First Review 4/11/2023

I am in a love hate relationship with this book.

This book's brand of feminism and female empowerment is really wild. Every fight scene is SO confusing. A lot of the mechanics of how things work leaves a lot to be desired. The world building is so interesting but the book doesn't really give us time to explore it. The book really relies on you being familiar with mech genre, which wasn't a problem for me but god help anyone who isn't a full blown weeb that try's to tackle this book. The MC is honestly not likeable even though I think we are suppose to see her as a Badass™. (I'm fully convinced we could see her become the villain, which could be cool later). The romance is underdeveloped. Its a triad for about 5 seconds before it blows that right out of the water at the 90% mark. (I literally almost stopped reading at this point. The epilogue maybe saved itself).

However-

This is probably the most fun I have had with a book in awhile. I literally could not put it down. The world is so interesting. This concept is so fun. There are likeable, interesting characters. The worldbuilding and character work that IS there is amazing, it makes me want more. The book is well written while still being an easy read. A triad DOES happen even if its short lived (or just put on pause? According to the epilogue, maybe). And of course. The feminine rage. It was so good and I just kept thinking "yes yes yes" the whole time.

This book has flaws, but it also has OVERWHELMING potential. I'm glad that we know another book is coming because if it ended with this book, I would be bumping this down to 3 stars. Iron Widow is not for everyone. I would say give it until the first mech fight to know if you are gonna like it (after the "Welcome to your nightmare" bit)

Re-read review 1/9/2025

Still a guilty pleasure

"Iron Widow” Retrospective 2/21/2025

“Iron Widow” is all wrapped up and deep fried in a Gundam fan’s wet dream of a setting. The book borrows so heavily from anime that I can’t imagine the book being understood by non-anime watchers. The “Darling in the Fraxx” concept is interesting and blatant symbolism. A lot of the characters while maybe not likeable are interesting. To add to this perfect messy pie, the poly-triad with 2 men and 1 woman where the woman is the dom is just the cherry on top. (If I remember right, its mostly fade to black, but this good.) Its well written and easy to read.

At the end of the day, “Iron Widow” is the narrative manifestation of feminine rage in a post Roe V. Wade world. A grotesque glorification of female empowerment and is in no way a picture of polite pop-feminism. “A riot is the language of the unheard” (MLK) and “Iron Widow” is the story of that riot for women. It’s following the legacy of “the Yellow Wallpaper” and “Night Bitch.” She’s singing “Labor” by Paris Paloma. It didn’t matter if the book had confusing world building, unlikable characters, hard to follow fight scenes, and underdeveloped romance. Everything about this book said to the reader “you have the right to be angry” and I was high off of that validation.