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A review by river24
The Power by Naomi Alderman
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
2.0
2/5
This is not a professional review, this is a rant review!
This is such a 2010s take on feminism with gratuitous, unnecessary SA scenes and zero intersectionality.
It's so strange to have a book that's entirely focused on gender as a construct just not include trans and nonbinary people as a part of that concept (there's one mention of a character who reads as intersex in this new construct, however I think my point still very much stands)!
I found the messaging so conflicting as we are meant to perceive it as an allegory, yet we are witnessing this world just as this new power starts to develop. We are watching the world adjust and grow with this new revelation, and so the story still stems from the patriarchal world that we know intimately. But we are meant to read (cis)women's actions as an allegory for (cis)men's. I think this utterly confuses the messaging. It would've been a much more interesting story if it had chosen one of those things (either the entire book is an allegory for our society, or it's a nuanced exploration of how our world would look if cis women suddenly gained something genetic that made them physically powerful) and stuck to it. Instead we are left to navigate the combination of these two things and it is not well done.
I absolutely detested how many sexual assault scenes there were and some were so awful to read. Obviously, they're meant to be disgusting, but I take issue with the sheer amount of them. One example would have made the point, but there were many scenes that held the threat of sexual violence and many that showed it to us in detail. And actions like these are why I think the complications in the messaging of the book is so important to mention; this is clearly meant to be an allegory for rape culture in our world (I still think it lacks a lot of nuance even so), however because this is a power that has been added to our time it could also be viewed as a 'this is what women would do with power' narrative. It is not skillful, the writing does not in any way untangle this. And I just hated it. I don't think it achieves any of what it is trying to achieve.
There is also simply no intersectionality. As I mentioned, trans and nonbinary people are pretty much excluded from the entire narrative. It's quite dehumanising to see an interpretation of the world that doesn't even include you in it!
The societies that seem to collapse first are not the ones in the western world (shocker! a 2010s feminist book that doesn't think about its own racism at all? ... that was sarcasm!), no, America and the UK seem to be functioning without many/any revolutions. Bit of a weird thing to write!
I also found that this book could have functioned with a lot of interesting explorations of disability, especially disabilities in relation to this new power as it does come from a newly formed part of the body. There were many times throughout the story that I thought it could approach this in a fascinating way, yet it never explored it or had anything interesting to say.
It was just odd. It's missing so much. I just don't think it has anything all that important to say and I don't think it achieved what it set out to do. I disliked the book more and more as I read on. It took characters that I found interesting and went nowhere with their stories, it just seemed to focus on all the aspects I could not have cared less about. It tried to have a well-rounded, global narrative but I thought that that failed entirely.
This is not a professional review, just a rant review! Please remember that! I just had to let out all my thoughts because I did not enjoy this book at all and my feelings are only growing more and more into hatred as I sit here thinking about it and typing this out. I don't think this book is the feminist narrative it thinks it is, it was just so shallow. Sorry!
This is not a professional review, this is a rant review!
This is such a 2010s take on feminism with gratuitous, unnecessary SA scenes and zero intersectionality.
It's so strange to have a book that's entirely focused on gender as a construct just not include trans and nonbinary people as a part of that concept (there's one mention of a character who reads as intersex in this new construct, however I think my point still very much stands)!
I found the messaging so conflicting as we are meant to perceive it as an allegory, yet we are witnessing this world just as this new power starts to develop. We are watching the world adjust and grow with this new revelation, and so the story still stems from the patriarchal world that we know intimately. But we are meant to read (cis)women's actions as an allegory for (cis)men's. I think this utterly confuses the messaging. It would've been a much more interesting story if it had chosen one of those things (either the entire book is an allegory for our society, or it's a nuanced exploration of how our world would look if cis women suddenly gained something genetic that made them physically powerful) and stuck to it. Instead we are left to navigate the combination of these two things and it is not well done.
I absolutely detested how many sexual assault scenes there were and some were so awful to read. Obviously, they're meant to be disgusting, but I take issue with the sheer amount of them. One example would have made the point, but there were many scenes that held the threat of sexual violence and many that showed it to us in detail. And actions like these are why I think the complications in the messaging of the book is so important to mention; this is clearly meant to be an allegory for rape culture in our world (I still think it lacks a lot of nuance even so), however because this is a power that has been added to our time it could also be viewed as a 'this is what women would do with power' narrative. It is not skillful, the writing does not in any way untangle this. And I just hated it. I don't think it achieves any of what it is trying to achieve.
There is also simply no intersectionality. As I mentioned, trans and nonbinary people are pretty much excluded from the entire narrative. It's quite dehumanising to see an interpretation of the world that doesn't even include you in it!
The societies that seem to collapse first are not the ones in the western world (shocker! a 2010s feminist book that doesn't think about its own racism at all? ... that was sarcasm!), no, America and the UK seem to be functioning without many/any revolutions. Bit of a weird thing to write!
I also found that this book could have functioned with a lot of interesting explorations of disability, especially disabilities in relation to this new power as it does come from a newly formed part of the body. There were many times throughout the story that I thought it could approach this in a fascinating way, yet it never explored it or had anything interesting to say.
It was just odd. It's missing so much. I just don't think it has anything all that important to say and I don't think it achieved what it set out to do. I disliked the book more and more as I read on. It took characters that I found interesting and went nowhere with their stories, it just seemed to focus on all the aspects I could not have cared less about. It tried to have a well-rounded, global narrative but I thought that that failed entirely.
This is not a professional review, just a rant review! Please remember that! I just had to let out all my thoughts because I did not enjoy this book at all and my feelings are only growing more and more into hatred as I sit here thinking about it and typing this out. I don't think this book is the feminist narrative it thinks it is, it was just so shallow. Sorry!