A review by hfjarmer
The Power by Naomi Alderman

dark tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I found this book to be just ok and not exactly what I was expecting. I thought it was interesting to see how she feels the world would look with an exact flip of power, not the peaceful and loving world one might think women would run, but an equally violent one. I was particularly interested in the way she used real biblical passages and logic to flip Christianity to become a woman-centric religion. 

What I didn't care for as much were the characters. Not to lament too much about what the book could have been, but I wish she had cut some of the characters and focused more on development of the characters in her book and the diversity of the book. While her characters had diverse backgrounds in some regards, it is not as inclusive as I would have liked to see in this setting. Overall I found the book to take a bit of a predictable path, and I somewhat struggled to feel motivated to finish. I felt like once I read half of it I got the picture and could have stopped. Overall an interesting read. Would recommend just for the sheer discussion aspect. 

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