I absolutely adore this book. I love the FMC. She’s a badass and not perfect. She does what she needs to. I also love the two men in her life and how they all come together.

*this is a transcript of the video review that was posted so the grammar and flow is horrendous I honestly recommend just watching the video*

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's maybe morning, I don't know, hi, um, welcome to betwixt the books. We're doing a review today. We're recording this the day that this has to go up, and by that, I mean we're recording this after 7pm the day it has to go up, so if it seems like it was maybe rushed, I have no idea why there's no reason for that I definitely didn't finish the book 20 minutes ago I don't know what you're talking about, but we're here today to talk about iron widow by Xiran Jay Zhao.

Also, it is really hot in here because it's a heat wave, so I look like a tomato, and it's fine, guys, it's fine. Anyway, let's talk about this book. So this is a book that many of you may have already heard of, and that is because it has made the rounds on all of the book things, booktok, bookstagram but just real quick for the skinny if you don't already know, this is a book that for me since I used to watch all of the gundams on cartoon network was absolutely fantastic when I heard of it. This is the book about Zetian she lives in a futuristic sci-fi world inspired by chinese mythology and legends and folklore and in her world there are people who they're essentially gundams but that's not what they're called in this world anyway. Zoids. No not that either it's okay but these are giant mechs that are piloted by a man who's the main pilot and a woman who is basically sacrificed every single time this mech goes to war and there is a lot of wealth disparity and Zetian's older sister was sold to one of these pilots to be his sacrifice essentially and she not happy with that so this book is basically starting with her revenge story headed off to avenge the death of her sister by trying to kill the pilot who she was sacrificed to now zettian's plot is complicated by a wealthy son of we will later find out is not necessarily a nobleman but that's another story and he decides to complicate her plot his name is isa and he is in love with her and he says no don't go and she says but i must avenge my sister and she leaves him presumably in the dust turns out it's a good thing he loves her that will come back again later so she goes off and this is not a spoiler because it happens in the blurb she does successfully kill the pilot who is responsible for the death of her sister hurrah except for female co-pilots are not supposed to be able to you know murder the dude that's just the patriarchy is not happy so they call zetian an iron widow partner her up with one of the most un controllable and yet powerful pilots out there and send them off either to save the world or die the people in power don't necessarily care which a love triangle develops secrets are unearthed and there's a lot of pow pow pow so it's a ride so having just finished this like 20 minutes ago again keep that with a grain of salt because sometimes ratings fluctuate a little bit after you've been able to sit with a book i'm sitting at about a 3.5 rating for this book um having just finished it and we'll talk about some of the reasons for that i feel pretty confident that it's gonna stay there i don't really think that it's gonna go higher or lower than that um but just giving you the the sort of caveat that i did just finish it and sometimes you think of things later versus when you're like just out of reading the book so um i enjoyed it i am 100 down and willing to read the second book in this series i totally feel like gretchen and i could talk about it more in that place i do also know that this is debut and it does have some markers of the debut book so like be aware that this is um not the best uh why a book that we have ever read or reviewed but it definitely shows a lot of potential and there's some things that we really liked and some things that we really didn't like so much that kind of evened it out at a 3.5 um obviously our reviews are always spoiler free but we are going to talk about some of the things that we took issue with later um i will say that it was really hard for me to get into the book it i had to like pick it up and put it down several times once it got past like the 100 page point that got easier and i was able to like get into the story a lot better and finish it in like one and a half sittings um but that's obviously a negative if you were trying to get into a book in the beginning is deterring you i'm sure there's a lot of people who may um dnf this book because of it so for my overall impression um i basically agree with everything michaela just said um my rating is also about three and a half to four stars depending on the service since goodreads won't give us half star ratings um it this was a book i read in two very weird sittings so i started it like michaela said it was really hard to get into i put it down i'm not a super fan of sci-fi and so then when i picked it back up i was able to get into that much faster section and then i just read it all the way to the end because we'll talk about this more later but this book is a ride but i love the concept i love the characters it really did give me a lot of nostalgia from when i watched a lot of gundam and zoids but there was a really uh kick butt female pilot who takes no prisoners almost literally and there was an actual love triangle like nothing bothers me more than books that were like love triangle but it's not actually it's like this this is an actual love triangle and that's kind of sweet it is only one perspective just satiens which i think is sad as you get into the book because there could have definitely been more character development but as michaela said i too would definitely read the next book in this series because i have to know after that ending like what what all right the first thing that we wanted to talk about or rather i wanted to talk about were the characters in this book and as i was talking about this with some of my coworkers and describing some of these characters uh the thing that i said was like these are some very stereotypical why a characters we have sweet precious cinnamon bun rich boy love interest and we have gloomy depressed alcoholic bad boy love interest and we have the the badass snarky girl who doesn't take any [ __ ] protagonist and like these are character archetypes that you have seen before i will say there were not a lot of side characters by the way like there's this main trio and then a couple of other pilots and their wives slash concubines slash co-pilots um and like one or two other like men in power who kind of play roles in the uh book but there weren't a lot of side characters like friendship wise um but i i i feel like our core trio actually grew on me as we were reading the book and they did have some interesting things i think of out of all of them uh zaytian is obviously the most interesting and she actually goes farther than most why a protagonist like bloodthirsty ambitious female characters have gone um at least in the experience that i have read she is cut throat no hold barred will go all the way just bad ass

like michaela just said zitian is amazing i remember struggling through the first hundred pages and the first hundred pages is how long it takes you to get to what the blurb on the flap tells you will happen so this is not a spoiler but when zetian finally gets to murder the guy who murdered her sister and she's like standing on his corpse and saying i am your nightmare i was like whoa like hang on i feel like there are a lot of way novels with assassin or revenge stories where they go after the person and they achieve their revenge or whatever but like secretly they have a heart of gold and you know they're doing everything for the right reason so even when they're really violent like you know they're really sweet and innocent inside and you're like no no stop just just be violent just be violent that's okay that's a fine character trait and what i really appreciated about this book is that zitian is violent and unapologetically so there are several scenes in this book where i was like oh my god are they gonna go there and they went there so i will say that if you are not a fan of violence this may not be your book i know several tweens that would not like this book for that reason but if you as a reader have always just been like you know these ya books like walk up to the edge and then they don't go there this is the book that will make you go yeah and i really enjoyed it i was entirely there for it because it just felt refreshing to allow this girl who has been abused who has been abused by her family abused by the system she lives in to just take back her power by force and i was just like sign me up sign me up for this ride um gretchen mentioned this next thing in her overall impression and we're gonna like whiplash away from violence into the love in this book um because we have an actual love triangle here and that made me so happy it was actually the single biggest selling point on this book when i heard about it was that um there's an actual love triangle where not only does um the like female main character have two love interests but those love interests have a relationship with each other which is really goals couple goals power couple goals um uh zettian says at one point that a triangle is the strongest shape and like i i loved it and it was it was great um i i feel like there are some people who are going to take offense to the fact that there is a paulie relationship represented in a why a book but i feel like it was done in a healthy way less of like uh uh debauched three some sort of romance erotica and more of a we are three people who work better when all three of us are in a relationship together and we each have um pros and cons strengths and weaknesses that we bring to this relationship and all are needed in all parts it's not just like kind of thrown together like that so yeah one of my favorite parts of this book was all of their relationships i did say to gretchen and she agreed to me when we were talking about what to say here was that i wish that there was more space given to um egypt and shimon's relationship um part of the reason because this book is set solely in zaitan's perspective we don't really get to see them interact with each other all that often she notices it a couple of times and like makes a comment about it but um she's not like watching them interact when they are the only two people interacting with each other very often and when she does notice it it's after having been in her head and she's just kind of like afterwards commenting like do they like each other um and and they do they do like each other um i just wish that we got to see their relationship grow more um and perhaps having multiple perspectives could have fixed that if we had had that in this book but because it's just a tien's perspective um there's only so much that we can kind of know because of the way that she is as a character all right guys and now from one of the best aspects to for me the worst because that be how we do um listen so this book first of all should not have needed a third of the book basically a little bit less to get to all of the stuff that the blurb tells us is going to happen i just kept chanting just kill him just kill him just kill him just kill him and part of what that opening does michaela will talk about this has set up the world building and i understand that but i really felt like it took almost a third of this book for the real story to start and that was not great once it got into the story i was like oh cool fantastic things are moving in a really fast clip things are getting really interesting there's way more character stuff going on and then the ending happens and i'm not going to spoil anything but what i will say is that this book feels like the beginning is this long and the ending is this long and because so much interesting stuff happens at the like if i even tried if this was a spoiler discussion and i was going to try to list to you everything that had happened i would probably forget like 50 of it because so much happens in the ending so much important stuff it just really bugged me because i had forgiven the book for the beginning you know like i said when she's standing on his corpse and going i am i was like fine like totally here for everything else is about to happen and so then i felt like i had to rescind my forgiveness because i was like you could have just given this space and just why why why and especially with that ending i need so much more information i don't have and i understand there's another book coming that is not what i mean i feel like i was not very well grounded in that ending there was a lot of stuff happening and the pacing of this book some of the pacing of the character arcs it just didn't work for me i think it's potentially one of its biggest marks of being a debut novel

and again unfortunately for me despite the fact that the story was really good the fact that the pacing was like this really messed with the reading experience for me doesn't detract the fact that i want to read the next book but i didn't like it i wanted to talk about the world building a little bit and part of the reason why i think that this book is maybe going to lose some readers and i said it in my overall review which is that the beginning was very hard to get into gretchen talked about the pacing aspect of that and i want to talk about the world building aspect of that um part of the reason i think that that section took so long was that there was so much telling and not showing of our world it was zaytian telling us telling about the um giant mechs it was seti and telling us about how the girls get murdered all of the time it was atm telling us all about um the different types of chi that you can have and the difference between yin and yang and like um you you have all of these things that could have been peppered throughout the story in a more natural way that was being told to us all up front um and that's daunting to read like it it it pulls you out of the story and it also um is um it's just tiring because you're getting all of this information thrown at you all at once and i think that's why both of us really struggled for that first hundred pages aside from the fact that we were like when are we gonna get to the story because we know that all of this is going to happen this is on the blurb um there was so much world building like shoved in here and and me as a reader and as a writer um or an editor rather when i read something like this i'm like okay as a writer i totally understand needing to tell yourself this when you're writing the story so that you understand the world that you are living within but then as an editor i feel like we should come to it and say okay how can i is this information necessary to understand the story if not take it away if it is necessary to understand the story how can we work this into our plot in a more organic fashion when it makes the most sense to talk about it so like i totally understand talking about um yin and yang when we go into the the headspace of some of the characters it's it's visualized as a yin and yang's face there and like talking about possibly the different types of creatures like in a battle like oh our mech is weak against this other monster because we are fire type and it is water type like you like in that moment like you could totally talk about those different ways but like oh our subtype is wood and that will help us or something like that like you don't need to tell me all of the different types all up front and like which one's weak to which one like it i'm not gonna remember it because you're just shouting it at me um and i feel like that was like maybe the weakest point of this whole thing like we can forgive some weird pacing because we liked some other things but when i know that there's this book is going to lose readers because of this issue of all of this front loading of world building on top of the issues with pacing it it it struggles a little bit and again we want to read the second book we both liked it and like there is a lot of promise here and again it's a debut i totally understand like getting your footing as a writer and like learning to do these things as you go so i just wanted to say that

again it is always so much easier in these reviews to talk about things that we want to nitpick rather than things that we liked because why would you want to sit here and watch an entire review where we go we liked that we liked that we liked it it's very boring so even though we had these issues we just do want to stress that we really did enjoy this book and we do want to read the second one if you didn't already get that but we had some questions and i can't wait and i know michaela feels the same way to read that next book and see how um this book grows in the second book because as the story grows the author does as well right and that is sometimes a great thing with the next book in the series or the next book and author writes because you can see that growth and that is what i feel like i feel confident will happen but we will have to wait until 2023 to find out so i feel rather confident that michaela and i will be back for you and next year to let you know if we feel that that challenge has been met but in the meantime if you are interested in reading this book we do recommend that you at least check it out from the library give it a try just understand that beginning is going to be a little rough but there is action ahead if you persevere if it's not your thing now you know and that's really why we're here i guess also to hang out because michaela's down there anyway we're gonna go we will see you guys next time for an arc review of a romance novel that's a third in a series i wonder what it could be see you then

INSTEAD OF A LOVE TRIANGLE I GOT A THROUPLE??????? literally best thing ever - i hate love triangles lol.

overall very nice!! the dialogue felt a bit unnatural at times, and i feel like certain relationships and motivations could have been more developed. it was fairly predictable as well, but not in a way that overly bothered me.

this might sound weird but for once i’m glad we got a protagonist that is not only ruthless, but recognizes that she was treated shit by her family and that she deserves better. i know irl it is often hard to separate the hate and love you have for a family that has abused you, but wu zetian’s fam got what was coming for them and it was extremely satisfying.

would recommend to anyone who vibes with morally grey characters and a story that doesn’t overly focus on romance… but the romance that is there is very fun!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with an e-ARC to review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Honestly, I forgot to post my review about this book even though I read it before it came. I made a few TikTok's about it though, which I have linked .

