Iron Widow

Quotes

Genres

• Fiction
• Historical Fiction (sorta)
• Young Adult
• Romance
• LGBTQ+
• Fantasy
• Sci-Fi
• Dystopian

Trigger Warnings

• Violence
• Abuse
• Suicide Ideation
• References to sexual assault
• Alcohol addiction
• Torture

*There will be spoilers in this review. I will try to avoid major spoilers but some need to be brought up to be discussed.

Summary

Iron Widow is the story of Wu Zetian, an 18-year-old girl in a world where women’s lives are not theirs to control. They can either be married off to a man chosen by her family, or they can volunteer as concubine co-pilots of the giant Chrysalis robots that defend humanity against the faceless Hundun creatures. After her sister dies during her service to one of the pilots, Zetian embarks on a suicide mission to avenge her sister.

Characters

Wu Zetian – The Iron Widow, she is on a murder quest to avenge her sister and ends up taking on her incredibly patriarchal world on the way. She has no qualms with violence and holds very little back. She has incredible qi capabilities and pilots various mecha.

Shimin – The Iron Demon, a death row inmate who pilots the Vermillion Bird. He will do the violence but then feel really bad about it. Zetian is all offended at him for killing his family (when she had prepared herself to do the same thing but that’s a different point for a different place) but he has more to him than he seems. He also wears glasses and that just means a lot to me.

Gao Yizhi – 5th son of the richest man in Huaxia. He is one of the only characters that makes sense to me. He stops and thinks which is refreshing. He is also incredibly easy going with all the chaos happening around him. He is a good balance for the other two.

Sima Yi – The strategist in charge of handling Zetian and Shimin.

An Lushan – Strategist that wants to get rid of the Iron Duo.

Gao Qiu -Richest media entrepreneur in Huaxia and Yizhi’s father. He works to promote the Iron Duo’s reputation.

Dugu Qieluo & Yang Jian -Pilots of the White Tiger.

Ma Xiuying & Zhu Yuanzhang – Pilots of the Black Tortoise.

Emperor Qin Zheng – Ancient ruler and pilot of the Yellow Dragon. He contracted a disease called flower pox and used the natural qi of the Kunlun Mountains to suspend himself in stasis until a cure could be found. Rumors say he remains there still, but the territory surrounding him has been lost to the Hunduns for thousands of years.

Yang Guang – Pilot of the Nine-tailed Fox, murderer of Ruyi.

Heavenly Council – Mysterious entity that gives gifts of technology occasionally. Have never been seen.

Hunduns – aliens that attack at intervals. They can be harvested to get the materials to build the mechas or Chrysalises.

Setting

Huaxia is an alien world set to mirror a futuristic ancient China. It has Earth-like features, waterfalls, butterflies, and nine-tailed foxes… the prologue said “like real nine-tailed foxes.” Real on Huaxia? Are there other mythical beasts here? Did humanity do that or were they already here? Is that why people chose this planet? One throw away line and I end up spiraling.

Alright so there are not a lot of descriptions of the place we are operating in. Cities and frontiers never really get too many details except to describe what Zetian is interacting with directly. Usually to describe the buildings and tools in use. For all intents and purposes the world presents like a technologically enhanced ancient Chinese society.

The one setting I really appreciated was the mindscape shared between the pilots. Having it be changeable and reflecting their mental states is a good way to communicate between the characters. There is a lot of potential there and I will always appreciate any attempt to bring psychology to the the tangible world.

Overview

I saw it everywhere on Pinterest and BookTok but it was the author, Xiran Jay Zhou, that made me want to read Iron Widow. Their content on TikTok and YouTube was incredibly engaging and educational. Their genuine, frank way of speaking and energetic personality really got me excited to give it a shot. It broke my heart that it wasn’t really for me.

So long story short, this book had me all over the place. On the one hand it was really inspiring. I loved the cultural elements and the futuristic application to the world. The visual style paired with the active plot made things easy to picture. It definitely gave me a lot of new angles to consider worldbuilding from and a lot of questions with every angle.

Because I have to say there were a lot of questions.

The other hand had a lot of moving confused tangled parts trying to go in eighty directions at once. The world was a cool concept, with little development and worldbuilding that caused more focus on the negative spaces than on what was happening in the here and now.

The main character who was supposed to represent a feminist perspective and was oh so fixated on taking down the patriarchy spent a lot of time railing against women and hating women just as much if not more than the men. That is not a good look, or the right kind of role model. Not trying to say that that is most important thing to a character, but this is a book that won and was nominated for several awards in young adult literature and the message there could be more harmful than revolutionary.

Pros

One of the biggest pros here is the visual imagery that comes with the story. The action moves at a fast pace and it feels like a movie in the really epic places. Zhao has a strong voice and once that nuance is balanced, they will be a force.

Representation will always, always, always be important. I appreciate the dynamic in the romantic relationship, all three of them feel like a good balance to each other.

The cultural representation was a ton of fun. I am not super versed in Chinese lore or a lot of their history but I tend to love the books inspired by the culture. The mechas being based on different beasts comes across very visually (the nipple eyes are hard to un-visualize).

