what would happen.

I can’t skip commenting on this beautiful cover. Besides being so striking, it does an admirable job of portraying Zetian’s strength and determination. I may be understating it when I say the girl is a force of nature and has maniacal tendencies.

Zetian has been raised her whole life to believe she’s basically a second class citizen and must make sacrifices for men. Although very few survive, she and her older sister volunteer as concubine-pilots so her family can use the death compensation to find Zetian’s brother a suitable wife. A loving family is as far from an apt description as you could get for these people. Zetian rejects these beliefs and has plans of her own to assassinate the pilot responsible for her sister’s death.

When Zetian survives the psychic link with one of the best pilots (after assassinating him), she’s soon paired with Li-Shimin, a death row inmate plucked out of incarceration and forced to be a pilot. He’s a talented pilot, but is feared by the other pilots – the guy doesn’t exactly possess a welcoming personality – but Zetian learns he has many layers to be discovered. After Gao Yizhi, the boy who loves her, comes into the picture again I was sure a dreaded love triangle loomed on the horizon. I was wrong – it’s a polyamorous relationship. It’s the first time I’ve encountered this in a YA book, but it seems a natural development for these three characters and isn’t the primary focus of the story. As partnered pilots, Zetian and Li-Shimin battle the mecha aliens but soon learn they have enemies in their own camp. The cliffhanger at the end was a doozy!

With huge piloted robots that can transform into mythical creatues (seriously, how cool is that?), mind-blowing action scenes, and immersive world-building, I was glued to the pages. The novel also deals with themes of oppression and feminism and gets very dark and brutal at times, but it’s one I highly recommend. This may be one of my favorite reads of the year, and I’ll be at the front of the line waiting impatiently when the sequel releases.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Described as a blend between Pacific Rim and The Handmaid’s Tale, Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow (Penguin Random House 21 September 2021) is a must-read blend of Chinese history and science fiction that also combines compelling writing with an original plot.
Although the plot of this YA novel is complex and has many twists and turns, this is a book worth sticking with! In Huxia, boys pair with girls (known as concubines) to pilot the giant shape-shifting robots (known as Chrysalises) that Huxia uses to defend their land and the Great Wall from the aliens who regularly attack and attempt to gain grown. Mentally connected to the robots, the boys use their spirit energy and the spirit energy of the girls to power them. However, the girls regularly die from the experience, and are often expected to.
The novel follows 18-year-old Zetian, who volunteers to be a concubine pilot in an effort to assassinate one of the top male pilots who was responsible for her sister’s death. When Zetian kills the man through unexpected means—by overpowering him in the Chrysalis and destroying him through their psychic link, she is labelled an Iron Widow, a dangerously powerful female pilot who flips the gender binary of the Chrysalises. She is able to sacrifice boys in order to pilot the robot, not girls. When Huxia’s military pairs her with Li Shimin as a way to discipline her incredible and unnerving power, Zetian struggles to maintain the power she refuses to relinquish now that she has encountered it. A story of survival, strength, and queer power, Zetian works to counter the misogyny of the pilot system to keep more girls from being unnecessarily sacrificed.
While this novel is exceedingly complicated in its premise, it is also fun, immersive, and the text represents a fascinating blend of historical fact and science fiction. Xiran Jay Zhao’s world building is excellent and happens almost without the reader noticing. The setting arrives in the text as an immediate and stunning picture of a world where women are second-class, and where one person refutes that designation through her power and iron will. The world is also presented as a place where extraordinary things are possible, and there is an undercurrent of hope in the text primarily visible in Zetian’s character.
As a non-binary author, Zhao’s representation of queer characters is crucial to the novel’s structure. At its core, beyond its important representation of Chinese characters and people of colour, the novel is an exploration of the complex systems that uphold and perpetuate gender binaries, and a celebration of the bold people who oppose them through living authentically. The novel features bisexual main characters and a polyamorous relationship. Not only is this representation important in literature, but it is especially significant in a YA novel like this one. I personally found the characters’ identities and relationships to be enjoyable, authentic, and eye-opening.
Overall, Iron Widow is one of my most anticipated releases of the year and I think it is an innovative, exhilarating, and totally original novel with authentic queer characters and an important message. I highly recommend!

i first heard about xiran jay zhao on twitter, eviscerating disney's live action remake of mulan, which i found both hilarious and insightful. when i heard she was dropping a book, i was excited! unfortunately, it's only mid for me. she shows a ton of potential and i'm glad this is a stand alone. can't wait to read what she's doing next, hasn't lost me yet!

