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Iron Widow Blog Tour by Xiran Jay Zhao
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.
To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
OKAY!
A book that was a goddamn powerful dose of futuristic robots, powerful strategies, and a female lead to bowing down for.
The story is about Wu Zeitan, a peasant girl living on the frontier, being born in a world where girls are just meant for sacrifice, a world that has roots deeply sunken in misogyny. It takes more than just strong mental strength to survive.
"If we want something, we've to push back against everything around us and take it by force."
And when her family sells her to be a concubine pilot in the army, she decided that the only one who will decide her future will be herself. She won't let those old misogynists, sexist & discriminative sages take decisions in her life, and that too when it's at stake.
A corrupt pilot system where male pilots never die, and female pilots are recruited as a sacrifice, she goes ahead with their plan but with sight set on only one thing VENGEANCE. The plan to kill the star pilot, no matter if it means her death, her heart beats for revenge. She kills him, but does not die herself. Confused herself how did she not die when all the other concubine pilots do? At one point in time, she was ready to face her death, but now after she has tasted what power feels like, death is no longer her wish. What she wants is to destroy this system of internalized misogyny. She announces to the whole world on camera, "Welcome to your nightmare."
"I'm the force that quakes the earth."
Like I said again, what a badass book. Superb writing style and by that I mean it won't let you go, it will hover over your head until you finish the story (personal experience), top tier story, like how many times have you heard about a book in which female lead is the main character, is in a polyamorous relationship with two men and are happy as well, lol and are trying to destroy patriarchy and misogyny while being the power couple, I cannot describe how much I adored this. Also the Enemies-To-Lovers, Cinnamon Roll Yizhi, my badass boy Shimin and my queen for whom I'll be on my knees and serve forever Wu Zeitan, if I had the opportunity to give more than 5 stars, I would've done so.
"It takes a monster to slay a monster."
How can I not mention the way historical elements were blended with future ones, like flowing robes of silk, while powering an 80 feet tall Chrysalise robot, letting the mountain wind linger on your face while flying on your hovercraft. Also, can we appreciate the bisexual, polyamorous couple as the main characters, loved how healthy their relationship was. And to quote the book, "Didn't you study geometry? Triangle is the strongest shape."
"You're not good, but you're bad in the best way."
BUT WAIT IT'S NOT OVER YET, Xiran Jay Zhao, I will never ever forgive you for the last 20 pages. You can take my soul and I will not wince if this is what takes to get the sequel.
Yeah, that was me being very dramatic, but it's true. Anyway, I'm going to bug each of my friends to read The Iron Widow, until I perish.
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