The setup. The lead in to this book had me. The vengeance track has never been my go to but it does make a good story and especially when it is something like to avenge a wronged sister. Her going after the pilot to make him pay for Ruyi was something I could get behind. Infiltrate, learn about him, show the audience how they live and operate but then as soon as I got my hopes up it was over.

Cons

Now for the bad.

Ruyi? That is Zetian’s sister’s name. It was said all of four times and all in chapter one. For the impetus of this revenge plot about agency and loving her sister as a person instead of what she could be used for Zetian never brings up her name. There is probably more of a cultural influence going on here as Big Sister operates like a title like Mother and Father. As the inspiration for action however I feel like her name should be wielded as a weapon by Zetian and in her rage be spread to everyone who can hear her voice. As a reader invested in that plot line, I had to search for the name itself.

The world was also a disappointment. There was a lot to work with, especially with all the inspirations being used but none of it felt complete. There were racial issues that people like Shimin had to deal with because they were Rongdi. I like the touch of having different undercurrents to society but the world isn’t developed enough to make it worth something. There were open ends to the qi and how it worked, not just with its wielders but within the world and the Chrysalis. What makes Zetian so strong? Can the Hunduns use it? Especially if they are what are used to make the Chrysalis and the Chrysalis runs off qi.

Why are the mechs based on mythological beasts? Don’t get me wrong I am here for it but what does it add to the plot? Does qi correspond to the Chrysalis? Not only a perfect pair between pilots but also a perfect match?

There are a lot of details involved and so few descriptions. It’s a futuristic alien world with waterfalls, bamboo, a Great Wall. The Hunduns are blobs, metallic blobs with legs that are multicolored. They swarm like bugs?

There is never enough time taken out for descriptions or to set atmosphere and atmosphere would have been the gamechanger here. The whole prologue scene could have really built tension but instead the actions blur by. There are quiet moments that come close, Shimin and Zetian at night and becoming allies left an impression but felt one step short of really impacting. I really blame Zetian.

There are some good points that Zetian makes (and some killer quotes that are really just a mood especially when it comes to shame) but overall she is a problem to me. I don’t like her very much true, but that isn’t what makes her problematic. She is often hypocritical, holding people accountable for things that she does herself and refuses to take responsibility for. Calling Shimin a monster for killing his family when she said she was willing to do the exact same thing in order to achieve her goals. Go on, be that guy, I can appreciate someone who has the ruthless discipline to get things done (cause I am not that guy at all), but then she turns around and treats it like it is unforgivable. She comes around after she learned about his reasoning but it made it difficult for me to respect her.

Then there is the way she looks at the women around her. She wants to avenge her sister but the story never gives us much on their relationship. The rest of her family is horrible so what makes her sister so different? The other pilots she only wants to make friends and gets her feelings hurt when it doesn’t work out. Then she doesn’t hesitate to kill the pilot that was friendly because Xiuying had wanted to protect her family. It was just the wrong kind of cold-blooded. Inconsistencies were everywhere.

The writing struggled a lot with inconsistencies. Things like when she was getting her eyebrows done she is reading notes on the tablet… that is also projecting the eyebrow shape on her face? So much is going on to keep things moving that too much happens all at once. Half the time I forget she is in a wheelchair or using crutches. Having her struggle with that kind of impediment could be an effective visual for her struggling with the physical curse of being a woman in this unbalanced world but I was always jarred when it would come up.

Final Thoughts

Since I have spent an astronomical amount of time spewing my opinion at you, what is the takeaway?

There was a lot about Iron Widow that could have worked. The setup opened a lot of doors and the ties to the mystical beasts and qi could be something that shaped the world in a unique colorful way. Unfortunately, it felt like it was used more for a visual than a part of the world with its own presence.

The characters don’t grow much. They are not incredibly likeable from the beginning and it is hard to relate to the choices most of them make. They are too flat to stand out more than Zetian herself.

Zetian is a problematic character to me. She doesn’t take responsibility for her choices and often points at the world as being at fault for the consequences of her actions. Her bloodlust I could maybe work with eventually but her way of judging and hating women who act differently from her could be damaging. It makes her as bad as the patriarchy that she claims to fight.

Would I recommend this to others? In general? No, probably not. If they are looking for something specific like representation, cultural aspects, or mecha? Yeah. They would probably be more understanding of what was going on around their interest and be happy with an action fueled ride.

I do recommend checking out Zhou’s content for yourself. There is a level of cultural trope that they talk about in their videos happening in Iron Widow’s society that isn’t as obvious to a typical Western reader but adds a lot to the unsaid context.

Am I going to read the next one? Abso-freaking-lutely. New authors are going to learn more about their writing. They already have a young readers series out that I have not read yet, but with each book their writing is going to get stronger. I am excited to see how it turns out.

Overall opinion? Rushed, ungrounded, needed to be fleshed out better. No real character development, and the chemistry in the romantic relationship is weak at best. Very visual, cool mythological elements especially in the form of giant robots, but the lack of detail made it difficult for me to immerse. I still don’t have a real grasp on the vibe of the world.

I was invested in the vengeance story line but it was so short lived. Show me the way the world works, stop telling me it does. Why do the other women put up with it when the system is so obviously sucky? She has so many rages and no compassion. She uses her rage as a shield against her own accountability and it makes it hard to be angry with her.

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