Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao 

I was blown away by this. I knew the general concept of it, a sci-mecha story inspired by Wu Zetian, the only female sovereign in the history of China, but I could not imagine how wild it would be. It pulls no punches. Not a subtle bone in its body but good for when you’re angry at the world and need a good vent. I would die for Zetian, I love her, she is uncompromising and ruthless and, even though she’s a violent asshole in a world of violent assholes, and somehow so easy to root for.

This book was so engaging I read it in all my free time over a couple of days. And it kinda blurred together a bit, so most I remember is the excellent angry vibes, the fast pacing, and over-the-top mecha battles.

I also loved the central relationship (hell yeah!) and some of the other characters, the worldbuilding, even though some stuff was maybe kinda predictable, it all worked so well together. The culture we meet is deeply misogynistic, and that’s confronted and more interestingly, explained in all its power-grabbing roots.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Why have I been putting this off for so long? IT WAS SO GOOD.

The begining is about the MC going through a drought and famine. It was harrowing to read and I was not prepared.

I loved this book overall, but there was one weakness for me. In about the first half, everytime the PoV switched away from Zhu I put down the book. And the other PoVs were fine, perfectly good characters, interesting in their own right, but Zhu was fire and I did not care about other people. They did eventually grow on me, somewhat, and I appreciated all the extra context, but I think I might’ve liked this even more as a single PoV. (I noticed this is a recurring problem I seem to be having at this stage in my life)

Back to my love Zhu. She Who Became the Sun. She Who Was Already the Sun because she shone so brightly.

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

I picked up both The Tiger at Midnight and Girl, Serpent, Thorn when I wanted someone fun and easy to read, and they both delivered and turned out to be exactly what the doctor ordered.

There are two PoVs on opposite sides, and I loved their dynamic and how their stories evolved. The setting was also great, there were a lot of scenes in a deep forrest that I found very easy to visualise. I don’t read a lot of enemies to lovers romance, so I can’t really compare, but I thought it was great how they were truly enemies on different sides of a large scale conflict, not just petty rivals.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

This is a story about a poisonous girl. I loved the poisonous girl, and the question of who is truly monstrous was well presented, also the way her arc devolped was fun. A lot of classic YA fairytale vibes and plot points, which I found very comforting and just what I needed. Yes, again, a little predictable at times, but for me that was in a good way. The setting is inspired by Persia, and there’s a bit at the end where the author explains a lot of myths and story she was inspired by, which I found very interesting.

The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden 

I didn’t think I would end up enjoying this as much as I did. It’s a near future sci-fi set in South Africa and right from the start, it’s pretty grim and violent. Some of the characters are selfish assholes, but in a sort of self-aware way that I like. And others are darlings. It’s not a funny-funny book but there’s a line of humor at shitty circumstances running through. The world-building is a lot, I loved that there was a new (to me) creation myth involved and it was relevant to the story. There are also some little AI robots, and I kept wondering where is this going? It went somewhere awesome that was really cool.

A fun feature of the setting was having local animals like dik diks, which, unfortunately for one character, meant lots of big dik dik problems.

After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang

A short slice of life story in near-future China, in a world where various kinds of dragons are real. The ones still around are small ones kept as pets. It has a lovely grumpy/sunshine m/m romance. I liked the depiction of illness in the novel, even though it gave it all a sort of bittersweet tinge.