“Iron Widow” by Xiran Jay Zhao is a sci-fi YA novel with giant mechs in a reimagined China.

Zetian, who lives in a patriarchal society, is a young woman forced to become a concubine pilot. As a female, she has no voice and no rights. She is to follow her dead sister and fight as a paired pilot in a war near the Great Wall in a robot known as a Chrysalis. But Zerian has plans to avenge her sister’s death and a strength of character which will earn her the title of Iron Widow.

I really enjoyed this book, which veers near tropes but not fully into them. Xetian’s story feels like one long anguish filled scream, but that never feels anything but fully authentic. The characters and worldbuilding are solid and I look forward to reading more by this author.

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's been out for ages, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

"Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao is a stunning debut that redefines the mecha genre with its blend of Chinese history, science fiction, and feminist themes. The story follows Wu Zetian, a determined young pilot who seeks revenge for her sister's death by piloting a giant mecha called a Chrysalis to fight alien monsters. Zhao's world-building is rich and immersive, and Wu Zetian is a compelling protagonist who defies expectations and challenges gender norms. The novel is action-packed, with thrilling battles and a gripping plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat. "Iron Widow" is a must-read for fans of diverse, feminist science fiction.

This book was one of my most-anticipated reads. With a Chinese take on a concept I love well, Pacific Rim style-mechas, I was so excited to read this book. Here's what I felt the book delivered: (1) a main character that embodied female rage and was unapologetic about it, (2) an interesting world that is unique in its execution and fun in its styling, and (3) a non-traditional polyamorous romance that surprises you. These are things I enjoyed and would love to see more of in books.

However, there is also a lot of parts in this book that disappointed me: (1) the writing style felt out of place, with the usage of anachronistic words like "duh", (2) while I was pleasantly surprised by the romance, the execution itself is a little lackluster as it doesn't feel set up that well, and (3) lack of character development where it concerns the main character, Zetian.

This book was something I really wanted to like, but the parts that disappointed me were too integral to what makes me usually enjoy books. Thank you to Net Galley for providing me this ARC and I wish the author well!

“Please be aware that this book contains scenes of violence and abuse, suicide ideation, discussion and references to sexual assault (though no on-page depictions), alcohol addiction, and torture.“

Thank you to the publishers, but I’m not able to read this as I have experienced SA and DV by the hands of an ex.

I also appreciate you placing this warning right in the front, truly it probably has saved me from some PTSD flashbacks

This is hyped up for good reason! This is a phenomenal debut with morally gray characters and a really interesting world I am excited to see fleshed out even more as the series progresses. I really enjoyed Zetian's take-no-shit attitude and the way she was determined to take vengeance on the people who govern her messed-up society. The sexism and misogyny is rampant in this world, and Zetian makes it her mission to take it down. I am writing this review just one week after the first draft of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade was leaked, and this book would have been difficult to read even if it was a sunshine and rainbows time in the country regarding women's rights, so I did have to take a pause because it hit so close to home. Which I think only means Xiran Jay Zhao did an excellent job of writing this really intense world.

I think there was some room for improvement though. I feel like the middle of the book got a little sluggish when Zetian and Shimin used the Katniss Everdeen method of getting the public's approval. The world-building was a little confusing, but I also know the battle robots are largely based on Pacific Rim, which I have not seen, so I think if I had more context I would have understood a little better. Honestly, the biggest thing I wish was different was that we had more perspectives than Zetian's. I would have loved for the narrative to bounce between her, Shimin, and Yizhi, since we could have gotten a much fuller story that way. I imagine we will be in Zetian's head for the entire series, which is still good, but I think the complexity of multiple narrators with multiple chances to give us plot twists and surprise reveals about one another would have been really great.

I did preorder Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, this author's middle grade debut, when I was only about a third of the way through Iron Widow because I was loving it so much and I want to read everything they write ever, so hopefully that's encouragement enough to pick up this book!

