Well, this was a heckuva ride! This is a world protected against an invading force by pilots in giant mecha suits which transform according to their particular mental capabilities. Two pilots are required, yin and yang: the stronger male pilot, and the balancing female pilot… who often ends up a sacrifice, drained of her life force by her fellow pilot to power the suit in battle. Wu Zetian has volunteered as a pilot in order to kill the pilot who killed her sister, not in battle but somehow outside of it. Now she’s expected to become his concubine…

Think you know where it’s going? Well, the book has some surprises coming for you, about which I shouldn’t say too much for fear of spoiling them! However, I think it’s worth mentioning the fact that this features not a love triangle but a poly relationship: Zetian ends up with two boyfriends, and her boyfriends are boyfriends, too.

It is worth noting as well that this isn’t a nice world, and Zetian isn’t a nice girl. It’s a world loosely based on ancient China, meaning that Zetian has had her feet bound to become “lotus feet”, and the effects of that aren’t shied away from. And of course, our heroine starts the book planning a murder, and has few hesitations throughout the book about making life and death decisions for other people. We root for her because we also see the helpless position she’s put into, but we also know she’s not someone we want to know. There’s a line in one of Thea Gilmore’s live albums where she describes the personality of someone she wrote a song about: “She has the kind of personality that’s a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”

Well, Zetian’s personality is an entertaining place to visit, but you definitely, definitely don’t want to live there. That you can root for her at all works because you can sympathise with her motives and reasons.

On a final note, oof! That ending! I’m guessing there’s more to come from Wu Zetian, and I intend to read it if so.

In this retelling of Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor, the boys of Huxia pilot Chrysalises while their female co-pilots must serve as concubines and sacrifice their lives in order to battle the aliens beyond the Great Wall. Zetian offers herself up as a concubine so she can assassinate the pilot responsible for her sister's death but after she is able to sacrifice the male pilot in her first battle, she has a new plan. The time has come to overturn the entire patriarchal military system.

If you're a fan of feminist messages in your books like me, you will love this! Zetian is an incredible protagonist, in a world would women must be submissive, she is anything but that. Although she is ruthless and willing to do terrible things, you can't help but root for her! She isn't the only character to have great development, Yizhi and Li Shimin are also great characters. Zetian's relationship with Li Shimin was particularly interesting as she had a lot of preconceived assumptions about him that we had to see her work through to accept him. I got a little worried as I thought a love triangle was forming, which I'm not a big fan of, but was pleasantly surprised when the triangle turned out to be a polyamorous relationship which I've never seen in a YA book before!

The world building was amazing, there were some complicated things to explain, like how the giant robots work, but Xiran Jay Zhao did a great job and it's clear they know a lot about qi and Chinese history!

Lastly the plot was just amazing! There was so much action and so many twists, I couldn't stop reading! This is probably my favourite and one of the most well written books I've read this year, and I already want to reread it. After that ending I need the sequel immediately and can't wait to see what's next for Wu Zetian!

Overall, I think everyone should read this and I will constantly be recommending it from now on!

As if I could give this book anything other than 5 stars.
I'd seen some anticipation for this book building up online and was so excited to receive the ARC... but nothing could have prepared me for how much I would LOVE this book. I honestly think this will be one of those books that will stick with me and live in a corner of my brain forever.

Zetian exists in a society which uses and discards women as if they are nothing more than a source of fuel. I use the word 'exist' specifically, as this is all she able to do, exist rather than live, under the weight of patriarchal control and under the physical and emotional abuse preventing her having any agency over her own life. In this society, which draws from futuristic sci-fi elements as well as ancient China, the lives of women are exploited from birth and in huge numbers are sacrificed as if meaningless to allow men to fight a war. The war is being fought using massive mechanical structures which require a pair of pilots, one male and one female, to channel their minds and spirits together. Almost always, this results in the female pilot's death. Zetian grows up in this world, full of rage and frustration at the lack of choices for someone of her gender and also in physical and emotional pain from the abuse she has experienced from both society and her own family. Her life truly begins when her desire to avenge her sister's murder, and the overwhelming rage and defiance that's built up inside her, means that when she ends up piloting alongside the second most powerful male pilot, she comes out alive, carrying his body, laughing manically and ready to burn the patriarchy to the ground.

