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A review by anikaandaj
The Power by Naomi Alderman
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
This is a book that's been sitting on my shelf for years, that would have served me better had I allowed it to keep gathering dust. The premise is wonderful. The science and thought put into the skein was really unique. The first third of the book was engaging, and the introductions to the four main characters had me wanting to learn more. Then everything got a bit weird.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Racism