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A review by scruffie
The Power by Naomi Alderman
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed reading this one, though the entire book is nightmare material (content warnings not to be taken lightly). Great pace, very tense, and adventurous. It draws attention to many social discrepancies and is full of female viewpoints and characters, which, in and of itself, felt refreshing.
That being said, I didn't appreciate the book's binary view on gender, the conflation of sex and gender, and the complete disregard for the multitude of gender identities; in this book "male" equals "man", "female" equals "woman", and that's all there is to it. Also, I had hoped that the book will have a more positive stance towards society; I've had my fill of the whoever-has-the-bigger-stick-must-oppress-whoever-has-the-smaller-stick point of view. That's alright though, I think the author delivered the narrative they chose pretty successfully.
That being said, I didn't appreciate the book's binary view on gender, the conflation of sex and gender, and the complete disregard for the multitude of gender identities; in this book "male" equals "man", "female" equals "woman", and that's all there is to it. Also, I had hoped that the book will have a more positive stance towards society; I've had my fill of the whoever-has-the-bigger-stick-must-oppress-whoever-has-the-smaller-stick point of view. That's alright though, I think the author delivered the narrative they chose pretty successfully.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Medical trauma, War, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Drug use, Physical abuse, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Police brutality
Minor: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Vomit, Excrement, and Trafficking