I had a great time reading this book! There were a few pluses and minuses, but overall this was an incredibly solid debut that I’m giving a 4 star rating to.

Strengths:
[*] Xiran Jay Zhao’s writing style. She has a simple style that flows well, which is exactly what I enoy.

[*] The world. It’s just straight up cool and immersive.

[*] The rep. Especially in a book meant for teens, I do applaud the author for going there with a different sort of relationship and portraying it in a fairly healthy light.

[*] The characters. Overall, I found myself enjoying and caring about the characters.

Weaknesses:

[*] Zeitan, honestly. I feel like there could have been a touch more fleshing out. It’s the beginning of a series, so I’m assuming we’re going to see some progression in the future but I did get some ‘Mary Sue, but a badass ’ vibes as other reviewers have noticed as well.

[*] Pacing was a big one for me. I found myself at times enjoying a scene and then all of a sudden a ton of action would happen and I would have to go back and make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Potential Triggers:

[*] Alcoholism

[* ] Death of a family member

[*] Sexual coercion. Nothing graphic, but there are a few moments/scenes that I think may be potentially triggering.

All in all, I do highly recommend picking this up when it comes out!

This book blew me away!

When I first heard of it it caught my interest because mechas in YA is something I haven't seen before. I'm so glad I was able to read it early through NetGally.

Wu Zetian is the main character of my dreams. She has agency, confidence, and brains. Experiencing this journey with her was truly enjoyable. The way she sees the system that keeps her oppressed because she's a woman and poor is refreshing. She isn't fooled at all by the lies they feed her. This story is very much a feminist story with a main character that isn't afraid of power and claiming the respect that society has long denied her. Also I really related to the anger that fueled her forward.

The romance was absolutely refreshing. The author takes the love triangle and gives us something fresh.

The story was pretty fast paced but to me the middle dragged a little but then that ending hit hard. This book definitely left me wanting more.

I really wanted to love this book. The premise, which promised a “blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction” sounded so intriguing and promising. The book has been hyped up for its strong feminist themes and diverse representation. While I love the sounds of these things, it’s the execution that killed the book for me.

The story takes place in Huxia, a region plagued by continuous war with mecha aliens called Hunduns. The husks of dead Hunduns can be harvested as materials to build Chrysalises, giant mecha piloted by young men and powered by a combination of the pilot’s Qi and the Qi he draws from female pilots, known in this world as “concubine-pilots.” This system is extremely exploitative and usually ends with the death of the female pilots, as battles require a huge amount of Qi and the female pilots are essentially drained of their life force.

The story follows 18-year-old Zetian, a young woman from a poor village determined to become a concubine-pilot in order to avenge her older sister, who was murdered by a famous pilot. She succeeds in doing so, because Zetian turns out to have an extremely high “spirit pressure” and ability to control her Qi, even to the extent of overpowering male pilots, earning her the notorious moniker, Iron Widow.

There were several concerns I had with this work.

First, the pacing is incredibly quick. In a handful of chapters, Zetian transforms from a seemingly powerless young woman into a Qi powerhouse that continually confounds the military. In addition, so many major plot points occur in succession—from battles to major interpersonal conflicts to political intrigue to the (very) quick progression of the romantic relationships—a lot was packed into the book and in the case, I don’t think quantity = quality.

There are strong Mary Sue vibes in this story—Zetian adapts to and is successful in pretty much every situation she is thrown into. I never got the sense that she was facing actual dire stakes, except maybe at the very end of the book. There wasn’t a real feeling of urgency throughout because it’s established pretty early on that Zetian can essentially do anything—even murdering one of the military’s best pilots!—and get away with it relatively unscathed. Not because she changes the hearts and minds of the terrible men around her, but because that’s just how the plot seemed to unfold time and time again.

I appreciate and enjoy feminist themes in novels, but in Iron Widow they are so strongly embodied by Zetian that it borders on unbelievable. I can understand feelings of rebellion, questioning the status quo, and feeling violent rage against your oppressors.

