Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Power

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

367 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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mkegley's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

4.5

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bestkasescenario's review

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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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boothdwellerbooks's review against another edition

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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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smite2000's review against another edition

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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

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bookwormcat's review against another edition

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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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dnietoperafan's review against another edition

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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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