Iron Widow (Iron Widow, 1); Xiran Jay Zhao

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.

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Personally I had several issues with the book, but I’m just going to stick to the major ones because, ultimately, that’s what’s sticking with me long after I turned the final page. Zetian grew up far from the major cities of this world, isolated from progressive ideas not only from a lack of access, but also because she is being raised in a brutally traditional household. And yet we meet Zetian already having these wonderful ideas of change that doesn’t rely on girls being lesser than boys and sacrificing themselves. She already knows that it’s messed up that girls’ only role is to be a wife or concubine. There is no growth for our main character, she starts off the story pretty much in the same place she ends, just with the addition of a giant mecha.

If Zetian knows all this, has this rage because of it and wants to change things, then surely others must too because where else would Zetian learn that she can demand more? Except only Zetian wants to take the system down. Only Zetian knows this system is wrong. Only Zetian is willing to kill everyone in her way to get it. Which she does, gleefully. Which is where the female rage really shines, but, after a while, that’s all Zetian does: Makes a hit list of all the people in her way in order to be the only one standing when the dust clears, leaving no choice but to put her in the seat of power. Because it’s not Zetian that’s wrong about anything, it’s everyone else (their words, not mine). Which, unfortunately, gives our main character a heavy vibe of “she’s not like the other girls”, even though the GIRLS aren’t the problem here. And yet, often, Zetian seems to think they are. Our main character puts other women down far too often for me to call this feminist, sadly.

I liked the bi representation a lot, and liked that this was a true love triangle. I just thought the boys had more chemistry together than they did with Zetian. Especially Shimin, who Zetian is relentlessly mean to and yet, somehow, they end up in a relationship. It’s her murder boy and soft boy (their words, not mine) and Zetian never has to choose, which is great because I personally never liked the classic version of a love triangle. But Zetian also never has to do much to earn people’s affection, she just exists as this cool, edgy feminist and that’s… it. For most of the book she mainly thinks of the wrongs and hurts done to her, and projects those same wrongs and hurts on to the other women thinking they all went through the same thing. Then, when shown the opposite, Zetian doesn’t broaden her viewpoints, but instead puts her fingers in her ears and doesn’t listen to the reason some of the other female pilots do what they do.

Zetian lacked the character development I was expecting. The story starts with her outspoken, empowered ideals from page 1 and continues them throughout. The only growth(?) is they mix a heavy dose of brutal killing of anyone hiding things from her, or opposing her in some way, into those ideals. Do I like Zetian’s principles? Yes, mostly. Again, her rage is justified and her desire to punish the system that oppresses her gender is more than understandable. But by the end of the book, Zetian’s grand solution is just to switch the boys and the girls and that’s not equality, which is what feminism is fighting for. Even if Zetian didn’t have major issues for me as a character, I’d still give this book 2 stars as the core of what this story aimed to achieve just took so long to get to. We’re told so often that she wants to save the girls but it’s not until close to the end that she even really tries to make that happen. And while I really liked the concept of these really cool mecha’s fighting through a piloting system, I don’t think I’ll be continuing with this series.