Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

85 reviews

allyjshand's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.5

Power was darker and more graphic than I was expecting, although I can’t fault that as that’s more of a personal preference. I loved the premise and found the power subversions seen throughout the book clever although often challenging to read. I also enjoyed the format of the book with the different POVs, the emails, and images as they added something different. Having said that, I felt like the relationships between characters were sometimes weak, perhaps bringing them together sooner would have helped this. I also didn’t enjoy the ending as I didn’t really understand the characters’ motives. Overall a mixed bag and a three star read for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Gore, Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: War, Death of parent, Cursing, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Drug use

bestkasescenario's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense fast-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

4.75

Loved it! The ending felt a little rushed and it didn’t feel “complete” but I still loved the book in its entirety. Excellent storytelling & I did find it a little Atwood-esque which made sense at the end to learn that Atwood mentored Alderman. Stoked to watch the show, I hope it lives up to the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Slavery, Sexual content, Misogyny, Sexual assault, War, Violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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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

mthornburg13's review

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Sexual violence, Sexism, Murder, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Drug abuse, War, Violence, Trafficking, Stalking, and Child abuse

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.25

Check out content/trigger warnings (I don't think the ones I chose are all inclusive of what is in the book so look up all the reviews that have the warnings) because some stuff can be quite graphic. 
Overall liked it but didn't love it. I didn't really care for the ending but enjoyed the overall idea of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Violence, Gun violence, Torture, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Confinement

penguins_save_lives'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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, and Rape

Moderate: Medical trauma, War, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual harassment, and Stalking

vninny's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Bullying, Death, Incest, Rape, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Blood, Gore, Sexism, Sexual violence, and War

oddpilot97's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I hated this. And I don't say that lightly.

*Be aware that this book contains DETAILED depictions of rape.*

Starting this book, I thought it would be about women reclaiming their power (no pun intended) and crafting some strong commentary about the effects of the patriarchy and rape culture.

When the book first started flipping harmful ideologies, I found it thought-provoking. The idea of women seeing online that a few men posted that they like being shocked by the power during sex, and therefore the women decided the men must all “secretly like it” seemed to accurately reflect the disgusting narrative I’ve seen that “if some women have a CNC kink, no women should complain about rape, they must enjoy it”. But from there, the parallels spiraled out of control.

It quickly devolved into “won’t someone think of the poor men??” And my heart broke at the horrible stories. Until I remembered: this is OUR narrative, just flipped. Why should we have to flip it for people to care? And why should i read something that makes me cry for imaginary people when this happens to real people every day. I have empathy fatigue for imaginary situations now, when that empathy could be directed towards real suffering.

I read an interview with the author, because I couldn't believe she would try to make the point she did.

Finally, you have to ask, are women better than men? They’re not. People are people. You don’t have to think that all men are horrible to know there are some men who abuse their strength. Why wouldn’t the same hold true for women? -Naomi Alderman (The New York Times).

Would women sexually abused men at the same rates if the roles were reversed? I have to fundamentally disagree, and the notion makes me queasy. There were several times this book made me feel sick to my stomach (specifically the scenes of assault and justifications of it).

Even if that  were true, what was the point of writing this? Egalitarianism is the goal, not enacting a matriarchy. I don't think this book needed to be written and it negatively impacted me to read. I do believe that power corrupts. But at the end of the day, I have to ask myself what stories are worth our energy and which ones we should be platforming. And a book that asks “what If the real life victims were the abusers” helps no one, in my opinion.

Many have compared this to “A Handmaid’s Tale”. That parallel couldn’t be further from the truth, in my opinion. Margret Atwood did what good dystopian stories do: she took an idea present in our society and pushed it to the limit. That’s not the case with “The Power”. Alderman was apparently mentored by Atwood, and I'm genuinely curious what her perspective would be on this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Incest, War, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Sexism

savazelena's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Sigh. What?

As so many have said: good idea, bad execution. 

As far as content goes, I'm relatively okay with it. It's an interesting premise that shifts the perspective on patriarchy and gender and boy do we need those. The only thing that is missing, for me, is the question of trans characters - we have a minor intersex character and that's it? It would be a really interesting topic to explore in the context of this dystopia, so I missed it.

For the style... I thought it was just dramatic for the beginning of the story, but it doesn't. End. All throughout the book. We have these. Short. Intense. Sentences. That are sometimes deep and pseudointelectual. And sometimes. Just descriptions. To me, it's bad writing. There's no versatility, no changes in narration considering the context. 

And because of this fake deep style, the second half of the book is almost incoherent. There is a lot of political themes and complex storyline, but we never get any actual explanations, there are no motives for what the characters are doing, they are all just a cardboard cutout of an archetype. 

The letter story was interesting and I liked it. I would've liked to see more of this dynamics, as it also feels more realistic and would be harder to complicate with style.

Since Atwood is mentioned in acknowledgment, I feel comfortable comparing this to Handmaid's Tale and The Testament: books with very dystopian and VERY complex plots, seen through a few of the characters, well written and understandable, with dimensional characters. This was, in comparison, a college essay.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Murder, Sexual content, Sexism, Rape, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Child abuse

leaknezevic's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Death, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Genocide, Sexual violence, Child death, Blood, Sexism, Rape, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Torture, Stalking, Drug use, Slavery, War, Violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Hate crime, Gore, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Grief, Vomit, and Excrement