~Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao~

Have you ever wished the queer book you were reading had 500% more murder? Friends, let us introduce you to Iron Widow, a sci-fi epic inspired by Chinese history and folklore. It stars Wu Zetian, a young woman who’s favorite hobby is crushing the patriarchy with giant robots whilst laughing maniacally. Iron Widow also has two of our favorite male characters of all time and a beautiful love triangle (but like, the good gay kind, we promise).

We loooove Iron Widow; it also breaks our usual ‘no gratuitous violence’ rule. Here are the trigger warnings from the front of the book: violence and abuse, suicide ideation, discussion and references to sexual assault (though no on-page depictions), alcohol addition, and torture. We do touch on all of these topics in our full review, though the spoiler-free review only has discussion of suicide ideation.

For the spoiler-free review, stop around at 8:00 or when the drums kick in.

Got book recommendations? Email us at wereadqueerbooks@gmail.com!