ARC Review: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Title: Iron Widow

Author: Xiran Jay Zhao

Series: Iron Widow #1

Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi/Historical Inspiration/LGBT Romance

Publisher: Penguin Teen

Publication Date: September 21st, 2021

Edition: Kindle Edition, 400 pages

Source: NetGalley

Purchase/Pre-Order: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Book Depository | Bookshop | Powell's

Synopsis:

   The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.

   When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.​

   To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia​. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.

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   This book is hard to review without just gushing, that's why it took me a while to write the review after finishing it to write this book.

  Zetian is one of those protagonists that I can see people either hating or loving. She is very unapologetic about her goals. She really is willing to do whatever it takes to reach them. She still changes her mind about people after he learns more information. Yet she still doesn't make excuses for those people and doesn't buy into all the bullshit. 

  Shimin, he was surprisingly complex. When his character was introduced I wasn't sure what to really expect of his character. I thought he was going to be a bit of a stereotype of 'brooding buff guy' as a foil to the 'gentle soft boy' for the other male love interest, Yizhi. But he's not. He's really a big softie who has a lot of his own past trauma. 

  Yizhi, he wasn't in this book as much as the other two characters, it's clear that his father is trash and treated him pretty poorly and he had a rough time growing up despite being from a "good family". I hope he plays a larger role in the sequel. I like his character and while he is more gentle than both Zetain and Shimin, he's not weak in any way. 

   I found the antagonists in the government more compelling than the invading force. But I kind of like that. Sure, I would have liked the invaders to be more than a background threat. But I think that might be something reserved for future books in the series considering that epilogue.

  I will say this, the writing is fairly simplistic and straightforward, but that's not to say it's poorly written. I am very excited to read the sequel when it comes out.