I enjoyed this. It started off really crazy and ended really crazy too. I do wish the world building made sense but I think the author might improve that for the future books.

Wu Zetian is a poor frontier girl that has always been told that she is lesser than anyone born male. She decides to leave her small, rural village to become a concubine-pilot and avenge her older sister. Upon arriving at the training base, Zetian discovers that she has a much higher spirit pressure than what is ordinary for women. Iron Widow follows her journey as a female pilot trying to defeat aliens and gender norms.

All in all, I enjoyed this book. The representation was amazing. I like that the author took the "love triangle" trope and turned it into a poly romance story. I have never, ever seen that before, which is fascinating. While I typically don't enjoy science fiction, I didn't mind this one.

Now it's time for the less fun part of the review. [ and spoilers ]

Zetian wasn't exactly likeable, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. I've found that less likeable characters are often the most realistic. She somewhat annoyed me at times, and I feel like her personality and motivations could have been a bit more fleshed out. The only family member she ever cared about was her sister, and that is barely looked into once Zetain gets revenge. She kills the rest of her family in cold blood. Why was Big Sister better than Zetian's mother and grandmother? I want to know this.

I liked Li Shimin, but I felt like they could have offered more insight into his backstory besides some flashbacks and dreams on Zeitian's part. His death feels very abrupt, and Zeitian and Yizhi don't really seem to care. I wish the author would just let him die all the way or not kill him at all. Still, he was a good character and I did like him.

Yizhi. I wanted Yizhi to betray Zetian; I felt like this was being foreshadowed in certain parts of the book. But how could he be bad/he came all this way, etc. I didn't mind him though, but he got a little crazy at the end.

The worldbuilding was slightly confusing. I couldn't quite get a grasp of how spirit armor worked, or why they were so intent on killing the aliens. The plot twist at the end (it wasn't the humans' planet) felt vaguely familiar. It's only because I've read the Stormlight Archive, and that's a major plot twist in one of the books. It's also interesting because the humans are fighting the parshendi for gemhearts that are found inside chrysalises of giant creatures called chamsfiends. They can win special armor from these parshendi. So the plot did feel a bit predictable, but the concept of mysterious gods is interesting and hope it is explored in future books!

All in all, this is a solid read. I would mark this as a 3.5 rounded up.

Thank you to Netgalley for offering me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review :)

There are certain books that may not be perfect but keep you so highly entertained that any flaws can be glossed over. Iron Widow was one such book for me. It was an engaging and fast-paced YA Sci-fi that made it easy to get immersed in the pandemonium.

Reading Iron Widow is like watching a character-driven action flick but in novel format. It brought back memories of all the Sci-Fi shows and mecha animes shows I used to enjoy, except with a prominent feminist spin. Inspirations from Chinese history and mythology also made for a fascinating setting. There was rarely a dull moment.

The book takes place in a futuristic world that is under siege by alien invaders called the Hunduns. For centuries their only hope has been in the pilots of massive robot-like structures called ‘Chrysalis’ that’s used to combat the Hundun droves. These transforming Chrysalis are mentally controlled by pilots and powered by their vital force – better known as their ‘qi’.

Unfortunately, each one requires a male and female pair to operate, and the female pilot almost always inevitably dies from mental strain while powering these mechanical monsters. A ‘Balanced Match’ – where both the male and female pair survive their deployment in a Chrysalis – is a rarity. With the system being the way that it is, male pilots survive to rise to stardom while young girls have become an expendable resource. Peasant families looking to receive compensation for their deaths in service are more than willing to sign up their daughters for the cause.

Wu Zetian is one of these poor peasant girls who is eagerly given up by her family for the cash reward. But ruthless, vengeful Zetian doesn’t balk at her fate. She despises the pilot system that causes the death of so many girls, especially since her older sister Ruyi was one of its many causalities. The suspicious circumstances surrounding her death lead Zetian to believe Ruyi wasn’t even killed in action as a “concubine-pilot”, but instead simply murdered by the pilot to whom she was assigned. Zetian plans to be accepted as a new concubine-pilot to the very same pilot, Yang Guang – and then she intends to kill him in revenge.