So basically, I loved this book! I started reading it on a flight and was immediately hooked. That doesn't always happen for me, especially for science fiction and fantasy books so this was a huge win. I mean we start this book inside of a battle mecha, or chrysalis, how much more epic can you get. Also, this was the first YA book I ever read which featured a throuple. I think it is great that we are providing healthy (kinda, Zetian is interesting to say the least) polyamorous representation to teenage readers. This was a story about female rage and the desire to reclaim one's body, destiny, purpose. The hardest part about reading this book early has been the excruciating wait for the sequel, which I believe (fingers crossed) we are finally getting this year, 2024.

Morally grey characters are typically my favorite to read about and this was no exception. From Zetian our power-obsessed protagonist who wants to burn it all down to create something better and destroy the lie. To Yizhi the sweet-faced, mastermind rich boy and Li Shimin, the boy branded as a monster who is more than he appears. This book brought us action and conversation from the first page and kept us in its grips all the way through. Such a solid read and I can't wait to see how everything wraps up in the sequel!

GIVE XIRAN ALL OF THE STARS IN THE SKY BECAUSE THEY DESERVE THEM ALL!!! A fresh and fierce tale about a disabled girl who rises from under the destructive boot of the patriarchy and refuses to be put back there again. Can we also talk about the healthy and beautiful poly relationship. If there’s anything I gag at more its unhealthy love triangles… this gave us the REAL triangle and did it in a perfect way, I would go to bat for these three any day of the week.

Wow what an amazing debut. This story is bold and badass. I loved this so much I would probably read anything they write in the future. Will be eagerly awaiting the next book.

How did I never leave a review for this book??

It’s amazing, one of my favorite books, just blew my mind. It never slows down, the tension is fantastic, it’s feminist, it’s queer, I’m dying for the sequel!

This book is spectacular. The characters are all amazing, and the mechanics are so different from anything else I've ever read. I love the setting - books based on Asian culture are very different from what I'm used to, so I love reading about other places. This was the first book I read by this author, and it won't be my last!

What a fresh, unique new sci-fi story! I loved reading this high-stakes, witty, romantic, exciting novel.

It was a wow read for me...the main character, Zetian is so badass like I was literally simping for her throughout. The story pulled me in and just made me want to keep reading until I got to the very end

I'm so late with this post. I just need to say that this isn't hyped enough. It was such an amazing book. I can't wait to read more from them.

I have read and reread this book on multiple occasions, and every time I find new, rich details that I did not previously notice. Xiran Jay Zhao's worldbuilding is breathtaking, and I loved that the resolution of the love triangle felt natural and not at all contrived.

This is a great book for fans of Chinese fantasy, Mecha, and Pacific Rim. Would highly recommend reading this when you're in the mood for some action and strong female characters. Definitely a must read!!

This was not at ALL what I was expecting! It was way better! Sci fi mech, so cool! The chi, the mech bots, the connections, it was all so captivating. Didn't care for the romance but ah well. I also borrowed the audiobook (and own the hardcover) and boy, the names are pronounced sooooo differently than how they're spelled!!! I had to follow along for a bit to get who was talking or being talked about because I started off with reading and already had the (wrong) pronunciations in my head. lol. Heavenly Tyrant please!!

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao was the author's debut novel and wow I cannot wait to read more by this author! This follows our main character name Xitine and she was an amazing and bada** character to watch her grow from this shy to this bada** perason we see at the end of the story. After having this book on my shelfs since it came out I'm happy I waited till now to read this book it was fast pace and loved having the short chapters, and also it was queer cast of characters.
My favorite part was the twist we had towards the end because when I read it, I had my jaw dropped to the floor I was so shook by it! I would say if u guys love the hunger games tournament style & a magic steeped in posion magic systemy this book is totally for u and I'm happy to say I cannot wait to read more from Xiran and also where is book 2?? Why do I have to wait till April next year for the sequel????!
Overall rating 5/5 stars thank you to Netgalley for sending me an e-arc to read and review for you guys, also sorry it was a very late review! Better late than never!

But I have no faith in love. Love cannot save me. I choose vengeance.

I am sitting down to write this review moments after finishing this book just so I can shout at everyone who might see this to read this book if you haven't already. It's a masterpiece. A work of art. And I don't throw those phrases around to just any book. I have never read anything like Iron Widow. I love how we were given this historical-inspired book but in a sci-fi world. It's not something I've really seen much of and I'm honestly so here for it.

Some of my favorite things:
The relationship dynamics.
The FREAKING FIGHT SCENES.
The Chrysalises (because I'd very much so like to get inside of one).
The complete and total badass that is Wu Zetian.

Like I don't even know how to form a properly set up review because my mind is completely and totally blown by finishing this book. Don't sleep on it - go read it for sure.

Everyone should read this!!! Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for a review.

I'd like to first preface this review with a thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC of Iron Widow. I'd also like to disclaim that as Iron Widow officially debuts on 21 September, 2021, this review is based upon my reading of an uncorrected proof: text and illustrations may or may not be final. Once the book is out for this whole godforsaken world to see, I will update this accordingly.

••Mild Spoilers will be indicated with the two dots••

There are so so many wonderful things I want to say about this illustrious debut novel—and I certainly will—but I want to get through the critique I have for it first.

••My first qualm was with the exploration of the relationship between Ruyi and Zeitian. Ruyi's death is what propels Zeitian into the world of Hundun fighting, yet there were moments in which I felt the weight of the two sister's relationship wasn't emphasised enough in order for the reader to truly embody the pain Zeitian felt in wake of her sister's death. We are given glimpses into their life together through Zeitian, yet they are brief and fleeting in a novel full of mecha-mayhem. Ruyi is mentioned several times throughout Zeitian's narration, typically through her death sequence, her parting words with Zeitian or small moments of suffering at the hands of their family. Personally, I would have liked to see more grounding, more personal moments between the girls. There were very few and once again, were rather fleeting.••

••It is also unclear of just how exactly Ruyi dies. Yes, we are told through Zeitian, but we never experience her death exactly. We are never propelled into Ruyi's experience.••

I think the above could've been solved along with the next critique I have: we are often told in writing to show not tell. I believe its important to have a balance between the two. Zhao, while the book does have instances of show over tell, leaned a bit more so on the tell side. It doesn't minimize the pacing of the book, but it does leave us with a bit of a flat image to piece together in some instances. There are DEFINITELY moments where tell was used in which show simply wouldn't have worked, but there were also instances of the opposite; tell was used where show would've done a much better and more fluid job for the writing style.

••For example, there is a moment in the novel where Zeitian questions Yizhi's and her own sexuality. I am happy that she normalised it so well, yet was a little disappointed that we are only told of what she observed and not given a little snippet in time, a vivid imaging of a moment in which Zeitian started thinking the way she did about Yizhi's sexuality.••

There are many moments with Yizhi (and other characters) that are tell more than show and once again, while it didn't throw off the pacing, it flattened an otherwise vivid sci-fi retelling.

I would have loved to prick into Zeitian's mind in a way that doesn't always spell clarity, that doesn't tell us what is going on through her mind of experiences directly but through fluid, imaginative descriptions of it. Sure, you can say something like "My eyes were racked with pain" (thats not a quote from the book fyi) and that might work in certain settings, but in many cases it's just more interesting to say something like, "It felt like thousands of tiny hair thin needles were pricking my eyes". That way, we as the reader, are better able to imagine just what type of pain the eyes are feeling and not just that they are in pain.

The only other thing I would have really enjoyed being included was a map or diagram of Huaxia and beyond the Great Wall as well as a better understanding of how male pilots are scouted.

Whew, okay, thats enough of that. Let's get into the juicy GREAT stuff about this stunning novel.

First and foremost, I absolutely adore the multifaceted personalities these characters are given. They are three-dimensional rather than archtypes (even if some characters seem to be that way at first, they aren't) which is always appreciated amongst a plethora of archtype characters.