But Zetian goes beyond that, espousing a mindset that seems out of place in the context of the setting, which is almost purely comprised of overbearing, abusive men, and passive, downtrodden women. There are moments where she adopts empowering beliefs in the span of a single scene. She doesn’t seem to truly struggle with her beliefs. Perhaps this is to indicate that Zetian is incredibly strong-willed and secure in her sense of self-worth?

Knowing that she has grown up in an intensely patriarchal society with extremely rigid gender roles, such immense character “growth” in so little time is unrealistic. She has no strong female role models in her life—not even fictional ones in books. It’s hard to believe that she would have the intensity of mindset that she is portrayed to have without having any influence or example to even take inspiration from.

The relationships in the books are also poorly depicted and unrealistically paced. There is a lot of telling versus showing and one of the relationships leaps from begrudging respect to “we’re kissing now” in a single scene. Zetian’s love interests seem so enamored of her but it’s never really shown why that is—again, Mary Sue vibes.

I struggled to write this review because I wondered if perhaps I was reviewing a young adult novel the way I would review adult fiction. But I believe that craft is craft. Good writing—a strong narrative arc, believable characters, a vivid setting, pacing that supports the story—should be a priority in all kinds of books, no matter the intended audience.

For this reason, I’m giving Iron Widow 1.5 stars. It’s a book with an incredibly promising, imaginative premise, but that ultimately suffered due to unnuanced and unsophisticated execution.

Thank you so much Penguin Random House Canada and Xiran Jay Zhao for allowing me to read this book! I enjoyed reading it so much! This reimagining of China's only female empress, Wu Zetian, was so creative and hilarious!
This book is perfect for fans of the Handmaid's Tale and mecha anime, and I cannot wait for the second book!

I went into Iron Widow both excited about the concept and scared for the execution. Usually, when books are being promoted as feminist they end up being shallow attempts to show a strong female lead. Unfortunately, this book felt that way a bit. I did appreciate how it pointed out sexism in the world, especially in history, through every outlet. In our home lives, in politics, media, etc.

Zetian's actions didn't really feel like they were genuinely aiming for the goal of giving women freedom. They felt a bit more selfish than I was expecting from someone who supposedly wanted to help every other woman in her tiny shoes. She started off talking about making society equal, but by the time we reach the end she really only cared about basically being a dictator. She didn't even have a positive relationship with a single other woman throughout this book, which is honestly my biggest gripe.

There was a lack of other female characters in general. She talked to what, three? Not including her family. And she had a negative relationship with every single one. You would think that in a society like this there would be a network of girls supporting each other. Instead, they are not only submissive, but actively helping men be in control of everything. I find it hard to believe that Zetian was the ONLY woman who realized she was worth more than what she was being told. It gives her big "chosen one" energy.

Let's look at The Handmaids Tale (Hulu show version) as an example since that is what they reference in promotions. The show follows June who is actively fighting against the male-dominated society she was forced into, but she isn't alone. She is surrounded by other women who are fighting in their own ways, in any way they can, big or small. Something to show that Zetian had a web of support from other women would have been amazing, and I'm disappointed we didn't get anything even close to that.

I also thought it was kind of ridiculous she was labelled as an Iron Widow when she killed literally one single dude. You would think they would pass it off as a weird fluke and pretend it never happened but instead they instantly let her know that she has power and she starts to think of herself as an assassin. Her actions were also more reckless than methodical, which was just annoying.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the author's notes at the start of the book, she talks about how even though the story is obviously fictional, the feelings she felt while writing the story were real and true. These emotions are presented in impactful ways all throughout the novel. I felt the anger she had for the mistreatment of women in this book, and how it represents real issues happening even in today's world. I understood the rage felt by the main protagonist as she recounts memories of her sister having been mistreated and cast aside as if she were an object. I felt the moments highlighting her fractured mentality and oppressed being. And boy was I in for one hell of a ride from page one.

I was pulled in by the tagline in the summary: "Pacific Rim meets the Handmaid's Tale" - if there ever was a most accurate blurb, this is it. It delivered everything I was hoping for and more. On top of the action and gritty drama in this dystopian universe, the author underscores to the reader important issues such as misogyny, inequality between class systems, and unethical values propagated by a broken government.

