Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

137 reviews

mer3bear's review

dark inspiring tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

Wow! I really enjoyed this book. I do have to agree with some of the others that it can kind of drag on at some parts and I also found Roxy’s storyline difficult to follow at some points and would get confused. I also normally don’t mind a lot of sexual content and I get its purpose in the story but a lot of the sex scenes felt very overdone and felt more YA-ish than the rest of the book. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and thought it was really smart in a way I hadn’t seen before. I think once you get about halfway through the book the ending definitely becomes predictable but the process to get there was still very fun to read and very thought provoking. I also wasn’t raised religiously so a lot of the mirroring and imagery with Christianity was fascinating to me. I didn’t know much about this book going into it but I saw that this author was an apprentice with Margaret Atwood (who I love) so I decided to give it a shot and I’m glad I did! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder

saara_ilona_muu's review against another edition

challenging 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, War, and Injury/Injury detail

madredeleones's review

adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Medical content

Minor: Racism and Religious bigotry

innerweststreetlibrarian's review

adventurous challenging dark reflective 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

5.0

W O W! 
I really needed the first half of this book after the grinding misogyny of the last one I read, but oof it got really hard to keep going once I was about halfway through. Definitely needed more contemplation time between chapters to process what was going on. And that was quite a LOT. Very, deeply thought provoking, and a tad horrifying. Basically excellent. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Gun violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

threadybeeps's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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

2.0

 I binged this in three days but it made me, um, really mad. The final 1/3 or so was violent in a way that truly repulsed me. I am struggling to articulate my thoughts, I'm sure other unfavorable reviewers have already said it better than I could. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

westre01's review

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

This book was emotionally difficult to read, but hit some really interesting ideas. It didn't seem to have an ending. It just sort of stopped. That was very unsatisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Violence

megwatrin's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Murder

gellyreads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

I am so conflicted about this book. I love the idea, but I am a bit infuriated by the corruption of power. I also feel like I didn't have to see that much violence. Maybe I'm just idiotic or too hopeful, but I don't believe that this is what would happen. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: War

Minor: Abandonment

jebowman123's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

It’s hard to do justice to this book in a review. The only critique I have is there might be too many points of view, but that may be because I was listening to  the audiobook. Regardless, I understand why this book was endorsed by Margaret Atwood. It doesn’t just flip gendered power dynamics on their head, it presents a well researched take on what it means to have power period. The last chapter of the book hits the hardest in an otherwise subversive narrative and cleverly asks the audience to consider who writes the history books, who interprets archaeological artifacts, what it means to be a man/woman, and what a different world would look like. I felt like the author considered everything even intersex individuals and the many expressions of power - political, social, vengeful, military, leadership, sexual, survival, etc. 

Updated from a 5.0 to a 4.75. It’s a good book and I appreciate how much was included but the major lasting memories I have are the extremely uncomfortable parts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking

Moderate: Confinement, Death, and Drug use

Minor: Child abuse

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Drug use, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, and Abortion