Scan barcode
bookwormcat's review against another edition
adventurous
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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Rape, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Murder, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Physical abuse, War, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
cardboardcat's review against another edition
adventurous
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
4.5
I have to say this is a fantastic read if you stick with it long enough to realize where it's going. The whole thing is pretty well-written, but the idea -- "what if women had powers" -- isn't anything special, and doesn't seem like it's going anywhere particularly interesting until you get about two-thirds of the way through. I'll write a few more comments under a spoiler tag:
"What if women ruled the world" is a tricky and often tired concept in fiction. You either have to set the story in an alternate universe where humanity progressed in a completely different way to how it actually did, or set it so far in the future that it's impossible to compare to the world we know. This novel handled that issue spectacularly. Usually these stories about worlds run by women rely primarily on taking common misogynistic cliches and reversing them (e.g., "Throughout history men writers were forced to write under women's names!" "Societies used to perform genital mutilation on male babies! Can you imagine if they did that to women?!"). This is funny at first but gets boring pretty quickly. I appreciate how this only has a few pages of that in the correspondences at the beginning and end.
Similarly, a lot of stories about a world run by women perpetuate the idea that a society run by women would inherently be better or kinder than one run by men. I find that idea to be gender-essentialist and frankly unrealistic. I like the way this was handled here.
"What if women ruled the world" is a tricky and often tired concept in fiction. You either have to set the story in an alternate universe where humanity progressed in a completely different way to how it actually did, or set it so far in the future that it's impossible to compare to the world we know. This novel handled that issue spectacularly. Usually these stories about worlds run by women rely primarily on taking common misogynistic cliches and reversing them (e.g., "Throughout history men writers were forced to write under women's names!" "Societies used to perform genital mutilation on male babies! Can you imagine if they did that to women?!"). This is funny at first but gets boring pretty quickly. I appreciate how this only has a few pages of that in the correspondences at the beginning and end.
Similarly, a lot of stories about a world run by women perpetuate the idea that a society run by women would inherently be better or kinder than one run by men. I find that idea to be gender-essentialist and frankly unrealistic. I like the way this was handled here.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault
Minor: Body horror and Death of parent
madamelacy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexism
Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Medical content, Blood, and Body horror
Minor: Trafficking, Xenophobia, and War
charlielizabethm's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Confinement, Drug use, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Body horror, Death, War, Drug abuse, Trafficking, Violence, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Rape, Slavery, and Sexual violence
waclements7's review against another edition
challenging
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
1.0
I found this really disappointing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, War, Blood, Hate crime, Torture, Sexual violence, Gore, and Trafficking
Moderate: Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Child abuse, and Drug use
phantomgecko's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Yet again, I find myself asking why I even finished a book. This premise had potential, but the book is vile.
Imagine Lord of the Flies but on a worldwide scale. The absolute worst humanity has to offer. Every character is a sociopath (to varying degrees). It says people are essentially bad. Specifically women are essentially bad.
I know hyperbole is used to make a point, but this was just disgusting. Like, some possible morals of this story are power corrupts, or feminism is about equality and not supremacy. I guess.
In this story, apparently when women gain physical power over men, they lose all sense of morals, get significantly more stupid, and suddenly super into cults and cocaine. You can argue, "not all women" in this story. It does mention that not everyone is into the sadistic hellscape that's created. But like, obviously enough women that earth turns into a sadistic hellscape.
Also, offensive that women are in power for a mere five years or so before they blow up the entire planet. We made it through decades of the cold war with "men in charge." It perpetuates the hateful idea that women are "too emotional" and not to be trusted with diplomacy or rational thought.
Would some people abuse a power like this? Yes. The revenge stories ring plausible. But to switch all the way over to being "as bad as men" have ever been (IN FIVE YEARS) is pessimistic garbage. Author obviously has no faith in humanity. Depressing, nihilistic bs.
Like...women don't all secretly hate men. In reality, many women have healthy relationships with men either as friends or lovers. Women aren't just pretending to like men because they're being subjugated or whatever. I cannot fully express how detestable Alderman's vision of women is.
There are multiple rape scenes, one of them explicit. Again, I get that a point is being made, but it's vile.
I'm giving this the benefit of the doubt re: the voice in Mother Eve's head. Girl is schizophrenic and not being visited by a higher power. The implications otherwise are just really nasty.
And finally, I believe there is a balance to be found in profanity. For maximum effect, it should be used strategically. "But that's how people talk" --I don't care. In fiction, characters don't always talk the way real people do. And having the f word repeated willy nilly honestly lends a childish tone to the book. Like the author is a kid that's so excited to learn a new swear. Grow up. Learn nuance.
