Review by anonymous_blobfish - The Power

anonymous_blobfish 's review for:

The Power by Naomi Alderman

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This was a really challenging book to read and I’ve spent quite some time deliberating on what to rate it (spoiler: no rating feels right so unrated it remains). For a number of reasons, this one is going to stick with me for a long time. Before I go any further…

CW: SA (on page, multiple, against male & female characters and against children), rape (on page, graphic, multiple, against male and female characters), violence, blood, murder, death

Firstly, I get what this book was trying to do. It was intended to be shocking, to turn the tables on misogyny and the patriarchy, right down to the literary portrayal of rape. But that didn’t stop it from being hellishly uncomfortable and ugly. I was so uncomfortable with the rape scenes (again, I know it was the point but it’s a point I didn’t need proven).

One major shortcoming I found with this book was the way it handled (and be handled I mean “totally ignored and left out entirely) the intersection of sex and gender and how things like being trans or non binary would have been impacted by this power. This was incredibly exclusionary and an egregious oversight in my opinion.

I also felt very uncomfortable with the way this book hypersexualised BIPOC characters. There was a consistent theme of Tunde having sex with every woman he met (esp in the war/protest zones where it did not feel appropriate). Also wtf was with that last sex scene of his?? Idk about other people but not really a mood moment imo. Some of the portrayals felt disrespectful too - particularly for many of the BIPOC women when discussing the way they shed the shackles of their own culture. I don’t disagree that some cultures treat women in ways that are troubling but white culture has no business acting superior and a white woman has no place speaking these “truths”. Moreover, I think it was a plot hole that women from countries generally considered to be heavily patriarchal would change their behaviour overnight and would uprise like this.

The plot itself was a bit lacking: this was seemingly intended to be something like a history/biography of the major players in this fictional uprising and that meant that there were times when my engagement was low - the story dragged a lot and yet there seemed to be massive time jumps even though very little time passed.

I did enjoy the writing in this book for the most part and I do think the story was interesting, even kind of funny in its own way. The idea of women behaving like this is laughable when the most common ambition amongst us is to walk at night without fear, but I can see where it would have been inspired by the ridiculous reactions of men to women seeking equality (also it was an unflinching mirror being held to men and their institutional mistreatment of women).

Did I like this book? No really, it has left a really bad taste in my mouth and I was incredibly uncomfortable reading it (also a little disappointed tbh). Do I think this book was bad? No, I think it imperfect and in need of a better execution but I certainly don’t think it’s bad. Do I recommend this book? Honestly… maybe. I think I would like other people I know to read it so that we could talk about it but also it was pretty fucked up and I don’t think should be read lightly. If you do read it, please proceed with caution.

Content Warnings