One of my favorite things from this novel is the character progression. I love the transformation of our main character from a rage-fueled, desperate individual crawling towards revenge into this powerful girl feared by many (while still fueled by righteous anger her whole journey). I felt most of the characters were pretty well fleshed out and multidimentional. There's no one description to define each character. For example, Character A isn't just The Smart One; he's clever, but also sweet, devoted to those he cares about, and is always eager for new knowledge. And Character B isn't just The Brawn; he is useful in a fight but his physicality doesn't define him. This character lends his strength when his friends need help but he's also a big teddy bear on the inside who, despite having suffered many injustices in his past, can still find it in himself to put his trust in others and discover a loyal support system in them.

Another pro for this book was the action scenes; they were written well that the reader can imagine every movement and hit by these mecha creatures. The world-building was super interesting, especially when it incorporated elements of nature, qi, and traditional Chinese history as part of its universe. I also enjoyed the juxtaposition between the complex and highly technological beings that are the Chrysalis creatures, and the descriptions of naturally rich landscapes where the lower class townspeople live in huts among rice paddies and dress in simple clothing. The ending very obviously hints at a sequel so I look forward to seeing a little bit more addition to the world-building aspects.

I felt the story had just the right amount of aggression and violence; each instance of rage or violence lends purpose to the story, and fight scenes never lasted too long to become boring. Since the author already makes the comparison to Pacific Rim, I'll continue the trend and note that the action in Iron Widow ramps up similarly to PacRim's arc. Slowly first with a little background on the mechas, their purpose and pilot function, and then later on by the end the reader gets to encounter a number of different types of Chrysales and their elemental strengths. This culminates in The Big Fight at the climax of the story. The similarities are not a bad thing; the final part is written very well and kept me at the edge of my seat.

One other positive thing I want to highlight is the relationships in this novel. You can't get a good 'individuals-sharing-a-neural-link-to-pilot-a-giant-robot' story without putting an emphasis on the neural link part. Our main characters are forced to share their memories and experiences with each other every time they ride, and their interactions outside of these links really help foster the relationships into healthy, loving ones. The romance comes with the nature of the story but does not feel forced. Also, no love triangles and ridiculous miscommunication to be found here-- who needs unrequited second lead love when our protagonist can have her cake and eat it too?! I feel like my review so far has made the whole book sound like drama and grittiness overload but there's actually a good amount of funny lines in there too, as well as feelgood and cute moments with certain characters (!!!).

My main con would be that I wish the female lead had more chances to interact with other female characters, and actually have good moments with them. Sadly, she does not get a chance to develop any positive relationships with other females; rather she seems to encounter only ones who wish her harm, and mostly relies on her male counterparts to get her out of sticky situations. I hope the author can amend this issue in any future sequels because I believe it would make the message of her story much much stronger.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and appreciated all the badass action scenes featuring the female protagonist. I love that she's driven so much by revenge and when she achieves her goal, she becomes even more unhinged as she uncovers more nefarious dealings happening in the underbelly of their government. The ending was one giant nail-biting session; I couldn't put the book down once the final third arc of the story started!! There's one well-known literary work that I really want to point out for Iron Widow's similarity to it, but it will definitely give away the ending so I will have to trust that other readers will know exactly which one I have in mind once they have finished reading too. I would say this falls towards the end of the Young Adult spectrum, closer to New Adult. While some aspects of the story could be predictable, it did not detract from my overall reading experience so I didn't feel that YA tropes was an issue with this novel. Some of the characterizations for minor characters could be improved but there is plenty of opportunities to work on these issues in future sequels, which I will definitely be looking forward to reading.

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Random Canada for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
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"If they don't respect me just because I'm from the 'wrong' half of the population, I'm not respecting them back."
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What I liked: The tagline was honestly what caught my attention first: "Pacific Rim meets Handmaid's Tale..." I was very skeptical about that combination because I couldn't wrap my head around it, but once I started the book, I couldn't put it down! Wu Zetian, our protagonist, is a young woman in a very patriarchal, misogynistic world. But she doesn't let that stop her at any point. Heck yeah ♀️
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What I didn't like: My only issue with the plot was that her initial motivation seemed to be resolved much too quickly, which led to a bigger picture kind of conflict. I get that, but there was barely any satisfaction with it.
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But literally, other than that, MORE PLEASE.