Wu Zeitian is not the typical heroic, humble, humility ridden female protagonist. I love it. She is not unwilling to use what she has to her advantage and I can truly see the influence of her historical countetpart through this examination of moral ambiguity. She makes harrowing mistakes and she learns and grows and sharpens her fury slowly from rash to calculating. The descent is subtle, yet impactful in its most brazen and riveting moments.

Gao Yizhi is a legend. I wish we saw more of his talents and thinking patterns as well as a bigger exploration of his background (maybe in book two? 👀).

Li Shimin needs a hug. Several long hugs where he is the little spoon. He is such a wonderful character. He is heroic in a stupidly sacrificing way and like the rest of the characters, is NOT some archtype. ••This is a nerd not a bad boy. Also Zhao bullies the hell out of him. #StopShiminAbuse.••

The next thing is the tech. Now, because the story is told from one perspective, its difficult to get a guage of tech outside of what is used in defense against Hunduns and related hard/softeware. Yet, even then, I felt at some moments that the tech wasn't as riveting as you would suspect it to be for a sci fi story of this caliber. This may seem like a negative, and maybe for some it is, but in my personal opinion, it was an exploration of slowly learning and understanding the tech available to the characters. What they have access to is limited for a purpose we do not yet know and I am damn excited to find out more of.

The action scenes are written wonderfully which is to be suspected from a fellow weeb.


I felt Zeitian's pain as my own and the pain of my sisters, friends and our mothers and foremothers. How many times I have been blamed for the looks men give me when I'm minding my damn business, the way my opinion is devalued, the way I wouldn't even be spoken to directly, the fear of physical pain. I felt the pain of being a women before I even know what a women was. Zeitian felt it too and she took it by the reigns to turn it into a whip.



I ADORE scifi, so I was gonna read Iron Widow regardless, but knowing that there was going to be polyamory explored, acknowledged and normalised in it, I was enamored with it long before I ever knew there was opportunity to read it.

Why I Read It: Like many other people that flocked to this book, I am a fan of Xiran Jay Zhao's YouTube channel, since her Mulan 2020 video. I find her videos both informative, focusing on Asian and especially Chinese history and culture, and entertaining, breaking down movies and shows that I enjoy with casual cool shade (also she's always dressed to the nines). When I heard she was releasing a novel loosely based on Wu Zetian's rise to power I was curious; however, I wanted to see what it was about before picking it up because I didn't want to pick something I wasn't going to like, at least based on the synopsis, even if it was written by a content creator I liked. So upon reading the synopsis I thought the book had promise, with speculative elements being compared to Pacific Rim and a feminist aspect akin to The Handmaid's Tale. A diverse science fiction with a badass female lead that wants to take down the patriarchy. Yes please!

What It's About: In a world ravaged by colossal monsters, giant mechas called Chrysalises are operate by a male and concubine pair. These concubines are female soldiers given to male warriors that enable them to operate their chrysalises, usually at the cost of their own life. Upon hearing of her sister's demise, Zetian offers herself up as a concubine pilot to the solider that used her sister. When Zetian emerges from the chrysalis unharmed and her male pilot is dead, she is branded as an Iron Widow and paired with the strongest pilot in the army. Her act of vengeance is only the beginning though, as she seeks to topple the entire system.

