Reviews with content warning for War - The Power

This was a pretty good dystopian-style science fiction book. I do think it targets the same demographic of people who enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale. It does a great job of demonstrating how the oppressed are not without the ability to become the oppressors. While I do not think it is inevitable that they would, I appreciate the look into how we see the worst come out in those who are in charge, no matter how much it seems like they would never act that way. The only major qualm I have with this is the same as we are used to seeing in this style of feminist literature, it is a little trans-exclusionary which was unnecessary. Otherwise, it definitely made me think and was a very intriguing style of book.

Content Warnings

madelinedalton's review against another edition

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dark slow-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

2.0

Oof, this book is a total clusterfuck.

The characters are very hollow. They’re just props for carrying out the plot, which made it hard for me to get emotionally invested in them. The constant shifting of perspectives between the characters also contributed to my emotional detachment. As soon as I felt excited to see what happened next to a character, their chapter would abruptly end. Giving each character roughly one chapter per year over a ten year time span was also jarring. They each lived so much life between those chapters, and we didn’t get to see any of it.

My perception of this book's “thesis” is: disproportionate power in anyone’s hands can be deadly. While I agree on the whole, the execution was sloppy. Starting the story in our current patriarchal society led to thematic inconsistencies. It would have been more interesting to deeply examine how the remnants of misogyny and patriarchy hung around during the shift to violent matriarchy over time. There were glimmers of this—the UrbanDox guy, and the line towards the end talking about how there are still a handful of men with power and money out there. But I think those moments fell flat because they weren’t properly connected to the overall thesis of the book.

Content Warnings

sneakya3's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

vivikasweiven's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

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