Who wants a book with subtle feminist undertones, when you can instead have a book entirely fueled by pure, hot, feminist rage?

The writing of this book was outstanding - fast paced, engaging and visual - I felt as if I was watching a film. A great example of this is that I'm not usually especially interested in battle scenes, but the battles in this book were some of my favourite scenes. The writing fully pulled me in, with detail and emotion that carried me into battle too, and this goes for both the scenes set in the physical realm of this story and those set inside the physic connection between the minds of the pilots. The world building is excellent and immersive, but if I could offer one critique on this book, it is that I would have liked to spend even longer soaking up the many detailed layers of this world.

The character representation is excellent - have we ever had a lead character as unrestrained as Zetian? She is given the space to be exactly as enraged and unforgiving as she truly is - something rarely afforded to women. She has 0 f's left to give and it is both exhilarating and also refreshing to be transported through the story riding the wave of a woman's power and rage. She also gains strength from her two love interests, both men extremely well written characters in themselves. The fact that these two love interests also love each other, to provide incredible queer and polyamory representation is just.. chefs kiss..

I feel as thought it is impossible to portray all of the different ways I loved this book and all of the different reasons that it has exceeded my expectations. Did I mention it's a 5 stars?

It has taken me a whole day to be able to write a review for this book because I had to process it, I LOVED it so much.

This book follows Zetian who offers herself up as a concubine pilot to murder the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. She does the unexpected and does kill him using the psychic link used to pilot the chrysalises.

After this, she's labelled the iron widow a much-feared pilot who can sacrifice the male pilots to power up the chrysalises. She is paired with Li Shimin, the most controversial and lost feared pilot ever. Now that Zetian has tasted power shell for everything she can to save these other girls even with the entire system working against her.

There is not a single thing I did not enjoy about this book. The characters themselves were incredible, fleshed out and complicated. I empathised with them in ways I didn't expect and as they learn more about themselves and each other I learnt more about them as though meeting them myself.

Before reading it, romance wasn't something I thought made sense in this book but good it does here so very much, it brings a new layer to these characters and enables you to find out more about them.

The world and plot themselves were easy to understand and very compelling, the world-building was complex but not in a way that it took over all other elements of the book.

Overall, it was incredible, showing the extremes of emotions and just how far people are willing to go to achieve something. I truly enjoyed myself, there were moments when I was sitting up having to put the book down just to process. I've already preordered this and I would urge everyone to do the same.

Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

Iron Widow was so, so much fun. It's marketed as Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale (I would say more Hunger Games), but honestly just the summary is enough to instantly sell it: a reimagining of the only Empress of China where massive metal creatures shaped as mythological beasts are piloted to fight invading hoards of aliens. But the corruption behind the scenes is more of a threat than the doom that approaches them from outside their walls.

I will admit that there are times when the book falls into cheesiness and might be slightly overdone, but it's such a cool way to explore Chinese cultural and mythological elements in both a historical and modern way that any little things that don't land perfectly are irrelevant. I love how and how rich the cultural influences were and how well the Chinese elements that might not be as well-known in the West were explained without info-dumping.

I also need to write about Zeitan herself, who is an utterly fantastic heroine. I'm going to parallel it to The Poppy War for the sole purpose of citing complex, questionable women who are humanised and that we are able to have empathy for. Also, shout out to the polyamorous relationship; I've never really seen it used before and quite honestly I'm not that familiar with it, but it was great.

It's so hard to articulate the modern contradictions for identifying as something and recognising (and accepting) the negative background and aspects of it, but Zhao does it. There are historically negative associations with being a woman; it doesn't mean femininity is bad. There are parts of Chinese culture that have hurt its people (one example criticised in this book is traditional foot-binding); that doesn't mean there aren't aspects that should be celebrated. Zhao fluently communicates that paradox, and it's genuinely moving and liberating.

