quickermorequickly 's review for:

The Power by Naomi Alderman

3.5

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I feel like I read this novel about 5 years too late into my understanding of gender and power to be the target audience. The storytelling itself is gripping and compelling, but I feel a little queasy about the rigidly binary vision of gender that the author presents here. So much of the plot is in fact about biological function: who has the skein with the power (women), and who doesn't (men). The introduction of

a few men who have the skein

could have gone somewhere interesting, but didn't, since

the text reduces them to people with hormone irregularities or whatever

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, War

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Blood, Abandonment, Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury