Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Power

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

55 reviews

bethanie_l's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad 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

Wasn't sure about this one as I'm slightly apprehensive about the gender switch society concept. It can often be weaponized to say "see? You're just as bad as men so there's no point in feminism." This was not that. It felt more like... like pointing out that these things that are so horrific to see crop up are things that already happen to women in real life. And I can't deny that sometimes I long for men to understand what it's like to be afraid to go jogging at night, that you can't wear headphones because an attacker could sneak up, you can't wear your hair in a ponytail because they could use it to grab you, you can't run in secluded areas because they could abduct you in seconds. The first half is satisfying in this way, seeing women stand up for themselves and seeing men not feel in control anymore. It devolves into horror, but again nothing more than what already happens to women. Is that an excuse? Of course not. But it should be a wake up call to any men who read it. I wonder if they'll even understand that this book is a mirror, even though towards the end I feel like we're being bashed over the head with it. It made me cry deep sobs and I love it for that.

Issues: very cishet view of gender and sexuality. There's no room for trans characters. One intersex character, but it doesn't go into the gender issues really. Felt like the

voice in Allie's head being Samuel from the Bible

was a very weird choice. And the graphic rape scenes were a bit much, even knowing the framing device of them.

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harrisontown's review against another edition

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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

3.75

Good book, takes a while to get into. Last 1/3 gripping. Felt could’ve gone a bit further with the premise.

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lthumphrey's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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bannedfrombookclub's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This is one of those three stars where some of the rating categories are at 5 and others are at 1. I basically have an essay in the notes on my phone that I furiously tapped out because I had to work out my mixed feelings about this book. So to breifly summarise that ...

PROS: The writing is clear and competent, the concept is interesting and needs to be explored, there were flashes of inspiration; we cannot take for granted that a women-run world would be all peace and light just because we want to. We should grapple with how power warps the powerful.

CONS: The framing device is clunky and doesn't hold up under inspection, the characters feel like plot devices, the way women act when in power is too simplistic a gender-flip, the actual power women gain (can zap with electricity) isn't essential enough to the theme of the story other than visually, and a couple of other things.

There's something here, but I think it needed to be teased out in a different way. It has the feeling of a book born too soon.

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miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Fucking 10/10
‘Its like shes died but shes still too alive to notice.’
‘

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cassiegw's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.5

I have had this book on my radar for over a year now, but I was initially interested because this book is set in a world where women have more power than men. I have also always enjoyed dystopian-style books, so I was excited to try an adult dystopian.
"The Power" follows a handful of different points of view in a near future world in which women have suddenly developed this electric power. Because of this power, women take charge and start ruling the world. But, with great power some women are finding it difficult to not become corrupted.
For a book about a physical power that can kill someone almost instantly, I thought this book was paced very slowly. It took me so long to get into the story, and it really hindered my enjoyment. While I was reading this story, I thought it was so ludicrous to see that the women were corrupted by power and the men were disgruntled by their new place in the world, but I think that is the point. Whether we like it or not, women are treated as lesser in every aspect of life in our world, and the men do not want to give up the power they wield because they are afraid of the competition and inferiority that may be brought on by having women in power. When you read that women are in charge and causing all of this chaos, it sounds crazy, and I think that says way more about our society than it should.
I did enjoy that one of the perspectives we got was from a male journalist. He was such a great ally to women and did not seek to take their power away. He appeared like a neutral third party and was able to report without bias on the chaos that inevitably ensued because of this power.
Overall, I enjoyed what this book was trying to do, and the message it was trying to convey, but for me it just fell short kind of short in some ways.

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