OVERALL: Maggie, aka Bogwitch, somewhat reluctantly, joins local guild for a video game. She ends up enjoying the group, but really the leader, Otter. OVERALL: Maggie, aka Bogwitch, somewhat reluctantly, joins local guild for a video game. She ends up enjoying the group, but really the leader, Otter. Aiden, aka Otter, is also enjoying their new guild member, but is it weird that she’s like 80? Due to misunderstandings and assumptions, she thinks he is a 20 year community college student, and he thinks she’s his mother’s age. They both like each other, and when they finally meet in person, that’s when this book takes off.
I almost quit the book. The first 20-30% of the book was a struggle for me. I had trouble relating to Maggie, though, truthfully, I’d ALWAYS rather be at home than out. Her constant attitude/snark was a bit much, but once she started interacting with Aiden, her edges weren’t AS jagged. Lol. And Aiden grew some backbone. Their relationships was sweet and absolutely delightful to watch develop.
Bonus: I loved content about being bisexual, as well as ace, and demi. I was so refreshing to see/read.
20 SECONDS “WHAT’S THIS ABOUT?� Maggie is an introvert x 1000, and *smidge* prickly. Aiden is too, minus the prickly. He’s determined to see the positives. They both play video games as an outlet (and something they love), and are now in the same guild. They known they live in the same town, but other than that, Maggie assumes she’s as old as his mother, and Aiden then pictures her as old as his 80-year old mother, because…they are in fact the same age. Cue the super cute meet cute when they ACTUALLY meet and discover they are NOT who they pictured.
MY FAVORITE PART: This is when my love for Maggie occurred: “No, but I don’t have the time or the bandwidth to put up with privileged women who need to pick on other people just because they’re bored or want to feel better.� Maggie’s eyes blazed. “And if she’s stupid enough to try it with me, she gets what’s coming to her.�
OVERALL: In Huaxia, Chrysalises are piloted by males and females. The females� qi is there to counterbalance the intensity of the male qi, which is neeOVERALL: In Huaxia, Chrysalises are piloted by males and females. The females� qi is there to counterbalance the intensity of the male qi, which is needed for the Chrysalis to transform into robots. These robots fight mechanical aliens.
Enter Zetian, a female who is desperate to get away from her family, and eager to exact revenge on the pilot who killed her sister. And…she does.
After this she is linked with the strongest pilot (who is also a murderer—but has super high qi).
This is where things get fuzzy to me. It feels like an action book, where we need to figure why the Hunduns are attacking and how to finish them. But there’s a huge section just about Zetian, Li Shimin, and Yizhi being the capital…and nothing happens.
I suppose as a relationship story there is some progression, but it still feels a little flat at times.
And the book definitely feels historical, though it is clearly sci-fi. Language is very current, with words like “weird� and “hey� and other colloquial terms. That threw me off. I don’t know why I just could not adapt to this casual language in the book, but it bothered me.
In the end, the beginning fighting was frequent and fast, and I had trouble keeping up with that was going on, but then it slowed to a crawl for about 25% of the book. And then picked back up but went in a different direction…It just felt choppy to me.
15 SECOND “WHAT’S THIS ABOUT�: Think Pacific Rim where male pilots need female concubines to combine their qi to be successful at fighting the Hunduns (I.e. bad guys). Include in heavy Handmaid’s Tale vibes with some serious misogyny, a poly relationship with two other males, and a woman who is ready to take down the entire system, and kill anything in her way to gain power she’s never seen, and welcome to Iron Widow.
FAVORITE PART: The poly relationship is fantastic! I loved this rep, and was excited to see it in a YA book.
And down with the patriarchy—yes! Normally, I’m not rooting for people to be killed, but every time Zetian said shew as going to come back and annihilate a man later in the future (and did for some), I was like, fuck yeah!
This book. I haven’t finished a book in less than a day in a long time. This was a grittier version of One Of Us Is Lying, with a fuck-ton of racism tThis book. I haven’t finished a book in less than a day in a long time. This was a grittier version of One Of Us Is Lying, with a fuck-ton of racism throw in. Like on every page. It was a tough read in some ways, because of shit Devon and Chiamaka deal with, but that didn’t stop me from blowing through it. It was gripping and had my heart racing in parts—in anger, in fear, in sadness.
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