Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

69 reviews

quickermorequickly's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I feel like I read this novel about 5 years too late into my understanding of gender and power to be the target audience. The storytelling itself is gripping and compelling, but I feel a little queasy about the rigidly binary vision of gender that the author presents here. So much of the plot is in fact about biological function: who has the skein with the power (women), and who doesn't (men). The introduction of

a few men who have the skein

could have gone somewhere interesting, but didn't, since

the text reduces them to people with hormone irregularities or whatever

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, War, Murder, Violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Gun violence

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

takarakei's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Re-read (first read was in 2018). This book holds up to the 5 stars I gave it originally. This time I listened to the audiobook, which is FABULOUSLY narrated - seriously I went and looked up every book Adjoa Andoh has narrated and was pleased to find there are lots.

Dystopian, sci-fi, very dark - please go into it checking all content warnings. Basically take all the horrible things that we humans have done and put them in one book, but with a gender role reversal. Then as you read this, think about all these horrible things that are happening, what those with the power do to those without, remember that these are all things that HAVE been done throughout history to marginalized people in THIS world. The one that we live in. The insane thing is that I almost hesitate to call this sci-fi because it's basically our real history. Yeah, it's disturbing.

I thought about this book long after I read it the first time, and will continue to do so probably forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Blood, Animal death, Gore, Misogyny, Drug use, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Trafficking, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse

A girl is SA/raped by her foster parent, an adult man. This has been happening repeatedly while living with her foster parents. There is other rape/SA also to a man by a woman because of the role reversal of power.

lepremieraccroc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Genocide, Incest, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

mikki_9's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, War, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, Racism, and Transphobia

paulawind's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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? It's complicated

1.5

This book is awful.

Don’t get me wrong, from a technical pov it’s great - the language, pacing, structure, how it plays with your emotions throughout it - all 10/10. The problem I have here is that it is overbearingly hopeless. I haven’t felt so miserable reading a book since The Painted Bird. All this unnecessary and excessive violence, mindless evil - all of that made me literally physically sick, with tears running down my face on public transport, and being unable to continue reading, especially in the second part of the book. My stomach was twisting, I couldn’t eat anything, this book is haunting my dreams. I am not unfamiliar with dark literature, my favourite authors are 19th century Russians, but this level of universal evil drains clean whatever hope I had in humanity.

We’ve got Tunde and Allie is biracial, but I would argue that the dystopian claim the author is making is very much influenced by Lord of the Flies and Stanford Experiment, especially that it shares the same fallacy of being based on analysis of one demographic - overwhelmingly White Westerners (most of them middle class) - we don’t get any perspectives on how the power changed occurred anywhere but Europe and US, side from brief description of Saudi Arabia and India in early stages.

I know what the author wanted to do, show us the spin of gender power, where it can lead, and that in the end gender is not a determining factor for violence, but the physical domination one holds over the other. I do get that, yet I refuse to believe that human beings are irreversibly and inherently driven to enjoy subjugating others and exploiting their power. Maybe I’m just young and have the shreds of hope left, and the life will show me that Naomi is right. I hope not. I really do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War

cinnamonandpancakes's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I have not read a book this fast in years. It took me about 4 hours, if you take out time for interruptions, and I emerged irrevocably changed.

This book hooked me from the beginning and pulled me through a dark tunnel of story until I emerged, not knowing how to describe the ways it had changed me. Like Tunde, I began with so much optimism and emerged much more soberly!

This book is very brutal in its portrayal of what would happen if women suddenly gained an upper hand and is definitely no light read but if you want to read a skillful and scathing denial of all the people who say life would just be _better_ if women were in charge then I can think of no better book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Trafficking

lindseyreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexism, Body horror, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Murder, and Drug use

no_shelf_control's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

alexbobalex's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

Everyone should read this book at least once. It’s a story everyone can relate to, as we all are affected by gender and it’s power dynamics. This book made me relook at human history itself, and wonder. All that being said, strongly recomend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Trafficking, Torture, Violence, Stalking, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Racism, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Hate crime, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Cursing, Confinement, Cannibalism, Bullying, Body shaming, Body horror, Blood, Biphobia, Antisemitism, and Acephobia/Arophobia

LOOK AT THE TRIGGER WARNINGS. This book it for a mature audience and contains many, many triggers.

angelbabe_cj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Drug use, Drug abuse, Confinement, and Body horror