The concept drew me in but the cover had me sorta second thought it, (I know they say don’t judge a book by its cover but I can’t help myself) but I’m glad I went through with this book. A Pacific Rim x Handmaid’s Tale mixed with feminism, it didn’t disappoint.

This book has everything you could want. A morally grey main character, an wonderful and engaging plot sprinkled with hidden themes that really have you thinking, an amazing asian-inspired world building.

Iron Widow follows a girl, Wu Zetian. Wu is a female pilot embarking on a journey to avenge her sisters murder all while trying to deal with and overcome the gender struggles placed on women. I think this book wonderfully ties in how women struggle in a world that favors men. I think the whole plot of avenging her sister really help shows that in such a wonderful way.

While Wu teams up with Li Shimin, she works on figuring out why the pilot system is so misogynistic and trying to protect other women. It’s really a great story, I feel like it covers a lot of bases you don’t see typical YA books covering, and I really like that.

This book was great, but the pacing was off on some parts. the last like 25% of the book felt there were a lot of parts just crammed in my personal opinion. The writing style wasn’t necessarily my favorite, but it was still an enjoyable story. So excited for it to hit shelves.

If you’re looking for a great YA debut, own voices, interesting and delicately out together novel, Iron Widow is for you!

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc! I absolutely loved this book! I already knew I would just based off the description, but I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. I loved the strong female protagonist in this book, and especially her role and views on the world she lived in. There was so many important messages in this book, and it was such a powerful read. I did find it to be a lot of stuff happening at once at certain points, so it was important that I was paying my full attention as to not miss anything. There was tons of action and rarely a dull moment in this book, which I really enjoy. I enjoy fast paced books with lots of action because it helps keep me interested and engaged, and this book does that really well! I can’t wait to purchase and read this again when it is published and I recommend it to all lovers of fantasy!

A society like Ancient China.
Tributes and Fanfare like Hunger Games.
Smart, Angry, and Strategic Female like Game of Thrones.
Warfare like a Sci-Fi Transformers.

Wow.

A lot of YA fantasy novels with battles and war often pull punches. Even more often it centers on a romance and more than likely a love triangle. Iron Widow does none of those things. No punches are pulled and you haven't seen a love triangle like this one.

In a society where a good woman should be seen, not heard, and her entire existence is in service of her husband, Zetian says No. She grew up in a house where the women walked on eggshells are were regularly beat by the men when they were displeased. Her elder sister had already gone to fight the Hunduns and her qi and life were sacrificed by her family. Now it is Zetian's turn, but if she is going down, she is taking the Prince Pilot who killed Big Sister with her.

Zetian is angry and she has every right to be. She is one badass female. There are several rockstar moments that are entirely too satisfying. What a queen Xiran Jay Zhao is and Bravo to her publishing company for being brave enough to publish this masterpiece that doesn't fit any mold!

Thank you @penguinteen and @netgalley for the eARC

I like using flowery words when writing reviews but today, my words fail me as I try to quantify my adoration for Iron Widow, as I try to trap it within the confines of language and as I try to show you how much of an impact it made in me.
Meet the debut so bold and blazing because it will be unlike anything you've ever read before.

Pitched as the Pacific Rim meets the Handmaid's tale, I'm here to tell you I haven't read/watched either but I still love Iron Widow because it is solid enough to stand on it's own.
Iron Widow is set in a world where boy pilots sacrifice the lives of girl pilots to power mechas in order to fight off Hunduns.
Zhetian, our MC, signs up as a concubine pilot to avenge her older sister and in a surprising turn of events, emerges as the feared iron widow, a female pilot who is able to sacrifice the male one to power the mecha. She is the paired the strongest pilot in the military. The rest is about how Zhetian would fight this deeply patriarchal and misogynistic system and will she survive it?

The characters are amazing and the author does such a great job in subverting common tropes. ( Triangle is definitely the strongest shape)
And this is what I talk about when I say diversity. The book is simply steeped in Chinese Culture that you can't help but love it.