But Zetian’s plan ends up a success in a way she never imagined: she ultimately manages to kill him through their mental link while powering his Chrysalis in battle. This earns her much-reviled nickname “Iron Widow” and lands her into a nonstop struggle for her life against authorities that enforce the entire piloting system.

I enjoyed being in Wu Zetian’s head – as vicious and harsh as she can be – which worked perfectly for me since the novel is told from her first-person POV. There were the occasional over-the-top moments and questionable dialogue choices, but for the most part I found the storytelling accessible and exciting.

It helps that I also liked Li Shimin and Gao Yizhi a great deal. Yizhi didn’t get quite as fleshed out as the other two did, but the importance of the three as a triad comes across so strongly that it’s hard to imagine Zetian and Shimin without him. You can’t help but root for their success in all their schemes, despite the fact that all three of them are varying degrees of morally questionable and not what people would commonly consider “heroes”.

The main characters aside, it was also fun to see each different kinds of Chrysalis and the qi traits they were powered by. Some of the other “Balanced Match” pilot pairs made for intriguing side characters because of this, as I was always looking forward to seeing Ma Xiuying with Yuanzhang and Dugu Qieluo with Yang Jian in action with their own Chrysalis. It doesn’t hurt that teased hints of their own motivations always left me wanting more.

The quick pace of the events was definitely page-turning, but it did mean that certain plotlines felt a bit rushed and poorly developed. The ending, too, seemed to have crammed in a great deal of important facts that felt slightly too sudden and missing an appropriate amount of exposition. But it was easy for me to look past because it all still kept my engagement high while leaving an implied promise that these plot points will be getting a great deal more attention in the sequel.

Needless to say I’ll be picking up the next book in the series without reservation. I can happily recommend this to anyone who enjoys stories about vengeful girls trailblazing their way against a society that’s determined to keep them down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing the eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

READ THIS BOOK!

Where do I start? I did not expect to like this book as much as I did. If you see any of my other reviews, I am not a big fan of Science Fiction and instead tend to gravitate towards Fantasy. But I love the movie Pacific Rim and I was intrigued by the premise, so I decided to dive in... And I am so glad I did because this book is truly amazing!

I love the characters. Wu Zetian is a complete bad*** and I love her bravery. She was such a strong person and definitely shocked me with some of her actions. Yizhi is such a gentle soul and I was not expecting him to behave the way he did. I feel like he was the perfect calming influence Wu Zetian needed. I feel like we have a lot more to learn about him. And Shimin... My heart breaks for poor Shimin and all the tragedy he has been through.

I think my only complaint is that I wish the romance between Yizhi and Shimin would have been built up just a little more. I liked that you could subtly tell, but I was a little caught off guard when things progressed because it seemed a teeny bit out of place. But that scene was still so tender that I can forgot that minor fact.

This book was fast paced and action filled.I thought some of the ending was a little rushed because I got a bit confused at points, but there was also a lot happening at the end with the HUGE CLIFFHANGER. This book broke me and I don't know how I will be able to wait for the next book.

You broke my heart, Xiran Jay Zhao.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to the Iron Widow cover and synopsis and I had high expectations. I applaud the debut author for addressing challenging topics like misogyny and patriarchy and inspired by anime/manga and real historical figures. But here are my thoughts:

Pros:
- A dark and decently solid fast-paced read
- Asian, LGBTQA+, and polyamory representation
- Re-imagining Chinese history
- Nice description and details about the mecha

Cons:
- A little too fast-paced. This book had so much potential for the world-building and politics, but it fell flat and not fully explained.
- The plot was difficult to follow as there were a lot of plot points that weren't given much attention. I was confused about what was happening most of the time.
- Unclear characterization and motivations
- Dialogue sounded unrealistic and unnatural
- Lack of high stakes
- Insta-love relationships with no depth.
- Simplistic writing style: More telling, not showing.

I'm undecided about picking up the second book as I was a little disappointed. I'm hoping there are further improvements in the second book. I'm sure sci-fi fans will enjoy this read and would love to go on a wild ride!

Wow. This book was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I am not a big sci-fi reader but this was sci-fi mixed with fantasy and magic and it was incredible. It was complex and futuristic while still feeling old. I can say some of the inner workings of the machines and the Qi were a bit hard to follow at times but the action was incredible and the characters flawed yet you still found yourself rooting for them.

If you’re looking for a unique, fast paced read and the ultimate in female power in an extremely male dominated world this is one you can’t miss.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eArc.