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xaphriel's review
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- 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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Murder
lectrixnoctis's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Naomi Alderman is the author of three previous novels; "Disobedience", "The Lessons" in "The Lair's Gospel" she has one orange award for a new writer and the Sunday Times young writer of the year award. she presents science stories on BBC Radio 4 she's also a professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University she is the co-creator and leader writer off the best selling smartphone audio adventure app and book "Zombies run!". she lives in London
"The Power" is a novel within a book: a manuscript of a supposed history of the turbulent era during which women worldwide developed and shared the power to cast electricity from their hands. The manuscript is submitted by Neil Adam Armon to another author named Naomi, approximately five thousand years after the power appears and revolution reassembles the world into a matriarchy. This historical fiction chronicles the adventures of Allie, Roxy, Margot, Jocelyn, and Tunde, as they navigate their rapidly transforming world.
The story is written in the past tense and third person.
"The Power" envisions a world in which women worldwide suddenly develop the ability to manipulate and send electricity through their hands. While this power is an intrinsically neutral one, women quickly realise what becomes its primary use: to harm others by sending them severe electrical shocks. Alderman examines the ten years between women acquiring this power and an event called "the Cataclysm," focusing on several primary characters.
In a discussion, Alderman stated that in composing "The Power", she wished to examine the belief that women would make better superiors than men. As the proportion of power tips from men to women in her book, Alderman argues that this would not be the case.
"The Power" nourishes a critical gaze at gender dynamics. At the start of the novel, gender relations reflect contemporary society: patriarchy in which men are more generally dominant, which Alderman posits is because men are more able to inflict violence, and therefore more able to gain power. But after women start to gain control, they turn those gender dynamics on their heads.
Sadly I did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. The concept was great, and even the writing was quite impeccable, but I cannot put my finger into it. I did not feel connected with the characters at all. It has taken me a long time to finish this book. However, I do highly recommend it for anyone who loves science-fiction.
"The Power" is a novel within a book: a manuscript of a supposed history of the turbulent era during which women worldwide developed and shared the power to cast electricity from their hands. The manuscript is submitted by Neil Adam Armon to another author named Naomi, approximately five thousand years after the power appears and revolution reassembles the world into a matriarchy. This historical fiction chronicles the adventures of Allie, Roxy, Margot, Jocelyn, and Tunde, as they navigate their rapidly transforming world.
The story is written in the past tense and third person.
"The Power" envisions a world in which women worldwide suddenly develop the ability to manipulate and send electricity through their hands. While this power is an intrinsically neutral one, women quickly realise what becomes its primary use: to harm others by sending them severe electrical shocks. Alderman examines the ten years between women acquiring this power and an event called "the Cataclysm," focusing on several primary characters.
In a discussion, Alderman stated that in composing "The Power", she wished to examine the belief that women would make better superiors than men. As the proportion of power tips from men to women in her book, Alderman argues that this would not be the case.
"The Power" nourishes a critical gaze at gender dynamics. At the start of the novel, gender relations reflect contemporary society: patriarchy in which men are more generally dominant, which Alderman posits is because men are more able to inflict violence, and therefore more able to gain power. But after women start to gain control, they turn those gender dynamics on their heads.
Sadly I did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. The concept was great, and even the writing was quite impeccable, but I cannot put my finger into it. I did not feel connected with the characters at all. It has taken me a long time to finish this book. However, I do highly recommend it for anyone who loves science-fiction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Violence
takarakei's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-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
Re-read (first read was in 2018). This book holds up to the 5 stars I gave it originally. This time I listened to the audiobook, which is FABULOUSLY narrated - seriously I went and looked up every book Adjoa Andoh has narrated and was pleased to find there are lots.
Dystopian, sci-fi, very dark - please go into it checking all content warnings. Basically take all the horrible things that we humans have done and put them in one book, but with a gender role reversal. Then as you read this, think about all these horrible things that are happening, what those with the power do to those without, remember that these are all things that HAVE been done throughout history to marginalized people in THIS world. The one that we live in. The insane thing is that I almost hesitate to call this sci-fi because it's basically our real history. Yeah, it's disturbing.
I thought about this book long after I read it the first time, and will continue to do so probably forever.
Dystopian, sci-fi, very dark - please go into it checking all content warnings. Basically take all the horrible things that we humans have done and put them in one book, but with a gender role reversal. Then as you read this, think about all these horrible things that are happening, what those with the power do to those without, remember that these are all things that HAVE been done throughout history to marginalized people in THIS world. The one that we live in. The insane thing is that I almost hesitate to call this sci-fi because it's basically our real history. Yeah, it's disturbing.
I thought about this book long after I read it the first time, and will continue to do so probably forever.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, and Religious bigotry
samanthakate's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
2.75
This had so much potential, and a bunch of potentially great characteristics. Unfortunately they just didn’t end up combining into an engaging story for me. The concept was great, but the execution felt like it needed more thought and work
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Violence, and Murder
lepremieraccroc's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Genocide, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Religious bigotry, and Murder
karingforbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I enjoyed this book. I like that it took our current reality and flipped it over. Makes you think. She doesn’t address trans people or intersectionality at all, which I think she should have done particularly since it’s a lengthy book anyway and would have benefited from those issues being talked about. I liked that she didn’t create a utopia which is what people often say when thinking about women ruling the world. I like that she uses juman nature and turns our conceptions on their heads though it does take some suspension of disbelief because of biological stuff like children having. Could she have gone deeper and built a better more detailed world? Yes. Do I still enjoy the book? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Murder, and Sexual harassment
mikki_9's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, Mental illness, and Abandonment
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury
booksgamesvinyl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
paulawind's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
This book is awful.
Don’t get me wrong, from a technical pov it’s great - the language, pacing, structure, how it plays with your emotions throughout it - all 10/10. The problem I have here is that it is overbearingly hopeless. I haven’t felt so miserable reading a book since The Painted Bird. All this unnecessary and excessive violence, mindless evil - all of that made me literally physically sick, with tears running down my face on public transport, and being unable to continue reading, especially in the second part of the book. My stomach was twisting, I couldn’t eat anything, this book is haunting my dreams. I am not unfamiliar with dark literature, my favourite authors are 19th century Russians, but this level of universal evil drains clean whatever hope I had in humanity.
We’ve got Tunde and Allie is biracial, but I would argue that the dystopian claim the author is making is very much influenced by Lord of the Flies and Stanford Experiment, especially that it shares the same fallacy of being based on analysis of one demographic - overwhelmingly White Westerners (most of them middle class) - we don’t get any perspectives on how the power changed occurred anywhere but Europe and US, side from brief description of Saudi Arabia and India in early stages.
I know what the author wanted to do, show us the spin of gender power, where it can lead, and that in the end gender is not a determining factor for violence, but the physical domination one holds over the other. I do get that, yet I refuse to believe that human beings are irreversibly and inherently driven to enjoy subjugating others and exploiting their power. Maybe I’m just young and have the shreds of hope left, and the life will show me that Naomi is right. I hope not. I really do.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
amybouwer's review
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Murder