Almost feverdreamlike in it's wuxia ish world, you can feel Zhetian's fearless fury bleeding off each word as she fights an entire world geared against her gender.

Epic in every sense of the word, portraying the very real problems faced by women in a fantastical context, Iron Widow is a must read.
#letsreadownvoices

Iron Widow is being compared to Pacific Rim and The Handmaid's Tale. When comparing a book such as this to two very popular pieces of media, it almost always sets itself up for failure. I think that's where my problems with this book stem from. I was coming into this book, expecting something and having high expectations and the book just didn't deliver. If this book had stood on its own merit, instead of leaning on these comparisons, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

The storyline changed way too many times in my opinion and I was left feeling confused as to what could realistically happen next. I wasn't rooting for our main character by the end and I felt very let down by her actions. I find it super unrealistic that in a society as oppressive as this, that there is no one standing up against these injustices. I cannot believe that our main character is the only one who is trying to fight this war on misogyny and patriarchy in this society.

I do think that the colloquial and casual language in the book made it very easy to read and I loved the inclusion of a polyamorous relationship between the three main characters. I'm intrigued to see what happens next so I'll probably be picking up the second book when it comes out.

When I heard that this book was being compared to Pacific Rim and the Handmaid’s Tale, I was immediately intrigued and knew I had to get my hands on this book. I do feel like those big comparisons did give me high expectations of the book and the book did not meet them.

I thought I had a good idea what I was letting myself into when starting the book but this book isn’t at all what I thought it would be and I don’t think the book itself knew either. It tried to be way too many things at once and couldn’t stick to a single trajectory. Instead it flip flopped from one plot line to the next, resolving them way too quickly and leaving the reader with whiplash.

There was the revenge for her sister plot line, which I thought would take up a considerable chunk of the book. It was resolved within the first few chapters. Then there’s the training plot line, the media stardom plot line, the Golden Dragon plot line and the becoming Empress plot line? They were all thrown at the reader, hoping something would stick. I thought that the Golden Dragon plot line, traipsing through the jungle, communicating with nomads, would have been a fantastic story but we only got a couple of pages of that unfortunately and it wasn’t explained or given enough time on the page to really have an impact.

This book also suffers from the ‘I’m not like other girls’ trope. I highly doubt that Zeitan is the only woman to have tried to rebel against the system. It feels a little impossible to me that she is the only one capable of thinking beyond the misogynistic system they are all stuck in. Adding an underground rebel force amongst all the subservient women would have given this book an extra layer of intrigue. Unfortunately, all the other women in this story are put down, left behind and insulted by our main character in the name of feminism and I hate it, thanks.

I do think that coming into this book expecting a Pacific Rim retelling really made it difficult to read because I kept comparing the book to Guillermo Del Toro’s optimistic mecha robot movie (with epic quotes like ‘Today we’re cancelling the apocalypse!’). The author is also very tell not show and so I felt the book lacked descriptions. I struggled picturing scenes in my head and the world building needed a lot more work in my opinion.

The relationships also developed way too quickly. I love that the author wanted to include a poly relationship in their book. It’s so underrepresented in YA literature and is definitely a fresh take on the love triangle. I just wish that the author had taken more time to build tension between the characters. The ‘will they, won’t they’ aspect is what I love most about relationships in books such as this but I just feel like it didn’t work for me at all.

I was thoroughly entertained though and read this book very quickly. I feel like the colloquial language could have been left out (words such as ugh, yeah, etc.) but other than that, I felt like the writing flowed well enough.

Overall, this was a great debut novel by an influencer I really enjoy watching online. I love the concepts and the historical inspirations for this book come through strongly and do make an impact. I am grateful that the author included a poly relationship and I’m excited to see where the second book takes us. I do wish that this book would decide what it wanted to be from the beginning because it just doesn’t feel like it had a central plot line and it left me with whiplash every time the story decided to change course.

***Spoiler warning for other readers.***

As a fan of the author from their awesome YouTube videos, gorgeous Instagram photos, and witty Twitter feed, I admit I had high expectations for their debut YA sci fic novel, Iron Widow. But the book did not enthrall me like I’d hoped.