Even aside from the politics, Iron Widow is just fun and exciting and engaging. If you also haven't seen Zhao's videos on Asian cultural influences in popular culture including Mulan, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Kung Fu Panda, then I highly recommend them. Her skill at picking up apart existing storytelling works is just as strong - if not rivalled - by her skill at creating her own.

𝑯𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏.

𝒀𝒆𝒕 𝑰𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝑫𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝑾𝒊𝒅𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚’𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒖𝒔 𝒃𝒆.

Mulan meets Pacific Rim in this fantastic debut novel.


This had a really strong start. The prologue reeled me in straight away and I was hooked till the end.

Iron widow is about Huaxia; a land ravaged by the aliens that are repelled by males that pilot Chrysalises. They harness their Qi and in conjunction with a female pilot, they mentally merge with giant transforming to battle. However the link between the pilots ALWAYS kills the female.

Our MC is Zetian, who enlists as a pilot concubine in order to kill the pilot that murdered her sister. Z is a bonafide feminist hating her existence in this highly Misogynistic world she’s been born into. When she finally gets paired to the decorated pilot, she uses the mind link to kill him with no regrets. Now labelled the Iron Widow she discovers she may not be the first girl to use the link in reverse and sets forth to discover why the existence of female pilots is such a taboo and figure out why the army and society in general treats women so poorly.

Zetian is a complete badass. She unapologetically breaks the norm of her society and doesn’t let her own disabilities (such as her bound feet) stop her from pursuing what she truly wants.

Li Shimin is the armies best pilot. But as a murdered of the worst kind with a vile reputation to match he has none of the glory or status that comes with being a pilot of his renown.

Yizhi is privileged. Born into one of the richest families in the province, he and Zetian have secretly been friends for years. After a failed attempt to stop Zetain from listing he ends up following her to the Great Wall in order to protect her as best he can.

From the actual plot to the characters to the writing this was all pretty great. Gripping from the very first page I binge read 75% of it in one sitting. Only my stinging eyes dragged me away and i finished the rest first thing the next day (thank god for weekends). The twist at the end tho *chefs kiss* I did not see that coming and I couldn’t love it more.

It was a beautifully imagined tale, and to my utter horror it’s not even out yet so I have a depressingly long time to wait for the sequel.

TW: implied rape, alcoholism, implied domestic abuse, actual domestic abuse.

Thank you Netgalley, Xiran Jay Zhao and Rock the Boat for providing me with an Earl to review.

‘long live iron widow.’

iron widow has easily just become one of my favourite books of all time.

it’s an incredible read of pain, perseverance, power and obliterating the patriarchy and i loved every single second. it was that kind of read where your heart just raced and raced all the way through as the action didn’t cease, it just built and built.

here’s me trying to articulate just how much i loved it.

firstly, the world is insane. the pacific rim meets the handmaid’s tale comparison is scarily spot on and it made for a brilliant world. that, combined with medieval chinese cultural practices meshed with dystopian technology sounded jarring at first but xiran jay zhao really knew how to make it feel like they were meant to be together.

secondly, everyone give it up for wu zeitan, the love of my life. i loved every single thing about this man-murdering, incredible violent, polyamorous pilot and her willingness to stick to what she believes. she doesn’t allow herself to be influenced or deterred by others and i loved that about her.

also, the romance was just perfect. it was definitely a subplot compared to wu zeitan’s journey to power which i loved. with both soft and angsty poly love interests, they worked so perfectly together and the balance they provided to each other was just *chef’s kiss*.

basically, i’d give my right hand to be able to read this for the first time again. it’s angsty, action packed and i was addicted to every page. i cannot wait until i see wu zeitan again. read. this. BOOK.

thank you so much to netgalley for providing me with an e-arc for a review!

