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tamarant4's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
When he walked past a group of women on the road – laughing and joking and making arcs against the sky – Tunde said to himself, I’m not here, I’m nothing, don’t notice me, you can’t see me, there’s nothing here to see. [loc. 3846]
Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Torture, Death of parent, Murder, and War
anikaandaj's review against another edition
- 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
1.5
For starters, that's when Israel is repeatedly and randomly referenced. Frequently enough that you might wonder if there's some plot significance, but no, after 3-4 references to Israel within a span of 50 pages and characters who suggest others join the IDF, I realized this is just the author self-indulgently slipping their biases in. I dislike moments in reading where the characters and world slip away and you can feel the author inserting themself at your shoulder. I dislike it even more when I've spent the last ten months seeing Israelis commit genocide, and now can't even have peace from Zionists while reading. At 33%, I almost quit from this alone, but pushed through because surely it was just those references. But by the half-way point, I screamed in my room at 2 am because not only had there been 2 more Israel references, but there'd been another 2 references conflating anti-zionism with antisemitism. And I had to ask myself, because I don't have a direct line to ask the author, literally why? This book is about gender. Aside from giving a bit more context into the very weird portrayal of Muslim women immediately stripping off their clothes and DTF after developing the Power, these insertions do nothing but make me feel propagandized to, and hyper-aware of the author.
But I kept reading, because it was too late to return the book and I'll waste my time before I'll waste my money. And it'd be one thing if the author's personal opinions weighed down an otherwise good story, but it's barely a story to begin with. What starts as a great premise reveals itself as an empty shell. The plot isn't so much cause-effect, action-reaction as it is 'and this happened, and this happened, and that happened off screen' stuffed full of gratuitous shock value. The characters have the dimension and depth of paper dolls. They are vehicles in which to observe aspects of the plot from various settings. None seem capable of long-term memory, as the shift from patriarchy to matriarchy occurs over a very short period of a decade, yet all behave as if the flipped gender dynamics have always been. There are multiple detailed rapes, which are framed not as revenge or a reaction to the previous patriarchy but as a natural consequence of being the weaker sex, with the same justifications of "what was he wearing" and so on. I get its meant to be a cute, blinding neon sign at "the point" in mirroring the worst of the patriarchy within its newly elevated female characters, but it's hard to buy that an entire gender would wield the same weapons used on them.
I get it. "The nature of power is that it corrupts" blablabla. Its simplistic and lacking nuance, which makes for an increasing stretched and ridiculous world, and even worse: a boring book. Of all the interesting directions the author could have taken, she spent the entirety going straight to rape, murder, and sexual harassment. That's dull. It's so binary that in the entire book revolved around gender, the narrative steers clear of any mention to how the LGBT exist in this world? For the love of god, why do I know more about how Israel is affected in this universe than a Trans person???
I could go on, but I'll leave it at this. The most impressive aspect of this book is the way it feels like a hate crime against multiple groups from a 2016-era liberal white woman.
Graphic: Genocide, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Racism
leilorenzo's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Presenta desarrollos interesantescon personajes diversos que nos muestran múltiples facetas de la historia y su desarrollo. Vas cambiando de opinión al respecto de cada una/o a medida que avanza la historia. Hubo un par de plot twists que no me vi venir, estuvo muy interesante.
Le faltó un pelin para ser perfecto por lo GRÁFICO que fue y no me lo esperaba.
Miren las advertencias, realmente tiene de todo.
Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexism, Sexual assault, and War
Minor: Child death, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
aeglaeca's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Rape, Torture, and Violence
algorowara's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Sexism, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Medical content, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Stalking, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Bullying, Child death, Genocide, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
p_a_griffin's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, and War
allyjshand's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and War
Minor: Child death, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury
bestkasescenario's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
bookwormcat's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
dnietoperafan's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and War
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Sexual harassment