This dystopian, post-apocalyptic version of Portland takes an interesting look at the soul and necromancers. In this world, the United States has split into individual city districts, each with their own governing body and with none really seeming to get along. How we got here isn’t really explained, but it’s hinted that it was a nuclear disaster of some sort as the world is plagued by mutants lurking outside of the city’s protective walls. With so much death so readily available, it was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to harness the soul’s energy before the raven’s (think of them as reapers) have a chance to move that soul and their energy into the afterlife. Enter Nyle: a raven drawn to Portland’s dead problem. An overabundance of fate, or coincidence, brings Nyle immediately to Cait, a necromancer who doesn’t know what she is—she’s not a mutant or genetically modified and yet is plagued by the dead—but she is exactly the person Nyle needs to free the dead from Portland. Much like the trapped souls in Portland, an overabundance of luck plagues “Grave Cold”.

I struggled with this review, no lie. Because “Iron Widow” is a vibe I love. You have this exciting sci-fi fantasy world with incredible mecha fights that, visually in my minds eye, are just incredible. I love visually exciting action and “Iron Widow” delivers on that front. But I wouldn’t call this book a feminist powerhouse that breaks the patriarchy. Or, I guess it does break the patriarchy through the easiest means necessary: annihilating everyone in the way until the only power left is Wu Zetian (their words, not mine). What this book is, is pure female rage. I love female rage. Punish the boys that hurt the girls, all day every day. But when a book is, supposedly, meant to be this strong female character that breaks a system that benefits from young girls’ ultimate sacrifice, Zetian doesn’t do any of that. Female rage cannot be the only personality trait for a main character, and yet, here we are.

I am very late to the party on this series, I have accepted I will be late to most of these kinds of series. In my defense, post-apocalyptic and dystopian YA novels aren’t my go-to genre much anymore. But I have friends who love these books, and, well, it was time. Plus, Mafi is such a beautiful writer, her stories so full of delicious prose, and “Shatter Me” was no exception. Though this first book felt very much like a “series” book with very little getting resolved come the end.

If you’re looking for a futuristic semi-dystopian where country disputes are settled through Olympic-style virtual sporting events played to the death (kind of like the Hunger Games), but with a distinctly “Matrix” vibe to it, well, that’s “MegaDeath” in a nutshell. In this futuristic version of the world, the global pecking order is decided every 4 years through a series of virtual simulator competitions which have replaced all wars. Sounds kind of nice, except the losing team dies and there’s something very fishy going on with the bets people make around these top athletes, and the Control system that puts on these virtual games. That’s where our main character, Megan, comes in. She is the elite of the elite when it comes to dominating in these games, but she doesn’t play for glory. She plays because she is in such intense anger and grief that she wants these games to punish her. That’s really compelling, but, unfortunately, Megan spent too long being an unlikable character to really get me invested in her, or the conflict.

This book fell victim to the hype for me—both positive and negative. I was honestly expecting amazing things from this book because it has, I thought, so many of the things I adore: dragons and riders where the dragons choose who they want based on merit, and a heroine that no one expects to survive. I love everything about that. But the hype train on this sold me on the idea that this was THE book I had been waiting for all year and, while it had a strong start and an exceptionally strong finish, I soon found the middle to be lackluster, to feel like it was slogging through a checklist of tropes that are better suited in YA novels, where this book definitely does NOT belong (not a dig at YA either, just saying).