What originally hooked me was the polyamorous aspect. This is the second YA/NA book that I have read with polyamory instead of a love triangle.
I loved all the main characters. My only complaint is that I wanted to see more - I wanted the book to be longer and see the interactions between Shimin, Zetian, and Yizhi.
If you enjoy fast-paced sci-fi books where the toxic patriarchy becomes dismantled and badass main characters who let no one govern them, then Iron Widow is the book for you.

2.5 stars
Unfortunately this book did not work for me. I was super excited and entertained for the first 40% of the book but then it went down hill.
I loved the historical setting and the introduction of some of the older customs like bound feet in woman. An age where woman are things to be sold and used like in historical China but then we have mecha like wars going on with what appears to be an iPad turning up in the story!
Such a feminist take on pacific Rim. I really enjoy the premise of the mecha, pairing of pilots etc but her attitude!! She seems to be the only feminist in the entire world!

What didn’t work for me is that It’s kinda exhausting she is so angry all the time. Determined to kill and take from men but when she’s paired with a murder she gets disgusted. She’s a murderer herself!! Don’t know where her feminist spirit comes from when she was brought out so suppressed. She did not bow down to anyone. It made no sense.

Then there’s the the triangle relationship between MFM. Her relationship development with the other two males was done so clumsy.

There are some strong messages throughout this but such as breaking boundaries etc. Unfortunately it did not work for me as I found there wasn’t enough world building and the main character very annoying.

I read this as an e-Arc from Netgalley. All opinions in this review are my own.

Firstly, I must extend my grateful thanks to OneWorld Publications and NetGalley for providing me with the e-arc of Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

I must advise before I start my review that I gave little to no experience of Chinese pop culture, entertainment, drama or history and I suspect that with this knowledge my experience of this book would have been significantly heightened.

However, despite this I must state clearly and loudly, Iron Widow is truly astounding. It is that rare gem of a book that takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions and experience. It will punch you in the stomach, no holds barred with the brutality, misogyny and sheer violence, but then will touch you with such tenderness and beauty, that your breath is stolen away.

I read a lot of Sci Fi and Fantasy books, but this book with its overt and explicit feminist views and demand for equality has flown to the top of the few staunchly feminist reads I have been fortunate enough to experience.

Zetian, the protagonist of the story is truly a serious badass! She has been downtrodden her whole life, brought up to believe that women are inferior, disposable, merely on her planet to serve the needs of men. But the death of her big sister that she believes to have been murder changes everything. Zetian follows her parents wish and volunteers as a pilot concubine to gain vengeance on her sister’s murderer, but she soon finds vengeance is not enough. Zetian must fight to reshape society, restore balance, rights and ultimately self-control to women and destroy the patriarchal society that has dominated them for so long.

Be warned, whilst this book is rich in colour, intensity, action and adventure, it is truly uncompromising with regards to violence, including attempted rape. None of which are included purely to colour the story.

I was totally hooked on this book from page one and am already itching to read book two! Dammit that ending was sooooo good!

Wow
I have just finished reading this and i need .minute to just think about what just happened!!! What a fast paced, action packed book. To start with, I got Mulan vibes but it quickly changed to a Poppy War type fantasy. It's in a league of its own though. You definitely have to concentrate whilst reading.

About 20% in i got a bit lost but no worries, at 40% i was back on track! I loved the characters, especially Zetian. I also thought Yizhi was perfection.

A must read, i can't confirm how good of a representation it was, but it read like it was culturally appropriate, if that makes sense!!

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was just a wild ride from the start to the finish (and what even was that finale???). I read the first half and was a bit confused tho over the world building and how the culture, lore and historical setting of the place was. But the more you read from the book, the more Zhao also reveals how things are. And when I reached that 70% page mark, I couldn't put the book down for one second. I had to know what was going to happen!

The unique plot of this book is was makes is so special. It tackles a lot of subjects, such a as feminism, gender discussion, culture differences and basic human rights. The main character was such a delight to read from, even tho I sometimes wanted to scream for some of her decisions. She was not always likeable, which I prefer in my main characters. It's a YA historical fiction fantasy sci-fi novel, so you can except some angsty love. I do often don't like the type of love that was about to happen in this book, but it blew me away over how the author totally swept me under my feet and took me on such a love story and almost also MADE ME CRY!? I like never cry to books.

