Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

53 reviews

smite2000's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, Hate crime, War, Physical abuse, Misogyny, and Violence

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Body horror and Death of parent

pasadenaellie's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

1.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, Rape, and Pedophilia

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.

---

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

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

---

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

---

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

ljp817's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense 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? No

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Death, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Misogyny, Trafficking, and Transphobia

Minor: Drug use, War, and Religious bigotry

haileearynn's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

Thought-provoking and well-written. But not something I particularly enjoyed reading due to the dark storyline and reminders of real-world injustices that left me angry and upset throughout much of the book. Glad I read it, but probably not one I would ever read again.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Drug use, Sexual violence, War, Child abuse, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Violence, Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Torture, Religious bigotry, Rape, Trafficking, Slavery, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Death, and Colonisation

kingsteph's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Sexism, and Torture

Moderate: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Murder, and Drug abuse

Minor: Slavery and War