397 pages
Published 2021
Read from December 17, 2023 to January 5
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
I hit a small reading slump in the middle of December — understandable, what with hosting my teen for the holidays — and I’m having difficulty getting back to the books. Which is a shame, since I received a bunch of amazing titles from my partner R, and can’t wait to read them.
Iron Widow is not one of those newly gifted books. I’ve had it for a while; I had been meaning to read it any day now for most of last year. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it: a queer feminist burn-down-the-patriarchy novel with giant robots, loosely (and we mean loosely) based on the historical Wu Zetian. A cover blurb calls it “A primal scream of a book”; beneath its glossy YA veneer, Widow pulses with fury, frustration, and vengeance. It confronts the systems of oppression and examines how even those most crushed under the system’s heel will be manipulated into supporting it. It pulses with compassion for those too ground down to resist. It also brims with the burn-it-all-down energy we need in our own time.
It’s difficult to resist comparisons with Gearbreakers; clearly, teens piloting giant fighting mechs was a YA flavor of the month back in 2021. Of the two, Widow is my favorite, if only because it seems to have more to say. Its YA stylings — forgettable prose, sarcastic teen dialogue, shallow characterization — are drawbacks, but I suppose that’s what the market wants.
No comments:
Post a Comment