This was unlike everything I've ever read and I can't wait to read the sequel whenever that comes out - I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. i loved this book:i loved the characters, world and plot. i am giving this 5/5 stars

Iron Widow is a quick and gripping read - it started off very strongly, though I felt less engaged for the last third. I was completely won back around by the epilogue, however (what a game-changer) and I'm now very keen to read the next in the series. I would have liked to have seen the relationships better developed - there's time as the series progresses to flesh the characters out a bit more, but even Zetian felt slightly limited in her motivations. That said, Iron Widow has such a great premise to start with, and with the additions from the epilogue, I'm very intrigued about where this is going.
3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.
Thanks to Oneworld Publications and Netgalley for the ARC.

4.5 stars

Iron Widow follows the story of Zetian, who becomes infamous as an "Iron Widow" after killing her male pilot in a system which usually kills the female pilot, as the nation battles against alien invaders in mechanical chrysalis made up of two pilots (one male and one female) requiring one pilot to supply the other with power, often resulting in one dying. Zetian is then thrust into a world of backstabbing politics, fame and must forge her own path and not let her story be silenced whilst investigating why the female pilots are dying. With influences from historical chinese figures and classic sci-fi, this is an incredibly enjoyable story full of amazing characters, empowering themes and mysterious magic.

My favourite thing about Iron Widow was absolutely the characters. I love all 3 of the main characters so so much. First up we have Zetian, an absolutely feral bitch who is ready to fuck up the patrichary. She is very ambitious and ruthless and does not let societies demands affect who she is. She is also a character who isn't afraid to own up to certain mistakes and take some responsilblity for choices she has made that have potentially led to less than ideal situations, which I really appreciated as a character trait. Also in the immortal words of Tammie tries to read "I like muderous bitches" which pretty much sums up Zetians character.

We also have Yizhi, Zetians childhood friend, who is a soft boi genius and is very sweet but also not afraid to go after what he wants. And finally we have Li Shimin who is a famous criminal and murderor but also a very powerful pilot but is also THE MOST PRECIOUS BEAN EVER AND MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS. I thought the book really stepped up once he came into the picture, and he was such a fascinating and tragic character. I also liked the discussion of his alcoholism, finding out how it came to be was heartbreaking and discussion of how it is an illness and not Shimins fault.

The relationship between these three is ICONIC. It is such a satisfying love triangle and it may or may not end up in polyamory ;). But in all seriousness I really loved the discussions around jealously, and just because society expects monagamy doesn't mean that you cannot love two people (or more) at once - there is lots of love to go around and everyone has their own special unique place in the heart. They really forge their own path and every interaction I was sqeauling with cuteness haha.

I enjoyed the feminist themes in the book, especially around bodily autonomy and the system fundamentally being set up against women. Zetian is very much a character who challenges the societal norms and doesn't take no for an answer. I thought there was also an interesting discussion around women competing and disliking each other, Zetian feels torn because she is trying to fight for womens rights but at the same time some of the female characters are not always on her side or kind to her - I appreciated this nuance of how often a systemic prejudice can lead to infighting rather than teaming up to take down the oppressor. I also liked the exploration of the different kinds and levels of privilege that exist and recognising that you can have advantages in some areas but face opression/discrimination in others.

The plot of the book I also really enjoyed, especially the ending. It wasn't a paticulary unique plot but the characters made it so enjoyable and seeing their choices really shape the direction of events helped keep the book moving. I'm very exicited for book 2 - the ending is perfectly satisfying for the book whilst also some shocking revelations set up perfectly for the next book. It also features a favourite trope of mine and I can't wait to see more of a certain character in the next book.

This is not a perfect book by any means, but I had so much fun while reading that I didn't really mind - however if I had to be nitpicky I would have liked there to be a bit more world building and exploration of some of the nuances of the politics, but I appreciate this is a YA book and therefore they tend to be shorter and more fast paced so I think ultimately the book sets out what it meant to achieve - it's just personal preferance.