I knew giant robots were going to be featured in the book, but I had no idea just how prominently. I’ve seen plenty of Japanese anime featuring mechs, and I’ve honestly never been a fan. I prefer a character-driven story. In this book, however, the mechs were probably the best feature. The author created an extremely complex system for how they worked, what they’re capable of doing, how they interact with humans and their enemies, etc. For me, though, it was a little too much. Even having grown up watching the original Power Rangers, I was very confused about all the form-morphing and trying to keep track of what the various element types were capable of. I think this was partly because the heroine of the story and her friends kept breaking all the rules that had been seemingly set in stone. I couldn’t keep up with all the complicated details, let alone what was normal and what was special just to them.

I generally felt like a lot of the rules kept contradicting each other. The heroine Zetian has fairly high spirit pressure but nothing terribly unique. But then suddenly she does have extremely high, special spirit pressure. I’m not sure what happened there. I didn’t really understand. Did she gain a higher level by partnering with a specific person? Did they misread her spirit pressure previously? How and why did it change? Then pilots supposedly need 10 days to recover their qi and to be ready to fight again, but repeatedly Zetian and partner Shimin are made to jump into battle with only a day or two of rest. Is it normal that they can still function to any degree? The mechanics either weren't explained plainly enough or they kept changing to the point I just remained confused from the very beginning.

I really liked the incorporation of Chinese elements into this futuristic setting, like the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army. The horrors of foot-binding was really well-described. I had heard of it before, of course, but never in such specific, gruesome details. It was so grotesque and atrocious and could have really hindered Zetian in many ways, yet it never really did, somehow. I would forget it was even a thing until she would see a woman without bound feet and feel jealous. There was a major focus on it in the beginning of the story but then it would be forgotten and suddenly Zetian would be doing something that should be impossible, like ice skating.

I found that I did not like the characters very much. There were some truly shining moments for Zetian: when she unleashes her fury and kills her first combat partner, exacting her revenge for his murder of her sister; when she tortures a man to death and films it; and at the end of the book when she murders her entire family. In those moments I felt she might be a sociopath, and that’s a unique character portrayal I could get behind. But those are just three instances out of the entire book when her personality strongly comes through. The rest of the time she was all over the map for me.

Zetian and Zetian alone seems to mind the way women are treated by her culture. She has no female role model and there is no traumatic event that propels her feminist way of thinking. Her treatment as a woman alone is certainly cause to rebel, but how can she possibly be the only woman in all of society to feel the way she does?

There are also times where the story fails to show that she is being as oppressed as she supposedly is. Women are supposed to be second-class citizens, but there are moments where Zetian plainly walks all over everyone, and they just let her. One example of this is: “I convinced Central Command to belatedly grant Shimin the King of Pilots title that he’s been deprived of for the past two years.” It’s a major part of Shimin’s character that due to his race and background he is treated as much like a slave as Zetian and women are, but she had the power to fix his life in a single sentence, with no further explanation? There are numerous moments like this where it seems like she wields a lot more power than she should.

There are also times she behaves as though she has nothing to live for and fears nothing, such as when she aims a guard’s gun at her own head and dares him to kill her; then in the next turn she’s in fear for her life or virginity, proving she does in fact care what happens to her. Which is it supposed to be? I felt she was an inconsistent character.

I liked Yizhi at first. I liked that he ignored social protocol and spent his time in the company of a pauper girl, despite being a noble himself. But it was just overly convenient the way he inserted himself into Zetian’s situation, especially when his first action in the main storyline was to magically appear just as Zetian was about to be raped. It felt ridiculous in that moment. And while it was clear in the beginning Zetian was the only person he’d ever had eyes for, when he met Shimin it seemed like a clear case of the insta-love trope. There was no buildup, they just started eyeballing each other like it was love at first sight, when they had every reason in the world to feel the opposite. Overall he seemed a calm, clear-thinking, compassionate character. I didn’t like his father but it seemed out of character that Yizhi would murder him at the end of the book.

My favorite was probably Shimin. His backstory was more interesting than anyone else’s. I really loved how Zetian kept experiencing his memories and sharing them with the reader. That was always a fun element. But he tended to fade into the background at times or turn into a mere avatar of his addiction. His drinking problem overtook his character for a large portion of the book, to the point there was basically nothing left. I did like the way the story ended for him (for now). I wasn’t expecting it, and if I were to read the next book, it would 100 percent be to see whether or not Shimin survives whatever is coming.

