IRON WIDOW Diversity Review

🐘🐘/5

**contains spoilers**

When I first heard about IRON WIDOW, I was beyond excited to read it. Asian queer author, feminist manifesto about toppling the patriarchy, AND a science fiction fantasy?! I couldn’t get my hands on it fast enough! If this isn’t my kind of book, I really don’t know what is. It was the kind of book I’d be dreaming about for years and years, and finally some badass writer had done it. Xiran Jay Zhao had done it.

Before I get into why I gave this 2 out of 5 elephants, let’s take a minute to give them their due. Because oh my gosh is the content of this book overdue, and kudos to them for writing it, publishing it, and putting it out for the world to enjoy. It cannot be overstated how hard it is to be the first wave of anything, and Xiran Jay Zhao is in the first wave of queer authors in feminist scifi. Being able to say there’s a subgenre of fantasy that’s feminist is *chefs kiss* magnificient. So my sincere, heartfelt thanks goes to them. I’m happy to report that despite this not getting four or five stars, I will absolutely be reading their next book.

While we’re at it, can I just say how much I adored the first page trigger warning?! This should be standard in publishing. Absolutely standard. I can’t believe it’s the first time I’m seeing it in this type of book, but please give it to me every time.

With those two notes I think it’s safe to say I was ready to love this book. I was ready to give it my heart and soul, and shout to everyone that should listen that they need to GO BUY THIS BOOK.

But, 394 pages later, give me my Cate Blanchett/Galadriel voiceover because “Something happened that the ring (aka me) did not intend.” It had all the right ingredients — badass female protagonist, polyamory, a dystopian society, righteous anger towards injustice, and a broody enemies-to-lovers love interest — and yet, as I read Zetian shout “Empress Wu”, I didn’t feel the elation, the triumph. In fact, as I closed the back cover, I mostly felt dissatisfaction. Like I had taken a big bite of red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, only to find that it was in fact beetroot with fondant.

And then I had to check in with myself — was I unsatisfied because of my own prejudices? Had I not gotten the cookie cutter recipe and therefore I couldn’t appreciate it? Essentially, were my own limiting beliefs holding me back from really appreciating this novel? Truthfully, I wish I could say yes. Because then I would have been given an opportunity to unlearn and I’d be able to go back and love this story.

But what has happened in IRON WIDOW is that the characters, plot and diversity remain surface level. There are so many areas of concentration that the core elements are suffocated and unable to shine. The tragedy is that it has the elements to be great — Zetian, our protagonist, is strong willed, isn’t afraid to take up space, fights for what she believes is right, and exhibits a darkness that should paint her as morally gray, or at least creates the foundation for an interesting character arc. But then in the midst of battle, a factoid about Chrysalises will be thrown in, or all of a sudden Zetian will have healed some part of herself. Instead of being walked through her healing, I just spent the last ten pages on a plot twist that wasn’t really necessary, thus giving the book two elephants — partly for the muddled world building and cluttered plot, but ultimately because the character development is just not there.

Let’s start with the main plot: Zetian and her two male love interests — Shimin and Yizhi — take down the Sages/patriarchy. But, why? Why them? Am I wrong for wanting a feminist scifi book to have more…women? Real women of consequence. The only other female character that does anything is Xiuying who ends up being the villain, but only for two scenes. Because Zetian questioned her kindness from the start, it’s not really an unexpected twist.

Zetian’s notable female relationships include her sister who’s dead, and her mother who falls victim to society. But we never get a chance to really understand her mother or why she does the things she does. As a result, the book creates a dichotomy in how women are categorized — Zetian who’s a feminist, and everyone else upholding the power systems.

Now don’t get me wrong, many women continue to uphold the power structures that keep them down. One only needs to look at the number of white women that voted for Donald Trump, or Susan B Anthony who refused to march with Black women. However, in a book by a queer author who makes a point to show a polygamous relationship, why are women portrayed in such a binary fashion? There needs to be more nuance — more depth in these characters, more understanding as to why they are the way that they are so I can either root for them, dislike them, or really have some sort of feeling or attachment.

With regards to her love interests, I would have loved to see Yuhzi be female or nonbinary. I would have loved for Zetian to have a female support system. There was such an opportunity for Qieluo and Zetian to do more than simply stand each other. Or what if Zetian and Xiao Shufei actually ended up friends and on the same side (à la Lysandra in THRONE OF GLASS)? On the flip side, what if the book took a moment to understand Zetian’s mother and grandmother? Why did they become the way they are? Why do they make the choices they do? Seriously, lose the word count from some C plotlines, and give it to another badass female!

Truthfully, the highlight for me was the juxtaposition of Xiuying and Qieluo. In Chapter 35, Xiuying urges Zetian to take care of her family despite how horribly they’ve treated her and how indispensable she is to them. She tells her to solve the root of the problem: her family’s lack of food and security. That’s what makes them treat each other like fish in a barrel, makes them do cruel things to one another. When she takes the advice and moves them, Qieluo admonishes her by saying “just because you have the capacity to do something for someone, it doesn’t mean you have the obligation to, especially when they won’t even appreciate you for doing it.”

