Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

95 reviews

libellumartinae's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

overall I found this book interesting on so many different planes but to me in some part it remained painfully superficial and the manifesto of pure white feminist. I also honestly am always bothered when books about women coming to the power is always resolved as them taking over male traits and busing men in return because I think it feels painfully reductive. otherwise the book is quite interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Gore, and War

readinbythesea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

I mean, wow. I don’t know what to think. This book made me feel so disgusted with the human race. Whoever is on top will eventually abuse their power, and it’s disgusting. The violence descriptions, the rapes, the deaths, so futile, and as is said in the book, happens just because it can. It was a difficult novel to finish because of it. I only realized at the end that the archeological finds weren’t from our timeline, but that this book was written from a future point of view (because I skipped over the letter in the beginning oops) but I thought that was really clever. Could tell the Atwood influence there since something similar happens in Handmaid’s Tale. What was disappointing was that the only solution was a Noah’s Arc situation. I mean, our world is fucked up, not to the book’s extent but still, war is not a solution. Would have been more appreciative if the book gave me a glimmer of hope for a future equal society at the end, but maybe that’s too much to hope for in such books…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual harassment, Torture, Sexual violence, Murder, and Pedophilia

kk_gotit_goinon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

This book is incredible. I can't tell much without spoilers but it's awesome and I highly recommend it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Hate crime, Addiction, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Slavery, Torture, War, Violence, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexism, Drug abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

aemowers's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Body horror, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape, Addiction, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Minor: Trafficking and Transphobia

super_ge3k's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense

3.75

This was a rough one for me. The book is really good, but the violence and body horror had me pausing at times. I think it begins a really interesting conversation on society and womanhood, I remember having those debates in high school of if women just ruled the world instead would things change for the better? I am not saying this book is alluding that if women ruled the world it would be worse, but with all the hardships women and women of color specifically go through in every country; like how in every government it's decided to regulate what women wear and their reproductive rights…It’s not surprising that there is a blatant distrust for men. Gaining power and not wanting it to be taken away so you are never powerless again is so valid and real. There are also just fucked up people no matter the gender so the prospect of some women gaining power and being horrible humans proves that they were horrible before.  Also, I think it was a very accurate depiction of how men would react if all of a sudden women had electricity powers and they didn’t….especially the women-hating Reddit feed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Death, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

seh_c109's review

challenging dark reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

incredibly well written. very interesting commentary on global gender roles and power dynamics between men and women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Rape, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: Transphobia

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

jinxy_'s review

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

Stupidest book ever it’s so bad 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Torture, and War

blumoonie's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

this is the kind of book that starts in a benignly soft manner, only to grow more and more twisted, with frightening speed. it is an exploration of identity, morals, and systemic imbalance; it cleverly addresses many current issues by flipping them on their head. the depiction of multiple perspectives didn't frustrate me like it normally does, and having all our protagonists influencing each other even when far out of sight was absolutely gripping. even the letters at each end of the story tell a deeply interesting story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Racism, Homophobia, and Transphobia

fsws's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Rape, Trafficking, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, War, Slavery, and Sexual assault