Sign in with Facebook
Shruthi's Reviews > Iron Widow
Iron Widow (Iron Widow, #1)
by
by
Strikingly mediocre!
Girlboss moment! This feminist queen just murdered your entire family!
Look, I'm not one to begrudge women their chance to experience a power fantasy. So hey, if that is all you want from a book, you're in luck. Because that is all there is to Iron Widow.
But I take great psychic damage at the idea that there is anything feminist about this book. Zetian, the main character, hates every single woman in this book. Besides her dead sister, whose death is theoretically the inciting incident of the novel, even though we know exactly nothing about her. Zetian hates the patriarchy, she hates the way women are treated in her society, but she judges/criticises/feels superior to every. single. woman.
There are so many monologues on how sexism suckz. Look, I get that this is a YA book. But it's definitely meant for older teens (16+ I'd imagine, going by the detailed almost-sex scenes), who hopefully can handle more subtlety and nuance.
Zetian is not like other girls! No, she's the most powerful, the most special, the prettiest, the most seductive, the strongest, the most resilient girl ever. Everyone else has a qi power score of 84 (on average)? She's at 18,000! She's never really challenged. She's the only one who has an issue with misogygny, but it's never explained why she is a feminist (lol) when no one else seems to be. What influenced her views? Why is she different?
What does Zetian want? Well.... this is unclear. At first, she wants revenge for her sister. Later, revenge for all the girls who were killed as concubines. The plot is disjointed — I don't feel a real sense of Zetian's motivations. She's quite inconsistent morally.
The prose is laughable. It veers quite modern (alright, not marketed as historical fiction, fine) and very juvenile. Zetian actually says "Welcome to your nightmare" at the start of an action sequence. Come on! How are you supposed to take that seriously?
The romance was quite undeveloped. While the relationship between Yizhi and Zetian is built up, Zetian and Shimin & Yizhi and Shimin are quite instalove-y. Yizhi and Shimin don't seem to know each other very well. It feels like this was incorporated into the book in an effort to market it/for the very purpose of being different, without an effort to actually win us over. This was a shame, because it was one of the aspects I was most looking forward to. "Triangles are the strongest shape" should not be the foundation of a relationship.
I also thought there would be more discussion of gender (ie. the dichotomy of the yin/yang system with feminity/masculunity) due to the mixed-gender butterfly at the start of the novel, but I'll give the series the benefit of the doubt and presume that this will come up later.
My favourite part of the book was the last four chapters by far. I think the book should drop the feminist arc (first time I've said this in my entire life) and let Zetian be wholly a selfish anti-hero. That's where the book excels.
Everything in this book has been done better in a different book:
-Women are disposable in society, and Main Character is going to get revenge for this (of sorts): Girl, Serpent, Thorn
-Female Power Fantasy (involving weaponising your sexuality + killing a lot of people): Throne of Glass
-Integration of Chinese History in Fantasy (with a morally grey MC): The Poppy War
-(view spoiler): Ender's Game
-(view spoiler): Hunger Games
Girlboss moment! This feminist queen just murdered your entire family!
Look, I'm not one to begrudge women their chance to experience a power fantasy. So hey, if that is all you want from a book, you're in luck. Because that is all there is to Iron Widow.
But I take great psychic damage at the idea that there is anything feminist about this book. Zetian, the main character, hates every single woman in this book. Besides her dead sister, whose death is theoretically the inciting incident of the novel, even though we know exactly nothing about her. Zetian hates the patriarchy, she hates the way women are treated in her society, but she judges/criticises/feels superior to every. single. woman.
There are so many monologues on how sexism suckz. Look, I get that this is a YA book. But it's definitely meant for older teens (16+ I'd imagine, going by the detailed almost-sex scenes), who hopefully can handle more subtlety and nuance.
Zetian is not like other girls! No, she's the most powerful, the most special, the prettiest, the most seductive, the strongest, the most resilient girl ever. Everyone else has a qi power score of 84 (on average)? She's at 18,000! She's never really challenged. She's the only one who has an issue with misogygny, but it's never explained why she is a feminist (lol) when no one else seems to be. What influenced her views? Why is she different?
What does Zetian want? Well.... this is unclear. At first, she wants revenge for her sister. Later, revenge for all the girls who were killed as concubines. The plot is disjointed — I don't feel a real sense of Zetian's motivations. She's quite inconsistent morally.
The prose is laughable. It veers quite modern (alright, not marketed as historical fiction, fine) and very juvenile. Zetian actually says "Welcome to your nightmare" at the start of an action sequence. Come on! How are you supposed to take that seriously?
The romance was quite undeveloped. While the relationship between Yizhi and Zetian is built up, Zetian and Shimin & Yizhi and Shimin are quite instalove-y. Yizhi and Shimin don't seem to know each other very well. It feels like this was incorporated into the book in an effort to market it/for the very purpose of being different, without an effort to actually win us over. This was a shame, because it was one of the aspects I was most looking forward to. "Triangles are the strongest shape" should not be the foundation of a relationship.
I also thought there would be more discussion of gender (ie. the dichotomy of the yin/yang system with feminity/masculunity) due to the mixed-gender butterfly at the start of the novel, but I'll give the series the benefit of the doubt and presume that this will come up later.
My favourite part of the book was the last four chapters by far. I think the book should drop the feminist arc (first time I've said this in my entire life) and let Zetian be wholly a selfish anti-hero. That's where the book excels.
Everything in this book has been done better in a different book:
-Women are disposable in society, and Main Character is going to get revenge for this (of sorts): Girl, Serpent, Thorn
-Female Power Fantasy (involving weaponising your sexuality + killing a lot of people): Throne of Glass
-Integration of Chinese History in Fantasy (with a morally grey MC): The Poppy War
-(view spoiler): Ender's Game
-(view spoiler): Hunger Games
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Iron Widow.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
March 13, 2023
–
Started Reading
March 13, 2023
– Shelved
March 13, 2023
–
1.27%
"wow never realized how much i disliked first person present... maybe it's because i just read two amazing books but the prose is shockingly bad (so far)
i'm getting vivid flashbacks to throne of glass"
page
5
i'm getting vivid flashbacks to throne of glass"
March 13, 2023
–
61.0%
"girlboss moment! this feminist doesn't have any female friends! she doesn't even like a single other woman! this is great and progressive and not at all like every other ya fantasy from 2014"
March 13, 2023
– Shelved as:
fantasy
March 13, 2023
– Shelved as:
young-adult
March 13, 2023
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-6 of 6 (6 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Jenny
(new)
Mar 13, 2023 04:41PM
Finally! I've been waiting for ages for your review (as I do with all your reviews). I am so excited to probe! Why two stars?
reply
|
flag
Maybe you just need to read less books, ever think of that?
you love probing so much! i enjoyed the ending (though done before, I still like this sort of narrative. made me consider reading the sequel when it comes out)also the blending of chinese history + mythology was interesting!
Jenny wrote: "Maybe you just need to read less books, ever think of that?"i think about this all the time! sadly my other hobbies are even worse <3
I AGREE WITH ALL OF THIS SO MUCH AND AM EXCITED TO RANT ABOUT IT NEXT WEEK
Jenny wrote: "I AGREE WITH ALL OF THIS SO MUCH AND AM EXCITED TO RANT ABOUT IT NEXT WEEK"cannot wait for rant time!
