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A review by afjakandys
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
5.0
i’m insane. this book made me clinically insane.
i don’t have words to properly describe how much i loved this book, so here’s my scatterbrained review:
i’m obsessed with zetian and everything that she is. i love how at war she is with herself throughout this book, constantly toeing the line between losing herself to her desire for vengeance and her innermost desire to be tender. as much as the world around her tries to paint women as the more sensitive and inherently tender sex, there is no room for true tenderness and vulnerability in zetian’s life, nor in the lives of the women around her. she’s frustrated and broken and willing to do whatever it takes to claim her victory—and yet she doesn’t fully give in to the pressure to be heartless even when it pulls at her. she lets herself love, she pushes through feelings of discomfort to reach new levels of vulnerability with yizhi and shimin and it’s just so, so incredible to read about such an intensely complex protagonist.
i’m also very intrigued by the world in this series and am so excited to find out more. we get a lot of context about the way the humans live and how society works on their end, but it isn’t until the end that we get a huge reveal about the hunduns—the enemy whose supposed war against humans serves as a backdrop for this book. similarly, we don’t get much context regarding the gods until the end, at which point it becomes clear that both the hunduns and the gods will become much bigger players in the second installment. i’m so excited to see where it goes!
also, i am an absolute SUCKER for a love triangle where all three points of it are attracted to each other and this is the first book i’ve read that’s done it, so now i need to read 57 more that feature the same troupe.
i don’t have words to properly describe how much i loved this book, so here’s my scatterbrained review:
i’m obsessed with zetian and everything that she is. i love how at war she is with herself throughout this book, constantly toeing the line between losing herself to her desire for vengeance and her innermost desire to be tender. as much as the world around her tries to paint women as the more sensitive and inherently tender sex, there is no room for true tenderness and vulnerability in zetian’s life, nor in the lives of the women around her. she’s frustrated and broken and willing to do whatever it takes to claim her victory—and yet she doesn’t fully give in to the pressure to be heartless even when it pulls at her. she lets herself love, she pushes through feelings of discomfort to reach new levels of vulnerability with yizhi and shimin and it’s just so, so incredible to read about such an intensely complex protagonist.
i’m also very intrigued by the world in this series and am so excited to find out more. we get a lot of context about the way the humans live and how society works on their end, but it isn’t until the end that we get a huge reveal about the hunduns—the enemy whose supposed war against humans serves as a backdrop for this book. similarly, we don’t get much context regarding the gods until the end, at which point it becomes clear that both the hunduns and the gods will become much bigger players in the second installment. i’m so excited to see where it goes!
also, i am an absolute SUCKER for a love triangle where all three points of it are attracted to each other and this is the first book i’ve read that’s done it, so now i need to read 57 more that feature the same troupe.