I was very confused about Sima Yi’s role and purpose in the story. At first he seemed to be a scientist who wanted to experiment with Zetian, but then he became a mentor or advocate for Zetian and her friends. Then he’s back to being a villain again, maybe? It bothered me every time he had a scene, because initially he seemed that he would be an adversary and then suddenly the whole group was just so chummy with him like they were all best friends, and I did not understand how that happened. I’m really confused about him. Maybe if his friendliness and helpfulness were toned down I wouldn’t have been so bewildered by his apparent apathy when Zetian and Shimin are attacked by their own at the end.

The last comment I have is that for what is supposed to be a feminist book, it was disappointing to see Zetian butting heads with literally all the other female characters in the story, from her mother to her fellow co-pilots, especially when those fights were due to jealousy over men. That’s the opposite of the kind of thing I expected to read about in this book. She was jealous that other women had not had their feet bound, they were jealous of her for her apparent superpowers, they were jealous of her because she’s hot, there was a lot of backstabbing going on between them all... Why were all the women in this book all pitted against each other? Feminism is about women lifting other women up. This book read as blatantly antifeminist in this regard.

On the whole I did not like this book. I adore the author’s other creative endeavors so I made sure to give Iron Widow its fair chance by reading it in its entirety even though I was not enjoying it. I’m glad I finished it because the ending was by far the best part, but I don’t have plans to continue the duology.

Bloodthirsty and tender, full of power and powerlessness, I could hear Wu Zetian roaring her vengeance call long after I finished this thrilling sci-fi masterpiece.

This is an EXCELLENT debut novel. Giant mech warriors! Futuristic fiction grounded in Chinese history! A young woman choosing revenge against a society that destroyed her sister!

What I adored: where a lot of novels would chicken out, Xiran Jay Zhao NEVER shies away from her character taking revenge on patriarchal monsters. Zetian doesn’t performatively fret about it afterwards. It’s an intense breath of air! 🔥

“You’ve been living a dream for long enough! Welcome to your nightmare!”

PART ONE: Excellent. 10/10.

PART TWO: Surprising!! 9/10

PART THREE: 10/10! The love triangle in this is so… (spicy? free?) better than any of the ones I grew up with. These characters are on the brink of death 24/7 why should they feel shame or choose to limit themselves? It’s nice!

PART FOUR: I am not going to spoil anything. What an ending!!!!!

Much like the mechs themselves, this book becomes more powerful and beautiful with every new layer of pressure, pain, and intensity. I RECOMMEND YOU PRE-ORDER THIS IF: you want to follow a main character living longer than they ever expected, and using the borrowed time to fearlessly test the limits of the broken world around them.

Content warning: there are Neon Genesis Evangelion levels of body horror & trauma! Just a heads up!

A big thanks to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I pretty much devoured this one. This book was unapologetically fierce and never ceased to deliver excitement.

I find the description of Pacific Rim meets A Handmaid’s Tale to be particularly accurate; Zetian, an 18-year old girl, is sold by her own family into the government’s concubine-pilot program—A program which exploits girls as a battery to power mecha-suits. Though her story begins as very bleak, she is quick to take hold of her own destiny in ways you wouldn’t imagine.

A combination of riveting characters, engaging storytelling, cultural elements, and fascinating tech made this a very unique read. You’re constantly on your feet with a new thrill at every turn. Thumbs up to the author!

It was an amazing read. Very fast paced, I read it in one sitting. I already ordered some copy for the store and can’t wait to promote it.

Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for this eARC of Iron Widow, it will not affect my opinion/ratings.

