Iron Widow

 This one's a tad confusing for me. There are a lot of things I dislike about this book, but despite that it just has this vibe to it that kept me turning the page. That's vague I realize, but it is what it is. For starter's I actually like the main character. I mean she's very dislikeable, an anti-hero type for sure, but all her cognitive dissonance, rough edges, lack of empathy and sympathy and times...make sense to me given her life experiences. Life hits hard and it can really mess you up and I think she is the epitome of that.

The commentary on gender identity, the take on romance, and robots fighting monsters. There was a lot to like there. The big problem with the story for me is within the writing. The tendency to explain with info dumps rather than show, but yet on other hand at times be missing integral details important to character motivations or plot advancement.

The near insta-love between characters or the fact that every other woman but Zetian are painted in an incredibly petty and poor light were also sore thumbs for me. And finally the dialogue. It came off as very juvenile. Now maybe that's just me getting old, but given the setting for this novel you wouldn't expect internet slang and meme type language, but it's there in spades. Things like “You're the baddest of the bad boys. The ultimate alpha male” and other such one liner's. I would laugh in someone's face if they ever said anything half as cringy unironically. Can you even imagine?

But despite this long list of complaints, I was still engaged which is quite something. I can understand how someone could be fully immersed in this book. For me I'd say if the author's writing ever catches up to their creativeness, look out!