Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao tells the story of 18-year-old Wu Zetian, and if you didn’t pick up on the name, her story is meant to faintly echo that of the historical Wu Zetian, China’s only female emperor. The novel itself isn’t meant to be a historical retelling; it is set in a futuristic dystopia where Zetian’s home country is in a constant war against the mechanical monsters known as “Hunduns”, who can only be stopped by warriors with the highest “spirit pressures” commanding special war machines called “Chrysales”. There’s a catch, though – a Chrysalis can only be commanded by a male-female pair, and because of their seemingly lower spirit pressures, the women are almost always killed in the process, and new matches for the celebrated male warriors are routinely re-selected throughout the nation.
Enter Wu Zetian, who has made it her mission to take revenge on the warrior who killed her sister and to destroy the whole system that routinely murders young women. She is assisted by her best friend (and maybe more) Yizhi, a rich academic who acts as the brains to Zetian’s chaotic stabbing at the patriarchy, and Li Shimin, the brooding alcoholic warrior bad-boy who has unwillingly become the nation’s sole defense against the gaining army of Hunduns.
The world-building in this book is beyond amazing, but the writing itself is never tedious or boring – Zhao drops you in the thick of the action on the very first page and never drops the pace. Iron Widow is like a 391-page rollercoaster ride, with epic highs and lows that will leave you reeling. However, the constant action doesn’t pull away from the strong emotional core of the book and the growing relationships between the three central characters. And I won’t spoil it, but anyone who has read Iron Widow understands the heartbreaking emotional turmoil this book puts you through at the end.
Another defining feature of this book that Zhao has mentioned multiple times on their YouTube channel and at signing events is the unapologetic anti-hero-ness of the main characters, especially Zetian. Apologies for mild spoilers, but there’s this one great moment where Li Shimin just goes bananas with bloodlust beating up a bunch of guys, and the direct quote from Zetian’s point of view is how “utterly relatable” she finds it.
This book is also so funny. There’s something hilarious about the character dynamics of Zetian and Shimin being revenge-driven maniacs and Yizhi being a normal, mostly level-headed guy who has to keep them in line and basically act as their publicist. Fantastic.
If I had to make one criticism of this book, it would be that despite the empowering message of the story, there is a defining lack of positive female characters aside from Zetian; throughout the book, Zetian is basically the only woman who isn’t 100% complacent in the system that violently oppresses all women, which doesn\’t quite sit right. While the novel does make a compelling point that women often are the biggest supporters of the patriarchy, it does rub me the wrong way that the only positive relationship Zetian has with another woman is her sister who died at the very beginning of the book. This criticism isn’t to take away any empowerment that people found with this book, it’s just one aspect of it that I personally found a bit lacking.
I wholeheartedly recommend Iron Widow to YA lovers, sci-fi lovers, fantasy lovers, dystopia lovers, and basically everyone! Read this book!