Cons: There was so much that went wrong that I don't even know where to start. Let's begin with the minor stuff, the writing itself. The pacing of this book was rather rapid but after awhile I began to notice that nothing really happened except for at the beginning to initiate the plot. Then everything comes rushing through the door at the end with an out of left field Deus ex Machina event. On top of that the dialogue was modern and rather juvenile, which are things that don't normally bother me even if I notice them but it further highlighted Zetian's juvenile behavior. If those were the biggest issues I had with this book than I might have been irritated but willing to overlook it, but these are all small potatoes compared to the larger issues in this book.
Now lets get to what I hated about this book: the "romance" and the "feminism". This book was marketed as a polyamorist romance, and the author mentioned that she received pushback from the publishers for not creating a love triangle. As someone who 9.9 times out of 10 hates the love triangles present in books, I was eager to read something that pushes against this trend; however, what is actually in the book I wouldn't consider polyamory, let alone good polyamory. The reasons I don't consider this polyamorist are because the two male love interests have only about two scenes together, which is hardly enough to build a relationship on regardless of how much chemistry they have (which is none), and Zetian's treatment of the guy she spends most of the book with, which is the more egregious offender. She is just abusive to the solider for most of the book, even as he is having nightmares and it dawns on her that he is on the same position as she is, all she does is spew hurtful comments and treats him dismissively. On top of that, he never does anything to warrant this behavior from her, so this just paints her in a pretty bad light and as an individual that possibly lacks empathy.
This ties into the other aspect of this book that was heavily marketed and greatly let me down, the “feminism”, and Zetian is at the forefront of this issue. Zetian is not like other girls (that's almost a verbatim line in this book) and the entire narrative keeps beating you over the head with that. She's not vapid, like those other girls (gets into a catfight with a girl at the start of the book after critizing a girl for putting so much effort into her appearance). She's not meek, like those other girls (constantly yells and throws tantrums if she doesn't get her way (which is almost all the time because this society is sexist and evil) and destroys all who challenge her). She's not weak, like those other girls (is the most powerful fighter to ever exist). For someone who makes it clear her main goal is topple the patriarchy, she sure seems to hate women. Not only is this a dated trope that should be put to rest, the narrative seems to double down on it by how Zetian treats other women. Zetian is clearly an angry feminist, which is okay as there are valid reasons for her to be angry about the treatment of women; however, her view of what a "proper feminist" seems to be is that women should always be aggressive (in other words exhibiting more masculine traits). To those who aren't that way, she is very condescending and hostile towards them. Seriously I can't recall a single positive interaction with any woman on page, not even with her dead sister whom she's supposedly doing all this for (so there was also fridging, another harmful trope that uses women). There was one woman, Xiuying, that Zetian tolerated but, without going into spoilers, in the end she is treated just like the rest of the women. It's kind of amusing that when Zetian meets other higher ranking concubine pilots one of them treats her the same way she everyone else, and she's shocked and angry (but she cannot have an epiphany about her behavior because that would mean she isn't always right and perfect as well as requiring her to exhibit empathy, which she seems to be incapable of throughout this book). In fact, Zetian is arguably a villain.
As I've already discussed at length she has no remorse for (sometimes unwarranted) abrasive behavior and no empathy towards those in similar positions to her. She commits a lot of murder throughout this and still possibly she is the righteous one. Okay, so she's adapted Light Yagami's brand of "justice", which certainly does not bode well for anyone. The sad thing is there are multiple examples of the extreme misogyny of this world that rightfully warrant an angry response, but there's something about the writing that fails to convey a deep-seated anger and instead comes off as childish petulance. Maybe this is because very little is given of Zetian's backstory and she has no connections with anyone except for one of her love interests who kisses the ground she walks on. Ultimately, Zetian doesn't remotely achieve her goal of destroying the patriarchy, she just gains personal power and there is no reason for me to believe she isn't going to keep her sexist, gender essentialist views.

Pros: The one positive thing I can about this book is the worldbuilding was mildly interesting and as someone for whom "mecha" or "giant robots fighting" or not buzzwords, I found the Chrysalises to be a fascinating concept and wanted to know more about them and their role in this world. I also appreciate the authors attempt at using them as a tool to demonstrate the issues plaguing society, but I clearly don't think that was executed well and found the Chrysalises to be underutilized.

Finishing Thoughts: Despite my initial hype and hope for this book it turned out to be so bad on so many levels. The worst parts of this book were unfortunately the parts that were pushed forward when marketing this book, the “feminism” and the “polyamory”, with one being nonexistent and the other being portrayed in a more dated and problematic than not kind of way. The sad thing is what Zetian is fighting for is a noble cause, and fury is warranted at how these girls are viewed and treated, but she goes about it in a way that is so destructive, childish, and selfish that I can't find myself feeling sympathetic or rooting for her. I want to make it clear that my fundamental issue with feminism in this book isn't Zetian's aggressive behavior, it's the lack of basic decency she gives to literally all other women. Upon completing the book, and even as I'm writing this review, I'm not sure if she is meant to be the hero of this story because she consistently demonstrates sociopathic tendencies in high stakes situations. This would have been far better marketed as a villain origin story. Even with all that said (this is my longest review to date) I could still say more about the failure of Zetian as a character, and how badly written the side characters are and how they feed into gender essentialist views, and how so much of this world doesn't make sense, but I will end things here. Needless to say I won't be continuing the series and this is very likely going to be the worst I will read in 2023.

This book was great. I loved the sci-fy pieces of this book. There was also excellent representation in this book. I would recommend this read.