Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Power

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

175 reviews

noomlum's review

adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A really interesting take on sexism, feminism, and power. The world devolves in a power struggle based in fear and revenge, with the concept of innate softness and the maternalistic nature of women being flipped on its head. The writing makes this all so easy to digest and visualise, and I was hooked to the characters throughout. A must read.

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penguins_save_lives's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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vninny's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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oddpilot97's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I hated this. And I don't say that lightly.

*Be aware that this book contains DETAILED depictions of rape.*

Starting this book, I thought it would be about women reclaiming their power (no pun intended) and crafting some strong commentary about the effects of the patriarchy and rape culture.

When the book first started flipping harmful ideologies, I found it thought-provoking. The idea of women seeing online that a few men posted that they like being shocked by the power during sex, and therefore the women decided the men must all “secretly like it” seemed to accurately reflect the disgusting narrative I’ve seen that “if some women have a CNC kink, no women should complain about rape, they must enjoy it”. But from there, the parallels spiraled out of control.

It quickly devolved into “won’t someone think of the poor men??” And my heart broke at the horrible stories. Until I remembered: this is OUR narrative, just flipped. Why should we have to flip it for people to care? And why should i read something that makes me cry for imaginary people when this happens to real people every day. I have empathy fatigue for imaginary situations now, when that empathy could be directed towards real suffering.

I read an interview with the author, because I couldn't believe she would try to make the point she did.

Finally, you have to ask, are women better than men? They’re not. People are people. You don’t have to think that all men are horrible to know there are some men who abuse their strength. Why wouldn’t the same hold true for women? -Naomi Alderman (The New York Times).

Would women sexually abused men at the same rates if the roles were reversed? I have to fundamentally disagree, and the notion makes me queasy. There were several times this book made me feel sick to my stomach (specifically the scenes of assault and justifications of it).

Even if that were true, what was the point of writing this? Egalitarianism is the goal, not enacting a matriarchy. I don't think this book needed to be written and it negatively impacted me to read. I do believe that power corrupts. But at the end of the day, I have to ask myself what stories are worth our energy and which ones we should be platforming. And a book that asks “what If the real life victims were the abusers” helps no one, in my opinion.

Many have compared this to “A Handmaid’s Tale”. That parallel couldn’t be further from the truth, in my opinion. Margret Atwood did what good dystopian stories do: she took an idea present in our society and pushed it to the limit. That’s not the case with “The Power”. Alderman was apparently mentored by Atwood, and I'm genuinely curious what her perspective would be on this book.

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madamelacy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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savazelena's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Sigh. What?

As so many have said: good idea, bad execution.

As far as content goes, I'm relatively okay with it. It's an interesting premise that shifts the perspective on patriarchy and gender and boy do we need those. The only thing that is missing, for me, is the question of trans characters - we have a minor intersex character and that's it? It would be a really interesting topic to explore in the context of this dystopia, so I missed it.

For the style... I thought it was just dramatic for the beginning of the story, but it doesn't. End. All throughout the book. We have these. Short. Intense. Sentences. That are sometimes deep and pseudointelectual. And sometimes. Just descriptions. To me, it's bad writing. There's no versatility, no changes in narration considering the context.

And because of this fake deep style, the second half of the book is almost incoherent. There is a lot of political themes and complex storyline, but we never get any actual explanations, there are no motives for what the characters are doing, they are all just a cardboard cutout of an archetype.

The letter story was interesting and I liked it. I would've liked to see more of this dynamics, as it also feels more realistic and would be harder to complicate with style.

Since Atwood is mentioned in acknowledgment, I feel comfortable comparing this to Handmaid's Tale and The Testament: books with very dystopian and VERY complex plots, seen through a few of the characters, well written and understandable, with dimensional characters. This was, in comparison, a college essay.

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