Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

39 reviews

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

raventomes's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Sexism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity and Bullying

outofthepinksky's review

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Rape, Child abuse, Sexism, Pedophilia, Misogyny, and Bullying

lesemaus2303's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Death, Bullying, Child death, Blood, Genocide, and Torture

cjblandford's review

adventurous challenging dark sad 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

3.0

Ultimately this book is about the corruption people endure when they hold power. There were some interesting concepts here, but because of the way it was written, I never fully connected with the characters. They felt a little shallow. I think this is a product of the book being presented as someone in the far future's research manuscript. I always felt like I was one or two steps removed from the characters and someone was describing their actions, but not their full emotional spectrum. So I never truly felt invested in them as people. I came the closest to caring about Roxy on a deeper level, but I still never felt truly invested in her story. 

I liked the concept of the victors writing the history, and how prehistory is nothing more than circumstantial evidence and hypothesis. The old cliche about those who control the past also control the future rings true here. But back to the main point of the book: absolute power corrupts absolutely. I felt that it was a bit heavy-handed with the violence, but as soon as women gained more power than men in this novel, all of the violence that men did to women in the past, were revisited to them, only more so. The book was not subtle about making its point. Its just too bad the execution of this concept wasn't as solid as it could have been. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Religious bigotry, Rape, Body horror, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Blood, Sexual assault, Sexism, Death of parent, and Sexual content

jinxy_'s review

dark tense fast-paced

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

Stupidest book ever it’s so bad 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Torture, and War

sydneythekydneybean's review

challenging reflective sad 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? Yes

3.0

A very, very odd book. It had me hooked for the majority. I liked all the characters (Roxy being my favorite, followed by Margot and Jocelyn, then Tunde, and Allie was somewhere in there before taking a major drop in the ranking in those final 10-20 pages) and the set-up, premise, and plot were all interesting to keep me interested. I really liked the way it made me think about power dynamics, morality, and gender stereotypes. The way the author processes the different ways women would go about life with "the power" is so fascinating, BUT the ending really fizzled out for me, which was even more disappointing since the build-up to it was so good. 

This book had so much potential to be a great, thought-provoking feminist read, but I don't think it can be that book when most of the women say

"yes, let's blow up the world because we can (???????). we have more power than men now, but they want it back so instead of working with them now that we're at an equal level, let's blow it all up, go back 5,000 years, and start all over again".

Not only did it completely blow up (pun intended) a lot of character arcs, but it was also just like a hopeless ending, which is notoriously the worst way you can end a story to me.

Allie's final story beat of becoming the President of Bessapara and choosing between war and peace had me at the edge of my seat, especially with the dynamic change between Roxy (who wants peace) and Allie (who wants war). I thought Allie finding her former adoptive mother and realizing that she was just as awful, if not worse than her former adoptive father, would lead to an epiphany that not all would be grand if women came out on top. Women can be just as vicious and violent and malevolent as men, and nothing will change. Only the reverse would happen. Women would be on top, leaving men with the scraps of the world, and I know historically that is how women were treated, but what kind of victory is that? Why would we create the same world that was so cruel to us? But nope, it seems like Allie didn't take any of this into account and chose war even after all of that. What an incredibly disappointing way to end her story.

Also, maybe someone can explain it to me, but I didn't really see the point of the letters at the beginning and the end of the book. Just give me the story in the middle. I don't need this weird back and forth, especially after giving me that apologetically bad ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Medical content, Torture, and Sexism

Moderate: War and Genocide

Minor: Bullying

ile94's review

dark reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

Read it in Italian. A dystopian story with interesting points of reflection on our concept of society, gender disparity and power (ab)use. I found some common elements with The Handmaid's tale (Margaret Atwood). In general, very recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Violence, Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Rape

karmapen's review

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Child abuse, Violence, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Misogyny, Drug use, Bullying, Rape, Sexual violence, War, Sexual assault, and Trafficking

Moderate: Blood, Ableism, Body shaming, and Abandonment

Minor: Child death

maddiemooney's review

dark emotional reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Alcohol, Confinement, Body shaming, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Body horror, Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Trafficking