DNF @13%
I normally give a book more than 13% before putting it down, but this wasn't for me which is such a bummer. This has a Power Rangers/Pacific Rim vibe in a sci-fi world inspired by Chinese mythology. While the world was cool and the plot had promise, I'm a character and writing style driven reader. This protagonist, understandably angry with her upbringing and circumstances, just acts like revenge and being JUST like the world she lives in is the only way to live. She's stubborn to not even care about her mother, who loves her but doesn't do what the protagonist thinks she should do. She doesn't have humanity in her, and I really need a character to be layered instead of just one note to care about them. Plus the dialogue felt too modern, in our time period, than in an alternate world. The writing was too jarring and took me out of the story instead of putting me into the story. Still try this if it sounds interesting to you, but this wasn't my cup of tea as far as writing style or characters :(

Lmao Xiran described this as 400 pages of female rage and I feel that. This story is more of a tell then show which if done a certain way I don't really mind especially with how fast paced the story was. The authors strong suit was definitely the battle scenes which were very well written and epic. I liked that everyone had could use more than one qi but gravitated towards one. I would lover for this to be adapted in any format. Li Shimin was fleshed out more than Yizhi. Shimin's backstory crushed me. He deserved all the love an happiness the would could offer. Yizhi was hiding things from the start and will play an even bigger role in the next book for sure. Their poly relationship was done well. I didn't know that was going to be part of the story but I'm on board. Shimin and Zetian needed Yizhi to bridge them together. I will admit that the world building needed a little more attention but I can forgiver that. That last twist messed me up big time. I had a sort of idea of how it was going to be but Xira took it a step farther. This book needs more attention and her YouTube channel is awesome as well.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read Iron Widow before its release. This was a phenomenal debut! I love Zetian's morally ambiguous character and how she slashes through societal norms without question. This story had me hooked from beginning to end and although I did not find the twists all that surprising they still made sense to the progression of the story. I thoroughly anticipate the release of the second novel as Iron Widow leaves off on a major cliffhanger. In the meantime, I recommend this to all sci-fi fans and people who love morally gray characters that shatter societal norms and strive for equality.

Iron Widow is truly a unique action-packed story! The world-building was rich and complex. I loved the sci-fi and Asian-inspired elements of the world the story is set in. Zetian is also a fierce and strong main character who immediately draws you into the story as she works to overcome gender roles. The only thing that I wished to see was more development with the romantic relationships. Overall, this was a great read that is perfect for YA sci-fi readers!

Iron widow is Attack on Titans with badass feminism, polyamorous relationship and Chinese mythology inspired setting.

Dear Xiran/Penguin Random House,

I kindly request you to take all my money and give me the next books ASAP or just tell me what Xiran has planned for the future books. This suspense is killing me. I need this information to survive.

Yours Sincerely,
Apoorva

PS: I'm a poor grad student, so I don't really have money, but you guys get my feelings. Also, this book has wrecked me and I wish to be wrecked further.

I'm in love with the world building. I loved how well written all the characters were. Wu Zetian is my new woman crush all day everyday. She's fierce, irritating, hardcore feminist and doesn't give a fuck about the world says. I LOVE HER. I'm going to buy all the merch there will be of Wu Zetian. She is written so well and accurately as a frontier girl. Her lack of understanding for quite a few things shows and it just makes her more human to me. There's nothing in her character trait that can go unexplained. You can see how her bringing up made her who and how she is in the timeline of the book. Zetian is destroying patriarchy here and I'm taking notes. Yizhi is the chocolate boy you want to go on a date or at least be friends with. His love for Zetian and Shimin is so strong and he is not shy with expressing that. (His dialogues were so freaking beautiful. I wish I got married after reading the book so I could include his words in my vows). Yizhi is the glue that holds Shimin and Zetian together. Li Shimin is damaged, wrecked and used but he has got balls of doing things even a fifty year old would think twice. He knows what's right and he stood for it. Together they make a triangle, the strongest structure in the world.

I found that the imagery of the book was a mix of hit and miss. I'm confused about how Hunduns look like, but certain experiences of Zetian were explained in such details that I felt I lived those with her. I loved the pace of the book and the dialogue between characters. I loved that instead of turning this into a love triangle with unnecessary drama we see a really heart touching polyamorous relationship. Li Shimin, Gao Yizhi and Wu Zetian just fit. They share these wholesome moments in the book and it made my belief in love stronger. I hope I see more of their relationship in the future books.

I love me a good revenge-driven plot and Xiran didn't disappoint. This story is action-driven and I love me some action. Though I did feel that the action was more of a video game rather than an actual battle scene. I definitely think this book needs another round of editing, but other than that it's *chef's kiss*.

Will I buy this book once it comes out in September? IN A HEARTBEAT and you should too,

An angry and empowering story filled with complex societal and cultural issues, like the oppression of women and the inherent privilege given to some, depending on where they’re from and their socioeconomic worth.
Our main character is this flawed, morally-grey, imperfect sort of girl, that is utterly relatable in her determination to not give in to expectations of her.
Iron Widow gave me really strong Hunger Games meets Fifth Season, by way of Pacific Rim vibes. Feminist and anti-racist and queer af, this book is going to resonate with a LOT of people. Can’t wait for the sequel.

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Full feature for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

Wow. Just Wow. I received an E-Arc from Penguin Teen through NetGalley for my honest review... And my honest review is that I cannot recommend this book enough!!!

Wu Zetian serves as an incredibly complex protagonist: wholely imperfect, wholely relatable and wholely compelling. A character determined to challenge the status quo, always asking why or why not and charging full speed ahead in her dedication to changing her world. And the story? An absolute rollercoaster of action, twists and turns! I could absolutely see this translating on a screen. 100% Full Throttle.

That said, the layered familial/societal/cultural issues Xiran Jay Zhao addresses through following Zetian on her journey absolutely stopped me in my tracks despite the action--because I needed to take moments to consider certain ideas and constructs for myself and determine my own perspectives and opinions. (Sometimes even wondering how I might respond if I found myself under similar circumstances, and why?)

Altogether this book ticked so many boxes for me and I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel. (Can anyone lend me a Tardis post haste?) My only request is more Yizhi please! I desperately want more glimpses inside his head and feel like we have still only scratched the surface of his character.

Beautiful written, descriptive story of a young woman fighting the oppression of a male-dominated society.

Be their nightmare Wu Zetian.

How many females throughout history have been told they're a nightmare to deal with? Too difficult. Not demure enough. Not feminine enough? How many females have sacrificed pieces of themselves over and over and over again?

As many stars as there is in the sky I'd bet.

As Zhao explains, this isn't meant to be a book that perfectly encapsulates the varied spectrum of ways women have found themselves subjugated or oppressed. This is specifically written from the culture they are familiar with.

Its a kind of oppression that is different from the typical tales of Western history, but at its core is the same no matter what.

Women are less.

Here's the thing - Zetian isn't perfect. She isn't magically gifted with the ability to do no wrong, make bad assumptions or impervious to the consequences of her actions.

She recognizes that if she killed Yang Guang there would be ramifications for her family. She understood that if she got into a business relationship with a media mogul it wiuld necessitate certain compromises on her part. If she chose revenge she was sacrificing everything.

But understanding didn't make those choices easier. Nor did it bring sudden insight that made everything better.

Despite her driven passion to overthrow the oppressive system that has made her life miserable and sacrificed so many girls, she still has to fight what that system has hammered into her for 18 years. She has to find her own way, her own set of right vs wrong, her own dignity.

And friends, that's exactly what makes her their nightmare.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book. The concept seemed a little too sci-fi for me at first, but I really came to enjoy this! This book tells the story of Wu Zetian, a badass female pilot who struggles to overcome the gender roles imposed on her while avenging the murder of her sister. Zetian is absolutely a gray character, my favorite MC type to read about. She does evil things, but perhaps for good reasons? I just really enjoy MCs who are like that. Minimal romance in this one, which was a nice change, with some LGBTQ representation included. Definitely check this one out!

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Brilliant in every way, couldn't put it down. Excellent character development and world building. Engaging storyline. Highly recommend

Ahhh I am so sorely disappointed that I didn’t love Iron Widow more! It was one of my most anticipated releases because it had everything I like: anti-hero main characters, enemies to lovers, Asian influenced world building, AND it was based off Pacific Rim which is an excellent movie. And to be fair, Iron Widow does have all of the things advertised, I just think the actual delivery and embodiment of that vision and those tropes was not good.

