Iron Widow
Reddit take
Not enough linked mention summaries yet; the source excerpts below are the evidence.
Pros
- Parent context: When reading Iron Widow it felt like it was going to set up the typical stations of YA. Person from oppressed part of society goes to the nobility to infiltrate them, befriends someone and realizes that not all of the nob...
- I thought the book was dumb fun, for what it's worth 😄
- Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao is also a fun one
Cons
- Iron widow prose is pretty close to some of the worst fanfiction I’ve read and while I get the enjoyment of a good popcorn experience, the massive popularity of it astounds me
- It’s written like the famous fanfiction “my immortal” but a lot of its fans will get furious if you mention the prose sounds like someone was writing a rage bait parody.
- Parent context: iron widow is solidly my least favorite book i have ever read. parts of it were engaging, sure, but it felt like poorly-written fanfiction all the way through. Reply: It's not romantasy actually, and it's not a feminist...
- I think it is pretty good for a debut novel and the author has some talent, but I ultimately found it a bit too YA and it felt like it never dug into examining these issues presented.
- Zhao writes like someone describing anime.
Sentiment
3 positive (19%) · 3 mixed (19%) · 10 negative (63%)
Trust + time weighted score: -52% · raw score -44%
What redditors said (10 of 16)
Iron widow prose is pretty close to some of the worst fanfiction I’ve read and while I get the enjoyment of a good popcorn experience, the massive popularity of it astounds me
It’s written like the famous fanfiction “my immortal” but a lot of its fans will get furious if you mention the prose sounds like someone was writing a rage bait parody.
Parent context: iron widow is solidly my least favorite book i have ever read. parts of it were engaging, sure, but it felt like poorly-written fanfiction all the way through. Reply: It's not romantasy actually, and it's not a feminist book, it's basically Wu Zetian fanfic 😮💨
I think it is pretty good for a debut novel and the author has some talent, but I ultimately found it a bit too YA and it felt like it never dug into examining these issues presented.
Parent context: When reading Iron Widow it felt like it was going to set up the typical stations of YA. Person from oppressed part of society goes to the nobility to infiltrate them, befriends someone and realizes that not all of the nobility is bad. Nah she’s mad and stays mad. It’s great. Does it come off as edgy? Perhaps but to me it felt like this character had nothing in her life except her anger.
Zhao writes like someone describing anime.
Like giant robots are very cool, the entire system with concubines was interesting but at the same time felt so poorly explained that it appeared the writer just wanted to get past the icky part to focus on Zetian being Really Angry and Really Horny.
Some of my friends recommended me these books, saying they were a good smash up of Chinese mythology, history, fantasy, and science fiction but when I tried reading them they just did not seem to mesh well. ... the entire system with concubines was interesting but at the same time felt so poorly explained that it appeared the writer just wanted to get past the icky part to focus on Zetian being Really Angry and Really Horny.
iron widow is solidly my least favorite book i have ever read. parts of it were engaging, sure, but it felt like poorly-written fanfiction all the way through. ... i may have had fun with it if it was marketed as a romantasy popcorn read or a revenge/rage fantasy and not as a feminist book.
I haven't read it in a while but I remember hating it! I got the feeling that it was going for empowerment/ feminism and yet other then the main character all the other female characters were horrible people
Compare
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