I likely won't go into detail because it'll get me all riled up, but I had very high hopes for this book as it contains many things I usually love (revenge, polyamory, a women-focused narrative, giant fighting robots) but it just absolutely disappointed me. Zhao struggles a LOT with "show, don't tell" especially when it comes to the book's feminist themes. It felt like this book placed absolutely zero trust in me as a reader and felt the need to constantly point out "hey! this is sexist! the world in which girls are constantly sacrificed so boys can power up big robots is, you guessed it, sexist!" When the concepts fully conveyed that already. In addition, the feminism the book itself presents feels completely lacking nuance and under-developed, with basically all of the female characters Zhetian meets being like, catty bitches who only care about men at best or backstabbers at worst. Our main character, Zhetian, constantly decries the situation of women and how they're exploited en mass--which is fair and true of this world!--but she feels like the one and only important, nuanced woman in the whole book, with little thought given to other perspectives or experiences. As a powerful woman, she feels like an exception, not the rule. Not to mention that some of her opinions, ones that aren't particularly challenged, come across as almost victim-blaming for women who don't stand up to every instance of abuse, even if I'm sure that wasn't Zhao's intention. 

Still, I did enjoy the ending of this book at least; I felt like the tension was built up nicely and the final events did feel genuinely cool. Zhao has potential as a writer and I think their concepts are interesting, but I really felt like Iron Widow needed a bit more thought put into it overall.