<b>In conclusion I would highly reccomend Iron Widow, its a fun, fast paced, feminist sci-fi which will keep you super engaged with some amazing morally grey characters (who now have a special place in my heart uwu) and will have you ready to take down the patrichary.</b>

I received a free copy of this on netgalley. Thanks to the publisher for this arc. I follow xiran on twitter and was really interested to see the kind of book she had written.

Read with caution: I don't know how much of what bugged me was a feature of ya as a category and how much was more universal. I don't read enough ya to be confident of that distinction.

Lots of things I liked : the love triangle trope being turned into a functioning poly relationship. The retelling of Empress Wu and the colourful mechas. The twist reveal at the very end. The realities of bound feet.

Things that knocked down the rating for me: the writing felt rough, like a first draft that hadn't been polished. It was functional but clunky and repetitive, and not evocative. I don't know if that's a stylistic thing but I have also read very beautifully written ya books so I don't feel I should give a book a pass on craft just because of its age category.

The mc also struggled with nothing. She was just effortlessly good at everything she tried and endlessly better than everyone else, in a way that was linear without tension or suspense. Some folks will enjoy this and find it empowering. But it fell flat for me.

I would like to have seen more positive women characters, too. The not-like-the-other-girls vibe wasn't quite working for me.

Simply the easiest 5 stars I've given this year.

From the moment I first heard about this book from the author's tweet last year (I think?) I knew I wanted to read it simply for the poly rep which I'm always interested in reading more about. I didn't know anything specific about the novel except that it's a reimagining of China's only female emperor which was enough to catch my attention. I never expected to love it so much, and I especially didn't expect to give it 5 stars this quickly.

I knew this would be a great read from the first page and I was not disappointed.

I am at a loss for words. It's so rare for me to read books that perfectly fit everything I like: a great plot and a good balance of character development and story progression, good action scenes, an immensely strong female character who challenges the society she lives in and thinks outside the box, who has also found like-minded people in her partners and simply an easy to read writing style.

I absolutely adored this book and find it a bit hard to write about it without saying the words "I loved it" in every other sentence, but it is the truth.

I don't even know where to start. There are so many things I can talk about, so many topics that can be discussed... (Defo check CWs and TWs!!!)

Wu Zetian is the type of person that thinks outside of the box and doesn't confrom to the society she's grown up in. Even though it's hard for her to speak out and act out, since the society in the book is very much strictly patriarchal, she still does it. We can see her trying to get out of the mould her world has put her in and refusing to be bound by the expectations of others. I loved that. I loved seeing how no matter the challenges, no matter what others would say or do to her, she would still be herself and be strong. I loved reading about her journey and she's a character I enjoyed being in the mind of.

Yizhi is simply a cinnamon roll that must be protected but he's also very much able to take care of himself it seems. I loved reading about him and I can't wait to learn more about him. Since Zetian has already known him for years when the book start, as the reader, we don't get that much information about him and I can't wait for that to change.

Li Shimin is another character we need to protect, especially after everything he's been through. I loved reading about him through Zetian's perspective, slowly seeing her change her mind about him after discovering the truth behind what he's been through. I really liked the way it's written because she meets him while already having a bunch of prejudice about him due to the way she was brought up, so she doesn't believe men can be different from what she knows. Personally, I would've loved to see a bit more from him, but this was enough for now.

What's more, while the romance isn't the main theme of the book, it's there and while I can't speak for how well-developed it is, because I simply didn't care in this case, I really did enjoy it. My favourite thing is probably Shimin and Yizhi's scenes where it was shown how attarcted they were to each other because it was so cute, but my most favourite scene would probably be when all three of them embraced. I really loved this.

Do keep in mind that despite this being YA, it actually tends to get really dark real quick. This books explores various themes like domestic abuse, alchoholism, outright sexism and others.
Wu Zetian, Yizhi and Li Shimin don't just fight to save their planet from the Hunduns, they also fight for their right to live. While I did see the main big twist coming because I've actually read at least 2 novels with the same twist, I loved it anyway. I wasn't surprised by any of the revelations, but this didn't take away from my enjoyment.

