We interrupt our regularly scheduled aesthetic posting with a special message about the upcoming science-fiction YA novel IRON WIDOW by non-binary cosplayer, history buff, and YouTube sensation Xiran Jay Zhao (links to their website in the next post)
I have a longer, more formal “review” of this book scheduled for the release date (September 21st, 2021) but I really, really want to hype this book up as much as possible as early as possible to encourage people to pre-order it. I haven’t been this excited about a YA book in quite a while. Let me tell you why!
- It was pitched as PACIFIC RIM meets THE HANDMAID’S TALE in a world inspired by Chinese folklore and history, where boy-girl teams pilot giant mecha to fight alien monsters – but the psychic strain usually kills the girls.Butonly the girls….hmmm…something fishy is going on here…
- The main character is a reimagining of Wu Zetian, the only female emperor of China, who decides she’s going to assassinate the boy who murdered her older sister by volunteering to be his next co-pilot. She assassinates him so well that she kills him through their psychic link and becomes a dreaded IRON WIDOW!
- This makes her very interesting to the government, which would really prefer to make her disappear, but can’t afford to waste that kind of psychic power – so they pair her up with a ~dangerous criminal~ to pilot a new mecha, confident that he will be psychically strong enough to overpower her
- This backfires spectacularly, and suddenly Wu Zetian and her co-pilot have tomanipulate both pop culture and the government just to stay alive.
-Plot ensues.
Why should you read this book?
Go back and re-read that plot summary until you understand why BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!!
-We have a polyamorous F/M/M mutual relationship, I repeat, we PRE-EMPTIVELY SOLVE a LOVE TRIANGLE with POLYAMORY
-Wu Zetian is an amazing anti-hero and I mean that with all my heart. She is constantly doing stuff in this book that made me go, “Wait, can you do that?” She WILL cut a bitch. Also, she uses a cane or wheelchair because she has bound feet, and you can tell that Xiran really went the extra mile to think about how to portray this and how it affects the character. A lot of YA protagonists can start to feel “same-y” after a while to me, but Wu Zetian REALLY stands out.
-The world is really, really cool? There is SO MUCH going on with the aliens and the mecha and the world they’re living in which I cannot spoil except to say that your primary emotion through the third act will be “?!!!?!!?!!?!!!” AND even outside of the meta plot, there is so much thought and detail put into the rest of the setting, it is so beautiful and it feels like you’re really there. Plus every character is a reimagining/reference to a historical or folklore figure and it was really neat to go on a little scavenger hunt of “Oh! I recognize that name!”
-IRON WIDOW will do for YA sci-fi what CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE did for YA fantasy – if it gets support. Xiran has talked about how they couldn’t get an American publisher to even consider publishing this book because publishers didn’t think American audiences would be interested in Chinese folklore or idol culture or a story about giant mecha, which?? Have they MET the internet?? They were also told that schools and libraries will be reluctant to stock IRON WIDOW because of the polyamorous romance. BUT that is why I really hope people show up for this book because it is SO DESERVING OF SUCCESS and it could open so many doors for other writers and for the whole YA landscape
-Xiran Jay Zhao is a really cool non-binary author and their writing is as charismatic and entertaining as their other content. I just think they’re neat!
- And one more thing? The cover looks like this:
Xiran Jay Zhao is absolutely awesome. They’ve done the cultural analyses of Shadow and Bone,Mulan,Kung Fu Panda,AITA on YouTube. (Which is how I found them)
They’ve made me both utterly fascinated by Asian history and utterly terrified of starting to learn more. That is a several thousand year old research hole I’m not sure I’d ever find the will power to climb out of.
to add to this, however - the Handmaid’s Tale portion of the book. I’ve asked Xiran if there are any potential triggering scenes, and the response is;
I am thrilled to share these August book releases with you today! There are some fantastic books releasing this month and I’m hoping to read a few of these in the future, including:
- The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino
- A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
- A Dance with the Elf Prince by Elise Kova in conjunction with Book of Matches Media
EXCITING NEWS: BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN IS OUT April 6!
Blow Your House Down is a powerful testimony about the ways our culture seeks to cage women in traditional narratives of self-sacrifice and erasure. Frangello uses her personal story to examine the place of women in contemporary society: the violence they experience, the rage they suppress, the ways their bodies often reveal what they cannot say aloud, and finally, what it means to transgress “being good” in order to save your own life.
“In this searing memoir…Frangello charts the spectacular highs and devastating lows of her midlife with extraordinary candor…This unapologetic account both moves and fascinates.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Searingly honest and compulsively readable…uncompromisingly fearless in its candor, this memoir/feminist manifesto isa powerful account of a woman’s self-acceptance that deserves a place among the best literary memoirs of the last decade. Frangello’s groundbreaking testimony sets itself apart.”–Library Journal, starred review
“My bet for breakout of the year. The Chicagoan’s memoir takes on gender expectations and marital affairs in such a brutal, lacerating candor wonder who should play her in the movie.” –ChicagoTribune, Most Anticipated Book of 2021
“Raw, red-hot memoir…In this gutsy, dramatic feminist manifesto, Frangello recounts the cost of eschewing security to choose the utter necessity of love, of being more tomorrow than she is today.” –Booklist
Time has been…incredibly strange this year, and I can’t believe that winter is almost officially here. And I’m Canadian, which means that winter will probably be lasting until about mid-April for me. Despite Christmas being one of my favourite times of the year, winter is definitely my least favourite season overall, because I absolutely HATE being cold, and I hate driving in the snow because of…
