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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book was uncomfortable to read. It was violent. It was shocking. It was heart wrenching. The ideas explored here are fascinating, whether they're accurate or not.
A role reversal where women are in charge instead of men would have caught my attention. But when they're given the power to physically overwhelm men with a touch? The world as we know it is flipped on its head. The idea of power and how it controls all of our interactions, from the micro to the macro, is super interesting to me.
There wasn't really any in-depth character development, and the individual stories didn't even matter that much. What mattered was the overall change in the world, the change of a mindset. Power corrupts. In this book's society, and often in our own.
A role reversal where women are in charge instead of men would have caught my attention. But when they're given the power to physically overwhelm men with a touch? The world as we know it is flipped on its head. The idea of power and how it controls all of our interactions, from the micro to the macro, is super interesting to me.
There wasn't really any in-depth character development, and the individual stories didn't even matter that much. What mattered was the overall change in the world, the change of a mindset. Power corrupts. In this book's society, and often in our own.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A book that asks what power does to a group and how it affects gender norms. Flipping our world on it’s head.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
I think about this book so often even though I read it years ago
I will be thinking about this one for a long time. Alderman holds a mirror up to societal gender roles and power dynamics in a really beautiful and brutal way. Some scenes in this book are difficult to read, but extremely important. I hope they bring it to film at some point so it can reach a wider audience.
Here are a few quotes that I feel sum this book up perfectly:
“It doesn't matter that she shouldn't, that she never would. What matters is that she could if she wanted. The power to hurt is a kind of wealth.”
“Now they will know,” shouts one woman into Tunde’s camera, “that they are the ones who should not walk out of their houses alone at night. They are the ones who should be afraid.”
“Gender is a shell game. What is a man? Whatever a woman isn't. What is a woman? Whatever a man is not. Tap on it and it's hollow. Look under the shells: it's not there.”
“The shape of power is always the same: it is infinite, it is complex, it is forever branching. While it is alive like a tree, it is growing; while it contains itself, it is a multitude. Its directions are unpredictable; it obeys its own laws. No one can observe the acorn and extrapolate each vein in each leaf of the oak crown. The closer you look, the more various it becomes. However complex you think it is, it is more complex than that. Like the rivers to the ocean, like the lightning strike, it is obscene and uncontained.”
Here are a few quotes that I feel sum this book up perfectly:
“It doesn't matter that she shouldn't, that she never would. What matters is that she could if she wanted. The power to hurt is a kind of wealth.”
“Now they will know,” shouts one woman into Tunde’s camera, “that they are the ones who should not walk out of their houses alone at night. They are the ones who should be afraid.”
“Gender is a shell game. What is a man? Whatever a woman isn't. What is a woman? Whatever a man is not. Tap on it and it's hollow. Look under the shells: it's not there.”
“The shape of power is always the same: it is infinite, it is complex, it is forever branching. While it is alive like a tree, it is growing; while it contains itself, it is a multitude. Its directions are unpredictable; it obeys its own laws. No one can observe the acorn and extrapolate each vein in each leaf of the oak crown. The closer you look, the more various it becomes. However complex you think it is, it is more complex than that. Like the rivers to the ocean, like the lightning strike, it is obscene and uncontained.”
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No