Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - The Power

W O W!
I really needed the first half of this book after the grinding misogyny of the last one I read, but oof it got really hard to keep going once I was about halfway through. Definitely needed more contemplation time between chapters to process what was going on. And that was quite a LOT. Very, deeply thought provoking, and a tad horrifying. Basically excellent.

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trinamarie's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Holy Shit what a ride! Girls and women discovering they have an electrical power and the ‘shocks’ reverberate through society, from nuclear families to governments and global religions.

The story is interwoven through the perspectives of a full cast of characters; Allie (USA), Tunde (Lagos), Margot (mayor, USA) her teenage daughter Jos, and Roxy (London, uk) each of them experiencing power on a personal level, physically, intellectually, emotionally.

Haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
Definitely be aware of many triggers in this one, some parts hard to read.

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steds's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

As audiobook. Intense, interesting, thought provoking.

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coastelle's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

The concept was really interesting but the ending left me with so many questions. Also some POVS were very boring. Definitely look up the trigger warnings before reading this

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puddlemud's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Interesting concept - bad execution. Reading “The Power” by Naomi Alderman was sadly a little disappointing. (POTENTIAL SPOILERS)

I chose to read this book due to a recommendation by bookstore employee, because I asked for any recommendations for feminist novels. In my words I’d say that “The power is a dystopian novel, where women get ‘the power’, which can cause pain, or even death, with a flick of their fingers. And suddenly men see themselves losing their own power.”
All that with the essence of a “Midsommar”-esque plot (though Midsommar came out after this book was published) that sadly, in my opinion, failed.

Though the pacing of the book was fine, the writing style was unbelievably hard to get into. Due to this fact I was dreading finishing, or even just reading a few pages of the book. So it took me incredibly long to even get to a point where I was motivated enough to just read through it. This was due to a few reasons.
Firstly: The changing perspectives. While I’m fine with changing perspectives in books, the perspectives in this book changed so much (with the perspectives of so many characters) that it was really hard to even understand the storyline.
Additionally, the motives of the characters were hard to follow and they weren’t really fleshed out all that much, which especially hurt the potential of the storyline:
It really seemed like Naomi Alderman tried to convey a certain effect onto the reader. One, where you at first feel for the main character(s) - defending their (sometimes questionable) actions - because they went through horrible trauma, until it all gets so extreme, that you just can't do that anymore. This, sadly, was not accomplished, because the characters were just so unlikable. Sure, Allie and Roxy went through some horrible, traumatic events, but their revenge just doesn’t feel satisfying at all and so the “Oh! Maybe so much power isn’t all that great after all!”- moment was a rather minor conclusion.
Another issue I take with the book is simply: it just isn’t clear what is happening by the end of it all. Is the main plot supposed to be written as a ‘history book’/part of history? What do the emails mean? What happened to some of the characters? I genuinely don’t know. Maybe I’m too dense to understand it, but I’ve spent some time discussing the book with friends and yet we’ve not gotten any closer to understanding it. And the fact that some plot lines were just left open, didn’t help either.
There also are just some things I take personal issue with:
There is not a single queer character in the book? In an extremely matriarchal society? Not only was there so much potential to do so, but it also would have just made so much sense. Why would the love and unity with women not expand to the romantic level? Also Allie and Roxy were just extremely gay, I'm sorry. The fact that they actually weren’t, was a shock to me.
Which also leads to the fact the way sex was described and portrayed in the book was honestly disgusting and unsettling. The passionate and the not so passionate scenes were just so graphic - (*warning*) for example: “It’s good; her around him, him inside her. They fit.” (Page 289) - that I didn’t want to continue reading the book. Especially after a graphic rape scene. I honestly just wish that there would have been a content warning for this.

And this is not to say that I didn’t like some aspects of “The Power”.
I liked the honest portrayal of real life experiences of women under patriarchy and it just shows the trauma that comes from it very well. Also, I liked how the aspect of power was portrayed here. In a discussion about the book a friend of mine said: “Whoever holds the power, abuses it.” and I think this summarizes it pretty well.
The conclusion of the book is: men are not the problem in patriarchy (or at least not the root of it all), women would not be the problem in a matriarchy. The problem is the power that the people get and the fact that they abuse it to benefit themselves. Obviously uneven power structures create an unequal society and there is no ethical way to hold said power.
This abuse of power is portrayed especially well in the context of the cult. How it may feel comforting at first, but will hurt you in the long term even more.

All in all, like I said: the concept of the book was nice, but sadly was not executed well. There was so much potential that was left untouched.
3/5

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bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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gracekatreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

While the first half of this book and the premise are really strong and thoughtful, the analysis of gender and it’s affects in the second half is poorly thought out—the overall effect ends up being very gender essentialist and conservative. Scenes of graphic sexual violence are unnecessary and in detail every time.

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