Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

94 reviews

waclements7's review

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

1.0

I found this really disappointing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, War, Blood, Hate crime, Torture, Sexual violence, Gore, and Trafficking

Moderate: Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Child abuse, and Drug use

danielaramc's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Blood, Sexual violence, and Gore

Moderate: Violence, War, and Trafficking

cynthiaherring's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, and Death

Minor: Drug use

lesemaus2303's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Death, Bullying, Child death, Blood, Genocide, and Torture

amgarrido's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death, War, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, Slavery, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, and Violence

cjblandford's review

adventurous challenging dark sad 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

3.0

Ultimately this book is about the corruption people endure when they hold power. There were some interesting concepts here, but because of the way it was written, I never fully connected with the characters. They felt a little shallow. I think this is a product of the book being presented as someone in the far future's research manuscript. I always felt like I was one or two steps removed from the characters and someone was describing their actions, but not their full emotional spectrum. So I never truly felt invested in them as people. I came the closest to caring about Roxy on a deeper level, but I still never felt truly invested in her story. 

I liked the concept of the victors writing the history, and how prehistory is nothing more than circumstantial evidence and hypothesis. The old cliche about those who control the past also control the future rings true here. But back to the main point of the book: absolute power corrupts absolutely. I felt that it was a bit heavy-handed with the violence, but as soon as women gained more power than men in this novel, all of the violence that men did to women in the past, were revisited to them, only more so. The book was not subtle about making its point. Its just too bad the execution of this concept wasn't as solid as it could have been. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Religious bigotry, Rape, Body horror, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Blood, Sexual assault, Sexism, Death of parent, and Sexual content

luseor_'s review

dark tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Blood, Child abuse, Death, and Rape

madelinedalton's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

Oof, this book is a total clusterfuck. 

The characters are very hollow. They’re just props for carrying out the plot, which made it hard for me to get emotionally invested in them. The constant shifting of perspectives between the characters also contributed to my emotional detachment. As soon as I felt excited to see what happened next to a character, their chapter would abruptly end. Giving each character roughly one chapter per year over a ten year time span was also jarring. They each lived so much life between those chapters, and we didn’t get to see any of it. 

My perception of this book's “thesis” is: disproportionate power in anyone’s hands can be deadly. While I agree on the whole, the execution was sloppy. Starting the story in our current patriarchal society led to thematic inconsistencies. It would have been more interesting to deeply examine how the remnants of misogyny and patriarchy hung around during the shift to violent matriarchy over time. There were glimmers of this—the UrbanDox guy, and the line towards the end talking about how there are still a handful of men with power and money out there. But I think those moments fell flat because they weren’t properly connected to the overall thesis of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, War, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Blood

vivikasweiven's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Torture, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Murder, Misogyny, Cursing, Child abuse, Medical content, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Death, and Adult/minor relationship

karmapen's review

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Child abuse, Violence, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Misogyny, Drug use, Bullying, Rape, Sexual violence, War, Sexual assault, and Trafficking

Moderate: Blood, Ableism, Body shaming, and Abandonment

Minor: Child death