This is such an important conversation and it’s situated at the crux of social justice and abolition. How do you support a community in ways that reduce harm while demanding accountability and actively keeping up boundaries that promote self care and protection? Though they are depicted as opposing arguments, they’re actually two parts of one solution. Xiuying is not wrong (which is partly why I was disappointed in her becoming the villain, but more on that later). So many of the horrible things we do to each other stem from our skewed perception caused by a lack of resources and options. We’re not given all the resources we need to thrive, and capitalism and power systems actively pit marginalized communities against each other. Imagine how much harm could have been avoided with therapy, food programs, a strong and supportive community, etc? That’s why it’s so important that we learn more about the women in Zetian’s family, so it’s easier to understand that people are not born cruel, most of the time they’re just trying to survive. Then we can give them what they need to do so and change a society for the better for the long term.

And Qieluo is also not wrong: you have to hold your boundaries. You cannot let yourself be used up for other people. But she’s also not completely right: if Zetian was to give to her family, she should do it for herself and because that’s what she wants, not because she expects gratitude and appreciation. Just as she should hold her boundaries, she cannot put her happiness and self worth in the hands of others. She’s already learned this in the video she has to make for Gao Qiu; it would have been great if this lesson was extended here as well.

If we ever get to read a sequel, I would love to see Zetian create some of those social programs once she’s set up her empire, and I would love for her to have a majority female council/inner circle.

Now, let’s talk about Xiuying — If we were really able to understand and see into a larger number of truly complex female characters, I would have been open to Xiuying becoming the villain and killing Shimin. But even her motives felt surface level — so much of her relationship with her husband was left unexplored even as it was dangled before us. Does she love him? Did she have her children because the Sages willed it, as Zetian thinks, or does she truly love being a mother? How does she feel about what Zetian is doing? What forces are pushing against her, and how has time taken its toll? What are her motives?

If I knew this, I could maybe hate Xiuying or feel bad for her. Without it, the whole turn of events boils down to Zetian’s line: “I can’t believe I’ve done the one thing I’ve raged at everyone else for doing: underestimating a woman.”

Now can women do horrible things? Of course. Can they be good villains? Hell yeah. But that’s not why I didn’t like this — I didn’t like this because I wasn’t invested enough in Xiuying to feel betrayed. She was such a superficial character that when I finished the book, the whole thing felt like one girl’s (Zetian’s) version of feminism, which excluded all other types of women that were not her. She never spoke to other women enough to even see what they wanted — what freedom looked like for them, what their priorities were, etc. That is not feminism, it definitely lacks an intersectional lens, and that is not toppling the patriarchy.

And as I close out this point, I would like to put it on the record, that I wish Yizhi had not been the one to shout “Long live the Iron Widow”. I wish it had been the Concubines. I wish it had been the women because that would have felt game changing. But that would also require her to learn more about those women, earn their respect and be worthy of leading them. Without their swell of support, without their stories, the stakes are just not there.

The lack of character development and depth is also my main problem with the B plot. In the realm of love, if I got to cast my vote — Shimin and Yizhi would have walked into the sunset together (dead or alive). Frankly, Shimin had better chemistry with Yizhi. I still cannot tell you why Shimin fell for Zetian when he was still clearly hung up on his ex. Don’t tell me it was the forced proximity trope because that trope requires much more vulnerable conversation than what they had (which could have happened during training, but didn’t and it feels like a wasted opportunity). In the book, Zetian essentially rails against the person she perceives Shimin to be, apologizes when she realizes she’s wrong, and then the end. Yizhi is the one that actually cares for Shimin, tries to understand him, and helps him heal from his forced addiction. I would have much preferred Zetian to take up that word count to learn to love and understand herself.

Ultimately, diversity is important (whether that be race, gender, intersectionality, etc.) because it allows for complexity and it becomes the magic that allows characters to blossom. It’s what puts their humanity first, and is that not the core of why we love books, television, and film so much? Because even if it has dragons or magic or Chrysalises, it still shows us parts of who we are. That’s what was missing here — full, human characters.

I’ll close by saying this: the beauty of IRON WIDOW is that it shows how far we’ve come. Not only is a book like this getting published, but now I get to sit here, hidden behind my computer screen, and I get to demand more. More character development, more complexity, more queerness, stronger females, etc. That is a blessing. Although I didn’t fall head over heels for this story, I’d like to restate for the record: I will absolutely be reading Xiran Jay Zhao’s next book. Because everything I wished would change comes down to having more publishing experience and stronger editing. The world they created has the potential to be fantastic. The themes they tackled are so overdue. And our protagonist: I could absolutely get behind Zetian 2.0. So cheers to a first time author writing fiercely, and taking on the patriarchy. I’m anxiously awaiting round two.

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