Let’s start with the good: this is a pretty unique setting! You’re not likely to find another book like this one (for better or for worse). It draws on a lot of really interesting influences and honestly I might have liked it more with a different set of characters. Also the last fourth of the book packed a real punch and had so many twists I was almost tempted to forget my major discontent with the rest of the novel.

The biggest flaw in Iron Widow for me was the writing style. It relied heavily on telling rather than showing which is one of my biggest pet peeves. Instead of showing us for example that there’s hate or lust between two characters, the main character just thinks “huh they must be attracted to each other.” It reminded me a lot of the kind of prose that was super popular during the 2010 peak of YA fantasy or a Wattpad fanfic. . Where every emotional moment is either explained to you or unfolds exactly like you’d expect it to. So even though the premise is new, the beats and tropes are the same tired ones I’ve read a million times before.

Also the characters needed a lot more dimension (and I think were further hindered by the telling instead of showing). The main character gives of major “not like other girls energy” at the same time as she claims that she fights for the rights of women. And I found the discussion of feminism to be rather simplistic. Zetian has a lot of sympathy for the faceless women in the book but acts harshly and in judgement of so many of the women trapped by their circumstances. Also the romances were incredibly underdeveloped and I never really understood WHY we were supposed to believe that their connections were so deep and soul defying.

Lastly, I felt like the novel was a bit all over the place in terms of setting: it was scifi, fantasy, contemporary, yet ancient and had some weird anachronistic language including the use of the word “weird” I felt like I was a bit lost between all the different genres leading to a somewhat disjointed experience.

Overall while I didn’t enjoy this book (much to my dismay) I do think someone might enjoy this book more than me, especially if they like tropey YA, underdeveloped romance, and don’t mind telling rather than showing.

Iron Widow is a story that has one of the most unique world I've ever read. Influenced by Chinese history and mecha science, it explores everything from how power influences us to creating a powerful allegory for societies willingness to disregard women's well being for the advancement of men. The story was interesting and the setting created a tense atmosphere where I felt personally invested in Zetian's journey and the plight of all the women and girls of Huaxia.

My heart is POUNDING. This is not a short book, nor a light/easy book, but I absolutely inhaled it over a couple of hours. If you like the idea of chaos + giant mecha warriors + unapologetically violent vengeance + political intrigue but make it sci-fi + polyam + epic alien battles + simmering feminist commentary, then may I present THE IRON WIDOW? This is queer PACIFIC RIM meets historical China-inspired ~rage in book form~ and yes, I am now ready to split the world apart.

The worldbuilding here is so rich and complex, it's impossible to comment on without doing it a major injustice. Xiran Jay Zhao is one of the most daring writers I've come across in recent YA; not just because they've created a madcap world combining history and far-future tech and fantastical power systems. Wu Zetian is a brilliant, diabolical heroine who, like the rest of the novel, does NOT pull punches. Morals? Forget it. Is there a lesson here? Consider teaching it to my GIANT MECHA WARRIOR BIRD. (The lesson is patriarchy = smashed, literally.) The polyam rep is also something I've never really seen in YA before, and it was done incredibly well. Why choose between the soft boy and the bad boy when you could simply have both?

Basically, I'm furious that I'm going to have to wait ~forever~ to read the sequel, because my mind has been unraveled AND blown and I'm not sure how Xiran expects us to sit patiently until. (checks Goodreads) 2022. But if you're looking for an adrenaline-pumping read that will make you want to punch something, then I very much suggest checking out IRON WIDOW in September. 4/5

Wow. I don't really know what I expected from this book, but it absolutely blew any expectations I had out of the water. It was so interesting and well done, and I CANNOT wait for the conclusion.

Big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advanced ebook copy in exchange for an honest review!

I've been trying to review this book since I finished it two days ago and all the keeps coming out is the text equivalent of shrieking. Let's try one more time.

This. Book. Is. So. Good. From the INSANE worldbuilding to the wonderfully three-dimensional characters, to the hell-yeah-feminism plot, to the absolute annihilation of stereotypes and cliches, Iron Widow is everything.

Our MC is Wu Zetian, China's only female empress from the 7th century, reimagined as a farm girl in a future-dystopia, the China-inspired country of Huaxia. Zetian sells herself into the army to avenge her big sister's death, who was murdered by one of the army's pilots. No one but Zetian cares though, because this isn't just any old army; Zetian lives in an oppressive patriarchy where her country buys girls to live as boy pilots'concubines, fulfilling all the duties you'd expect when not in battle, and acting as a source of Qi, basically their life force, during battles, battles which consist of the boys piloting giant mecha robot fighters against invading aliens while the girls sit unconscious and hope the boy's mind doesn't consume theirs during the battle.

