Skylar Trast

Iron Widow was so close to being a good book, but ruined its chance at greatness at every available opportunity. Cringey, out of place dialogue floods the pages and destroys suspension of disbelief. The main character is utterly unlikable, framed as a girlboss for committing great acts of violence on whomever she deems as opposition. The love interests have no agency, and are only forgiven for their manhood when the protagonist discovers they've actually never done anything wrong, or when their acts of violence serve Zetian's purposes. The world Xiran has created is beautiful, and the premise of the story is very strong. The characters, the dialogue, and the author's obsession with painting men as either evil or good while only strong and violent women are allowed to be complicated, spoils it. Iron Widow tries to be about gray morality and complicated politics, but the resolution is just a reversal of the system from men oppressing women, to one woman oppressing everybody (except, of course, her flawless and boring male companions.) This book frustrates me in a special way. Rarely do I find a book that is so self-sabotaging. Most books are either good or bad, this one is extremely both.