Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

94 reviews

themiscyra_anna's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

magnan1mouse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Torture, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical trauma

walkie_check's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

What I liked: the premise of the world (using spaceship type machines to kill things), the commentary about a patriarchal society, the twists at the end 
What brought the rating down: the world was kind of confusing and at times, we were given information that seemed a bit dump like.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

miggyfool's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

brianneh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Alcohol

audiem's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

Moderate: Xenophobia and Colonisation

Minor: Homophobia

addyisnothere's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Murder, and War

thenymphsvoice's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh my goodness, the panic I went through when I realized that the next book isn’t out until AUGUST and it’s FEBRUARY!!!!!!

The following description will not do this Justice but,
Imagine if Hunger Games, Nausiica, and Enders Game had a baby with Giant fighting Robots.

This was fantastic, more fantasy than sci-fi (like Nausiica) with the same attack on the issues of todays and yesterdays issues like the hunger games.
The romance was not heavy focus but FAR better done than Hunger Games, everything that you thought was missing from the hunger game’s relationships and even from Katniss is exponentially better represented in Iron Widow. Zetian Is EVERYTHING I want in my female heroines! 

I’ll just be over here DYING until Heavenly Tyrant is released. DYING 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Torture

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and War

Most depictions of the trigger warnings above are vague, with the exception of sexism and alcoholism which are consistent and important themes in the book. The depictions of Torture are not gratuitous in their descriptions nor particularly gorey. Relying more on your understanding the horror of that happening then the explicit descriptions of it.

daenarvelaryon1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I loved the idea of the story and Xiran Jay Zhao's smart marketing certainly sold me on the book. Unfortunately, I feel like the book did not live up to the hype on social media.  

The writing style is a bit sloppy, unrefined and needs to be worked on. The dialogue was occassionally incredibly cringy. The message of the story could have been handled and presented in a better, subtler way. And don't even get me started on the ending (felt like the publisher basically forced the author into writing a sequel). Xiran also needs to start showing things instead of telling. 

If I had to compare the story to an already existing work, it really felt like an average fanfiction from AO3 or Wattpad (I have no doubt that Xiran has experience with writing fanfiction and it shows in the book too). If that works for you, then you will very likely enjoy the story.

I really wanted to like this book because I love Xiran's content. Ultimately, it was a fun ride, but I would not recommend this book for someone looking for a high quality story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Moderate: Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment