If there’s one book I’ve seen a lot over the past years, it’s Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. In fact, it went on and off the TBR countless times because I was too conflicted. It’s a young adult science fiction novel and that’s something way out of my comfort zone. However, it’s good to step outside that comfort zone every once in a while, which is exactly what I did by reading this book. How was this reading journey for me?

About the book

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Series: Iron Widow #1
Published by Penguin on September 21, 2021
Pages: 394
ISBN: 9780735269934
Genres: Science fiction, Young adult

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

My review

Before reading

I had no idea what to expect beforehand. Of course I’ve checked reviews, especially since I was so conflicted about reading this book. Readers either seem to love or hate it, there’s not much in between. This year, the Dutch translation got published and that was my cue to finally give this book a fair try. I wanted to read it in my native language as I was afraid the English edition turns out to be too complicated as its sci-fi. Unfortunately, the Dutch book is only available in print, so therefore inaccessible to me. The English version it was then. And I have been positively surprised, but with a few points of critique.

Characters

This book evolves around Zetian who seeks revenge for the dead of her sister who has been killed in a battle as concubine. She is really determined to avenge her and does everything to get selected as concubine as well. Even if it means undermining her parents. Her parents are quite conservative and Zetian struggles with this. They probably act out of love (although their actions and words suggest otherwise), but Zetian disagrees how girls and women are seen in society. They are only good to either get married or be sacrificed for the greater good. It’s time for change and Zetian is very vocal in bringing this change. She has a disability, but it’s there as part of her and the book doesn’t evolve around this. I liked Zetians character, but I think her character arc needs to be elaborated more. Now, she felt quite distant and a little on the surface to me. The other characters to so too. I really didn’t like the strategists, they put the war above the mental and physical health of their pilots and concubines. I wonder how this well be addressed in the next book. Both male protagonists are interesting, as is the polyamorous relationship between them and Zetian. I haven’t seen this in books much, I actually think this is the first time. However, we only get a glimpse of it here and I really wonder how this will develop.

Writing

I had to get used to the writing style, especially to the narration. Lately, I’ve been reading both dual POV and third person POV narration and this book is written in first person and has single POV narration. Nothing wrong with that, but I really had to get used to this again. Nevertheless, the writing is easy to follow. I liked the little tales at the start of each part, especially how they are woven into the main plot. I also like the Chinese expressions and references, they add up to the uniqueness of this story. Audiobook narrator Rong Fu is from Chinese heritage, because the intonation really sounds like a native speaker. This brought the story more to life for me.

Plot

This story is quite unique in my opinion. I barely read sci-fi and this book has elements I’ve barely seen before. However, I missed some worldbuilding. I reread the prologue after finishing this book, because I thought I missed something. Indeed, I forgot some important information, but I still missed some worldbuilding. I hope this will be extended in the next book, as I felt like I really missed something. There’s room for your own imagination, but I’m the worst at this so I therefore prefer more descriptive worldbuilding. I was intrigued by this story nevertheless, something I definitely did not expect at the start. The epilogue makes me really curious for what’s about to happen next!

Final thoughts

In the end, I’m really glad I gave Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao a fair chance. Although I have been hesitant to pick it up for the longest time, it positively surprised me. I barely read YA these days, let alone science fiction. I thought the approach was interesting and the Chinese expressions make this story more unique. I therefore strongly recommend listening to the audiobook, the narrator really brought this story to life with the right pronunciation and intonation. However, I miss a bit of worldbuilding, I’m too bad at imagining worlds for myself. The cliffhanger in the epilogue made me hungry for more, I can’t wait for the next book to be published! It’s set for December 24, but it seems to have been postponed multiple times before, so let’s wait and see.