I could probably write more about the plot and dive deeper into the themes explored, but I believe that it would be better if you go into it knowing as little as possible.

If you aren't a big fan of mecha, like me, I'd say to give Iron Widow a chance anyway because it's amazing and it deserves all the stars in the world.

There is a quote from the late great Sir Terry Pratchett that suggests that the source of any sin, and the beginning of any evil starts with treating people as things (Carpe Jugulum if you feel like missing him all over again. While reading Xiran Jay Zhao's extraordinary debut novel, half of my mind kept focussing on the truth of this blazing throughout Iron Widow. In Zhao's world, daughters are practically worthless, suitable only to be sold off to whatever husband will take them, or sent to the military to be concubine-pilots for the celebrated male war heroes on the frontlines of an endless war. And by concubine-pilots, that basically means prostitutes/ FREAKING BATTERIES to be used, sucked dry of theri qi until it kills them and then discarded.
Of course, the other half of my mind was absolutely, hysterically, gleefully celebrating a feminist, queer, defy the patriarchy, be the monster, tear it all down, future fantasy china mecha adventure that will remind you of the best parts of Pacific Rim, your favourite anime series, and that moment in Lord of the Rings where Eowyn tears of her helmet and takes down the Witch King with that incredible "I am no man". Now, if this doesn't immediately make you push the buy now button or start knocking on the door to your local (hopefully independent) bookstore to pre-order whilst simultaneously booking the release date off as a holiday, well, there's more.
How about a healthy, considerate, gentle, genuine totally bi poly relationship between our badass Iron Widow main character and the two men in her life. I mean, if you are the aforementioned badass babe, and you find yourself there with a scary, tortured, barbarian with a cinnamon roll heart and a gentle, sophisticated, lordling willing to defy his powerful and disgustingly wealthy father and the entirety of the military elite.....why choose?
However, enough from me, time to go mark the date in your calendar as Iron Widow day.
And it's only book one......

You're Welcome

(Just don't blame me for the cliffhanger ending)

Yes, yes, yes!! I am so happy to have read this book, I was so lucky to get the e-arc.

Such badass and interesting characters and such a good storyline, my only negative is that this book wasn't bigger so I could have read it for longer. I am off to find a special edition now!

Did anyone else get some strong Girls of Paper and Fire vibes from the way the girls in this world were treated? Once again, this is not a story where the girl falls in love with the powerful man who killed her big sister, even if there is a love triangle within these pages that ends up polyamorous.

The story opens with Yang Guang's callousness in the prologue, but don't worry, he doesn't last for long.

I want to write a whole letter to the author of this novel asking her 'How Dare You' with how much she made me love her characters and then constantly put them into danger. Also to the publishing industry for making me need to wait a year until the next one is out. I honestly don't know how I'm going to wait. This is the best book I have read this year.

Zetian is kickass and ruthless in her plan when we meet her after her Big Sister has been killed. She has only one plan and that is the murder of the person who did it. She doesn't care if that will fall back on her family; they never treated her all that well anyway. There is a lot in the way of culturally accurate sexism and abuse that was just awful to read for a Western reader to whom a lot of information may be quite new.

Before she goes away from her family and town, we meet the gorgeous Yizhi who is a rich boy that for some reason has taken a liking to Zetian. They are childhood friends anyway, and desperation from him not to have her sacrifice her life in vengeance for her sister has him asking her to marry him on the chance that it might not make her leave.

It doesn't work.

Eventually, we meet Li Shimin who is a host unto himself. He seems really scary to begin with, but it's pretty quick that we realise that this is the opinion other people have of him and doesn't necessarily resemble the truth. In fact, some of Li Shimin's backstory is heartbreaking and may be triggering with regards to addiction.

The three of these characters are my babies and I will absolutely stand against anyone who says that there is any fault in either story telling or characters in this story.