Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

368 reviews

meganemarshall's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

3.5 rating. 
This concept was really interesting, but I feel like it fell flat in many areas. The book starts with a letter from an author writing to another author to like 'Hey, what do you think of my book'. So I think that I ruined the book a little bit cause i was thinking the book was gonna be written with journal articles and documents used mostly to explain. It did that a little, but I was disappointed there wasn't more. 

There were 4 main characters' POV but sometimes also side characters POV. It would sometimes swith POVs in confusing places. I didn't actually connect to any of the characters. One character storyline would get more interesting, while the others were kind of boring, and then it would switch, and it never really stayed consistent. 

At times, the plot felt really weak jumping between all these characters, which they do end up crossing paths at times. Each of their stories didn't really have a good arc. Then there wasn't a really good main arc throughout the story. The book was an odd mix of hypocritical concepts, simplifying dynamics, going from one extreme to the other, but also having really important explanations of things that women deal with. 

Overall, the idea was really interesting, but the execution was just not there for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, and Rape

Minor: Trafficking

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

garverse's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-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

3.25

book was decent! I was interested throughout, although some of the perspectives/moment felt entirely too cliche it felt like really poor fiction

also the tone felt off a lot, but I liked when it languished in certain descriptions of moments

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, and Sexual violence

boothdwellerbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

dnietoperafan's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-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? Yes

3.0

I really wanted to like this book, I ended up with mixed feelings. 

The Power is first and foremost a critique, not a 'what if' type of book. I started reading it as a 'what if' type of novel, which is how it was marketed, but I quickly realised, I don't think this was Alderman's intent. The gore, the violence, the misuse of power... I don't think Alderman believes women (as a group) would make these mistakes after knowing what it is to be on the other side of it. That's why I continued reading The Power as a critique to our current patriarchal society.

Alderman fully swaps how patriarchy currently works, and puts women in those rotten positions of power. She completely mirrors today's horrors (which I believe wouldn't happen if women suddenly got electric powers). Which is why so many people who read this book are appalled. So please, read this book knowing it's a critique and not a 'what if'.

So how come I rated it a 3-star and not a 4-star? As a story, The Power was just a bit bland for me. The plethora of characters was interesting at first, but there wasn't anything deep in them. Their development felt quite superficial, and I didn't care for them. So critique-wise, amazing book; story-wise, it could have definitely been better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, War, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Rape, and Sexual content

Moderate: Violence, Trafficking, Torture, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Sexual harassment

sapphireb22's review

slow-paced

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

1.0

This book was recommended as a dystopian book and it really was not good. Set in the future where a man is asking female to read his story. Story is set 5k years in past  depicting the rise of women in power over men. If you like books about rape, politics, and religion taking over this is your book. If you want to escape the reality of today and how it already has crap politics, rape, and pushy religion skip this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual assault, Rape, Suicide, Abortion, Child abuse, Murder, War, and Trafficking

pasadenaellie's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

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

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

cristinareading's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

3.25

First things first I want to say if you think this is a feminist book I very much disagree. This is a book about how women suddenly got the power to use electrical force and then become inhumane as a way of revenge towards men. As a feminist, this was difficult to read without getting sad. 

This book is well written but I base my star rating on how much I enjoy reading something and this was a difficult book to read. It had a very sad way of seeing the world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Drug abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Sexual violence, Murder, Misogyny, Slavery, Sexism, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Violence, and Police brutality