Imagine Lord of the Flies but on a worldwide scale. The absolute worst humanity has to offer. Every character is a sociopath (to varying degrees). It says people are essentially bad. Specifically women are essentially bad.
I know hyperbole is used to make a point, but this was just disgusting. Like, some possible morals of this story are power corrupts, or feminism is about equality and not supremacy. I guess.
In this story, apparently when women gain physical power over men, they lose all sense of morals, get significantly more stupid, and suddenly super into cults and cocaine. You can argue, "not all women" in this story. It does mention that not everyone is into the sadistic hellscape that's created. But like, obviously enough women that earth turns into a sadistic hellscape.
Also, offensive that women are in power for a mere five years or so before they blow up the entire planet. We made it through decades of the cold war with "men in charge." It perpetuates the hateful idea that women are "too emotional" and not to be trusted with diplomacy or rational thought.
Would some people abuse a power like this? Yes. The revenge stories ring plausible. But to switch all the way over to being "as bad as men" have ever been (IN FIVE YEARS) is pessimistic garbage. Author obviously has no faith in humanity. Depressing, nihilistic bs.
Like...women don't all secretly hate men. In reality, many women have healthy relationships with men either as friends or lovers. Women aren't just pretending to like men because they're being subjugated or whatever. I cannot fully express how detestable Alderman's vision of women is.
There are multiple rape scenes, one of them explicit. Again, I get that a point is being made, but it's vile.
I'm giving this the benefit of the doubt re: the voice in Mother Eve's head. Girl is schizophrenic and not being visited by a higher power. The implications otherwise are just really nasty.
And finally, I believe there is a balance to be found in profanity. For maximum effect, it should be used strategically. "But that's how people talk" --I don't care. In fiction, characters don't always talk the way real people do. And having the f word repeated willy nilly honestly lends a childish tone to the book. Like the author is a kid that's so excited to learn a new swear. Grow up. Learn nuance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Sexual assault, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Confinement, Drug abuse, Sexism, Body horror, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, War, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Trafficking
aemowers's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Body horror, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Rape, Addiction, Religious bigotry, and Violence
Minor: Trafficking and Transphobia
super_ge3k's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
3.75
This was a rough one for me. The book is really good, but the violence and body horror had me pausing at times. I think it begins a really interesting conversation on society and womanhood, I remember having those debates in high school of if women just ruled the world instead would things change for the better? I am not saying this book is alluding that if women ruled the world it would be worse, but with all the hardships women and women of color specifically go through in every country; like how in every government it's decided to regulate what women wear and their reproductive rights…It’s not surprising that there is a blatant distrust for men. Gaining power and not wanting it to be taken away so you are never powerless again is so valid and real. There are also just fucked up people no matter the gender so the prospect of some women gaining power and being horrible humans proves that they were horrible before. Also, I think it was a very accurate depiction of how men would react if all of a sudden women had electricity powers and they didn’t….especially the women-hating Reddit feed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Death, Misogyny, and Sexual assault
cjblandford's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
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? Yes
3.0
Ultimately this book is about the corruption people endure when they hold power. There were some interesting concepts here, but because of the way it was written, I never fully connected with the characters. They felt a little shallow. I think this is a product of the book being presented as someone in the far future's research manuscript. I always felt like I was one or two steps removed from the characters and someone was describing their actions, but not their full emotional spectrum. So I never truly felt invested in them as people. I came the closest to caring about Roxy on a deeper level, but I still never felt truly invested in her story.
I liked the concept of the victors writing the history, and how prehistory is nothing more than circumstantial evidence and hypothesis. The old cliche about those who control the past also control the future rings true here. But back to the main point of the book: absolute power corrupts absolutely. I felt that it was a bit heavy-handed with the violence, but as soon as women gained more power than men in this novel, all of the violence that men did to women in the past, were revisited to them, only more so. The book was not subtle about making its point. Its just too bad the execution of this concept wasn't as solid as it could have been.
I liked the concept of the victors writing the history, and how prehistory is nothing more than circumstantial evidence and hypothesis. The old cliche about those who control the past also control the future rings true here. But back to the main point of the book: absolute power corrupts absolutely. I felt that it was a bit heavy-handed with the violence, but as soon as women gained more power than men in this novel, all of the violence that men did to women in the past, were revisited to them, only more so. The book was not subtle about making its point. Its just too bad the execution of this concept wasn't as solid as it could have been.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Religious bigotry, Rape, Body horror, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Blood, Sexual assault, Sexism, Death of parent, and Sexual content
pebbletown's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
3.0
Disappointing, for something so beloved by Margaret Atwood—its gender politics are largely boring and toothless.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, and Body horror