Reviews tagging 'Acephobia/Arophobia'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

5 reviews

takarakei's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The concept and world building is the best part of this book. The world is fascinating - the way qi is used, the Chinese culture is thoroughly infused (even though this is very sci-fi futuristic).  Unfortunately I didn't feel like this lived up to my expectations. Our main character Zetian is extremely morally gray and not in like a "I'm rooting for this person" kind of way. I really thought there would be a lot more critique or eschewing of gender roles (I actually thought the MC would be nonbinary or trans). Zetian does almost constantly talk about how women are poorly treated, how there are many contradictions between how women are expected to behave, how generally patriarchal cultures are crap. However, I didn't feel as though Zetian was 'in community' with her fellow women. Instead she actually just blatantly disregards them all. 
Apparently this was openly marketed as a
polycule
book I seem to have missed that marketing, so the romance just gave me whiplash until it finally clicked what was going on.

Because I really enjoyed the world, I will continue the series because I hope that there can be some actual character development in the next book(s).
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captainhannes's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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nickoliver's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I can't express how much I fucking love this book. I had high expectations, but it even surpassed those!
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jenny_librarian's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This is a lot. It's angry feminism smashing the patriarchy in a science fiction setting inspired by Chinese folklore. In the acknowledgements, Xiran Jay Zhao mentions that the first draft was way too dark for YA, and I have no trouble believing it. Even this final product is really dark, but it's the kind of darkness and anger that empowers, in the same way The Hunger Games and Katniss Everdeen did. I'll go ahead and claim Wu Zetian as a Katniss on steroids.

The world itself feels a lot like a videogame when it comes to the battles. I didn't completely connect with it, though, and it might be because it's so heavily Chinese-influenced that my Western brain had to struggle to keep up as I read. Which is great, because we need more of that. We need more mainstream Eastern stories that don't necessarily follow the typical Western tropes.

Talking about tropes, WE FINALLY GOT A LOVE TRIANGLE THAT ENDS IN POLYAMORY! The end of this book isn't great about it (it scared me a lot when it seemed to go down a very tired and depressing queer trope), but there's hope in the epilogue for book 2.

Also "HA!" I knew there was something about the Hunduns! Not what I expected, but a twist was inevitable.

The only thing that made me cringe (other than the misogyny) was the phrase Yizhi and then Zetian say about love being as big as one's heart. The context makes it sounds like they only mean romantic love and that would make it arophobic... And would also imply that monogamous people don't have as big a heart as polyamorous folks...

It's definitely a feminist science fiction to look out for, and I'm already waiting for the sequel.
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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What the fuck. I want the next one immediately. Reading the Author's Note now, it gave me chills. Truly this work is incredible.

Rep: Chinese polyamorous female MC with bound feet & uses a wheelchair, bisexual Chinese male love interest, alcoholic bisexual Chinese male love interest, supporting cast of all Chinese characters. While the world heavily relies on the gender binary, there are discussions that gender and sex are not binary.

CWs: Acephobia/Acemisia, alcohol/alcoholism--forced development of alcoholism, internalized biphobia/bimisia, blood, body horror (bound feet), body shaming/fatphobia, colonisation, confinement to chrysalis vehicles and prison cells, death/death of parents, emotional abuse, fire/fire injury, forced enlistment of women as concubines, gaslighting, mental illness (PTSD/panic attacks), misogyny, murder, racial slurs, attempted rape/mentions of past rape/sexual violence, sexism, sexual content, suicidal thoughts, torture, war, violence. 
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