Synopsis: In Huaxia, men who pilot the mechas (Chrysalises) always pair with women concubine pilots to fight in their wars. This is a pairing that works well if you ignore the fact that the women often die from the mental strain of the fight. Zetian enlists in the army with one goal: pair up with the general that killed her sister, and repay the favor. When she proves to have uncontrollable strength, the army pairs her with a dangerous male pilot named Li Shimin, who proves to be much more mysterious than she could have imagined. As the war wages on and her political position gains controversy, Zetian will try to find a way to end the needless sacrificing of concubine pilots, and change the world.
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Thoughts: I’m not really sure what to say with this one, it just really didn’t work for me. The setting felt very confusing, the magical elements weren’t fleshed out well enough for me, and the characters also felt very one dimensional. I was not fond of the main character at all, she was a activist for women who hated every female she encountered in the book, and she spent most of the book actually being rescued by the men around her, which seemed counterintuitive for this being called a feminist book. Iron Widow honestly took a big step back for me as far as gender role discussions, which was super disappointing because in the pitch it just sounded so appealing. I actually got stressed out while reading thinking about trying to remember what all I would want to say about it. While I love and appreciate Zhao’s content, this book didn’t work for me.

In a world devastated by monsters, humanity must persist through the use of giant mecha operating machines. Male pilots are treated like heroes, and their female pilots must serve as their concubines and often die quicker from the mental strain. Eighteen-year-old Wu Zetian volunteers to become a concubine in hopes of her avenging her sister’s murder, and she gets her wish. She kills him through the psychic link that should’ve killed her and emerged the victor. As the military becomes unnerved by her abilities, she is immediately paired with Li Shimin, a convicted murderer and the most vital male pilot in Huaxia, whose female pilots never survive a battle. Zetian refuses to count her days and uses this new position to leverage her survival and figure out why the system fails the girls before it can take any more of them away.

Any book that is inspired by Pacific Rim will always immediately capture my attention. Throw in a sci-fi world inspired by Chinese history and a love triangle that ends in a satisfying polyamorous relationship? I wasn’t even halfway through the book when I decided that Iron Widow would be epic, and Zhao does not disappoint.

What I loved the most about Iron Widow was the immense amount of passion you could feel resonating off the page. It was so much fun reading about Zetian as she grows from being a village girl to one of the most influential people in Huaxia. Revenge plots are usually a hit or miss with me, but Zetian takes it out of the ballpark. She is fueled by revenge for her elder sister, who died at the hands of one of Huaxia’s best male pilots, but her anger doesn’t stop there. Once the pilot is dead, she turns her wrath to the military of Huaxia, the ones who declared that girls were weaker than boys, their energy simply not strong enough to survive when in battle. It’s bullshit, and Zetian knows it; she’s been through too much to be told she is worth nothing and risks everything to prove she is everything.

The mechanism behind the mecha machines can be a little confusing, but Zhao’s writing is straight to the point. No messing about, and their writing abilities just illuminate the world. Personally, I would’ve loved more world-building detail but what we have is impressive and, simply put, a lot of great fun!

The characters are where Zhao and their writing really shines for me. Zetian is one big ball of anger, and justifiably so. Her anger might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I lived for it. She is unwavering in her stance, refuses to take no and the status quo as the answer to everything. From her family to the higher-up of Huaxia, she will prove to them all that their misogyny will be their downfall while she plans to re-write history for everyone the world has abandoned. Shimin was a character who grew on me. The best character comparison I could give is Altan from The Poppy War. A boy raised to be a weapon and so entirely misunderstood by everyone around him. Yizhi seems like the typical first love interest, the one who knew the protagonist first, but he’s brilliant. He uses his wealth and influence to help Zetian and Shimin navigate the upper-class societies who lean onto the pilots are a source of entertainment while they risk their lives. Polyamorous relationships are not common in Young Adult, and Zhao did a great job with their relationship. The story is very heavily invested in its remarkable fight scenes, but I would’ve loved to have seen the trio interact a lot more on the page. Knowing that the first draft of this was more Adult orientated, I can’t help but feel it’s also the one who got away. Zhao teased some pages on Twitter, and I’ve never been so jealous of anyone who got to read that early version. 😂

Nonetheless, Iron Widow was action-packed and tremendous to read. The epilogue teases an even more dangerous journey as Zetian discovers the danger isn’t just the people at the top. Pitched as Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale, Zetain’s story is about a girl who is driven by revenge and her journey to offset her patriarchal society leads to an even more significant threat that pushes her to the limit.