I hate everything about this book. It claims to be feminist AF and then spends the whole book with our leading lady hating every women she meets. Putting them down, hating them, abusing them and killing them. She’s fine with being served by women (but never by men) and thinks she’s better than anyone else who was born a female. I’m pretty sure if she ran into a female cat she would hate the fucking cat.

I was told there would be polyamory but instead I got three underdeveloped people in another lazy thruple. The one she barely thinks about till she’s talking about love and the other she outright says she hates till she wants to bang him one day. And the one she hates? Oh she hates him because he’s survived while being abused by this society, which is clearly not ok despite how she’s doing the same thing this whole time.

She had no goals to make society better and by the end just wants to be a dictator… it’s so gross. I’m all for a villain story but the villian needs purpose and this one had nothing. She’s got no goals, no focus, no morals. Just being better than every other girl… she was garbagè.

When my friend recommended this book, I expected a great read, but it's so much more than that. The story leads readers into a system that has historical success as the characters lean in to the sacrifice of young women to power the system. There is no reason to change a program that works....unless you are one of the young women being sacrificed, just as your sister was before you. But change it will when Zetain displays the mental strength that is typically only seen in males. As she faces multiple challenges to her strength, she will demonstrate her skills and place herself on a path to destiny.

Rated as a YA, this book crosses more than a few genre to promote the idea that strength comes from the inside, not from the face in the mirror. It should be read by most of the targeted age group to show that strength and determination have no limits.

I really did not like this book. I think in part my disappointment came from my high expectations. A love triangle that leads to polyamory? What's not to love!

Unfortunately, even though the concepts were great, they just didn't deliver. I felt like Zetian came across as incredibly unlikeable in an "I'm not like other girls" way. The writing also left a lot to be desired.

I'm hoping that in book 2 the plot, characters, and overall quality of the book will improve.

I absolutely loved this book. From the badass, unhinged main lead to the things it had to say about gender and the inequalties faced. I loved it. While it did feel heavy handed in certain places, I'm very excited to read the sequel to this whenever it does come out.

"Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao is a thrilling and thought-provoking journey into a richly imagined world of mecha warfare and political intrigue. Set in a futuristic society inspired by ancient China, the novel follows the courageous and determined protagonist, Wu Zetian, as she navigates a world of gender inequality and oppression. Blending elements of science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction, Zhao crafts a captivating narrative that explores themes of power, identity, and the complexities of human relationships. With its dynamic characters, gripping action scenes, and thought-provoking social commentary, "Iron Widow" is a must-read for fans of speculative fiction.

After anticipating this read for so long, I could not have been more disappointed for hating it so. Zeitan, our main character, is so annoying, I could not stand being in her head. I swear practically every single one of her thoughts is “i’m a bad bitch #girlboss”, which good for her I guess, but can she have another personality trait? Also, Iron Widow is considered to be a feminist book, yet every single encounter Zeitan has with another woman is horrible. The book is set in this patriarchal world, where every woman has been brainwashed by their society and don’t have a single thought for themselves except for Zeitan, who somehow has had secret access to “Modern Feminism 101: the Art of Girl-bossery”. Zeitan has these extremist ideals because of her secret feminism class that only she has access to, and as such, she believes that she’s better than everyone. Especially the other women in her world. It gives off “i’m not like other girls” vibes.
Also there’s no consistency to her character sometimes. She makes a complete 360 in her ideals/ feelings in just 1 paragraph. And I really hated how it was in 1st pov because the whole book was just Zeitan having internal monologues, thinking she’s better than everyone else. As such, we don’t get to see the other characters much, or figure out what motivates them.
I also would’ve liked to see more of Shimin’s and Yizhi’s minds. Especially Yizhi, because this guy just showed up randomly, said they were “polar stars” whatever that means, and we were just supposed to accept that. And I would’ve liked to see the poly relationship from their side because i was getting nothing with Zeitan’s pov, and the poly aspect was one of the main reasons I picked up this book.
One last thing is that there’s no justification for their world at all? I mean there was some towards the end but it was very??? idk it didn’t make sense to me.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

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!