Described as Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale blended with Chinese history and magic-mecha science fiction, Iron Widow, is a dark and emotionally devastating debut fantasy novel from local Chinese-Canadian author Xiran Jay Zhao. The story features 18-year-old Zetian, who offers herself to co-pilot a mecha in the hopes of assassinating her sister’s killer. She survives, and despite facing unthinkable odds, she might just be able to take down a terribly unequal system. ( )

Wow! This book's amazing protagonist grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. I loved the evolution of her relationships and decisions about how to live her life. And the setting is really interesting! And the way the romance plot resolved was so perfect! And then the final plot twist -- OMG! I need to read the sequel to find out what happens next. ( )

I enjoyed this book! My sister bought it for me because apparently TERFs hate it, which was good enough for us both. Reading it, I can't really see anything to be mad about. It's a feminist book, all about women taking back their power when the institutions are rigged against them from the start.

I liked:

- The fact that you couldn't really tell who was a "good guy" or a "bad guy" from their initial behaviour. Or in other words someone being trustworthy or not is not related to how nice they are. Really emphasised the dangerous situation the characters were in and how hard it was to know who to trust.

- The solution to the "love triangle". FINALLY, an acknowledgement that it's possible to love more than one person an that you don't necessarily have to choose just one person to be with.

My only criticism is that sometimes the voices of the supporting characters don't sound tonally distinct from the main teen characters. Like we have a scholar/bureaucrat type saying things like "Geez" where "On the contrary" or "Indeed" might suit his character more.

Overall a good book and I enjoyed the no-holds-barred rage at society and the world-building. The hints at the true nature of the hunduns were handled really well. ( )

I don't think this is a bad book per se and I can see how some might like it but it really didn't hook me one bit. I think the plot was pretty good, but the rhythm was wonky. The main character was a bit of a Mary sue which annoyed me and I didn't really care for any of the characters in general. It took me a pretty long time to read considering its size, I just didn't feel like picking it up. ( )

What got me interested in this book was the premise. I was aware it was YA, which I typically don't read anymore, but I decided to give it a shot anyways. I'm glad that I did - this was an exciting novel that I enjoyed quite a bit. The main characters were great, & their growth throughout the story worked well. I also rather liked that the author pulled so much from Chinese culture to weave into this tale, & thought they did a good job of doing so. This being a YA novel, I found the prose to not be the strongest. Some of the characters' actions did not make the most sense to me, but that's probably just due to this being a book about teenagers for teenagers. It made for an easy read, though, & I'd be interested in reading the sequel. ( )