Ok, so the plot itself is awesome and horrifying and intense. The book felt big for 400 pages, in the best way possible, with near constant action but not SO much that it became overwhelming or tiresome. The writing is very good, though it is written in a pretty typical YA voice which I tend to enjoy but I know can be a turn off for some. I've seen some reviews mention the Zetian just seems angry, and she absolutely does, but it's completely understandable, justifiable anger and I think it makes perfect sense for her character and what she's been through. I loved Zetian and thought she was an excellent, fresh take on a YA MC, especially her morality, or lack thereof.

Most of the side characters were wonderful as well, and I love, love, love that Zhao eschewed the typical love triangle for polyamory. That was unexpected and exciting. There were a few characters I wished we could've learned more about overall, but, and I don't want to give any spoilers so I'll just say I enjoyed the relationships that occurred and felt they were natural to the story.

I'm not usually a tech-y sci-fi or robot fan but the Chrysalises, the giant mecha robot suits the boy-girl pairs pilot, were extremely cool and Zhao manages to introduce and continue to use them in a way I didn't find at all exhausting, which sounds snarky but is actually huge because I generally find robots and battle scenes exhausting. But the element of the Qi being used to control the spirit metal that the Chrysalises were made from, plus the horror of the concubines, forced to sacrifice themselves to the boys' minds during battle, it all just had me hooked so hard. I'm already dying to read this book again but I'm going to wait for my hardcopy when it comes out so I can admire the gorgeous cover every time I pick it up.

This whole book is 400 pages of Zetian trying to absolutely destroy the patriarchy and it's a completely beautiful thing but it gets *dark.* As mentioned, her morality is maybe a little shaky and she does some things that might go a little far, too characters that almost definitely deserve it, for understandable reasons.

I definitely recommend Iron Widow to fans of YA sci-fi and dystopian who like strong female characters, lots of action and who can stomach more than a small amount of violence. This book is possibly the best of read all year and I honestly might even put it in my top 10 books of all time, it's really that good. So good I couldn't put it down; a 400 page book would normally take me about a week to read but I finished Iron Widow in under three days.

Holy hell, Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao is a good book. I devoured an eARC in less than 24 hours and now need to sit down for two hundred years.

This YA combines fantasy, magic, and Chinese culture with mecha robots, futuristic technology, and actual f*cking aliens. I didn't think it could be done, but somehow all those elements actually work together.

Also, did I mentioned the threesome?

I could not put this book down. A sci-fi world with aliens and mechas, inspired by Chinese history and mythology? I screamed when I saw that I got this ARC.

After her sister's death, Wu Zetian offers herself up as a concubine pilot in order to try to get vengeance on her sister's murderer. She gets her revenge by killing him through the psychic link between pilots, a previously publically unthought-of feat that gets her labeled an Iron Widow. To try to tamper her power, she gets paired with the Iron Demon Li Shimin, the strongest pilot in Huaxia.

If you're picking up this book, be sure to read through the author's note and the warnings. This book delivers on being dark. It explores the themes of gender, power, sexuality, and revenge. It delves into female rage so well, and the ways that women often aren't allowed to be angry. Zetian is very much a morally grey protagonist who has a lot of (understandable) fury at her sister's death and at the role that society has dictated she be due to being a woman. She's allowed to be brutal and bloodthirsty and unapologetically powerful by taking exactly what she wants against the wishes of the very society that would rather crush her while telling her exactly how precious women are.

Finally, a love triangle that is an actual triangle! You don't see polyamory in YA much at all, and I was glad to see it here, especially the slow way that the relationship as a triad and between each pair of characters developed organically. Learning more about Li Shimin and Gao Yizhi through Zetian's lens and their various growth arcs was so fun.

This is Zhao's debut, and I was incredibly hooked on her writing, her prose kept me reading non-stop until the middle of the night. AND THE ENDING. Oh my god, the ending. I gasped when I read it, then immediately went to see when book 2 was. I can't wait to pick up the conclusion to this duology and all her other books in the future.

Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the ARC.