David Baldacci

Absolute Power

Steph Lodico

I have a LOT of thoughts about this book and for one am surprised more people aren’t talking about the pervasive misogyny of the story. I couldn’t put the book down by the end, but the “I can’t wait for this to end somehow” kind. Granted, I’m not super big on reading (trigger warning!) murder, suicide, and sexual assault; I had prepared myself for more of a mystery than anything else. 

First, I’m not a fan of Baldacci’s writing style in this book. Not only does every other character have a last name that could pass as a first name, so when Baldacci alternates using the million characters’ first and last names you’re constantly losing track of things, but his prose was generally hard to read. See: 

“For five American dollars, you could watch an islanders cut up an aloe leaf and pour its rich liquid into a small glass bottle for us when the sun started to nip at tender white skin that had lain dormant and unblemished behind suits and blouses.” Please. This level of description for a dramatic moment makes sense, but for banal moments ongoing throughout a book that revolves around crime, suspense, and mystery, it makes for a very slow death of the reader. In the thick of the action like halfway through the book, he thankfully cut down on this a lot. That was just the major element about his prose I didn’t like. 

Though the plot of the book is absolutely bizarre, it was so intricately planned and compelling that it was impressive to read, and this is where Baldacci earned some stars. However, it was ridiculously difficult to like any of the characters, which is probably my personal least favorite thing an author can do in a book. It felt like I was reading a modern conspiracy version of Lord of the Flies, and I was pretty miserable. Some of the characters that managed to not die had redemption arcs at least. 

Finally, I get this book was written 25 years ago and it would probably be written differently now, but it was SO hard to get past all of the problematic elements. It glorified our incredibly flawed justice system way too much and bent to misogyny throughout—the kind of misogyny that most men would barely notice but would constantly rub women the wrong way and reinforce gross stereotypes and misplaced philosophies. It was just so incessant and sublimely present that it was clear he wasn’t just writing misogynistic characters. Oh, and (trigger warning) treating a woman raping a man as fulfilling dreams of his did NOT sit well with me. Baldacci was clearly showing us her thought process and not his own, but the fact that that was never legitimately addressed really bothered me. 

Overall, a compelling read, but not one that I would recommend to anyone in good conscience. There are crime/mystery books that are page turners without making me question my moral compass just for continuing to read.

Sarah Escorsa

A great read! I picked up this book because I enjoyed the Clint Eastwood movie based on it but the book is much better than the film (with quite a few plot changes along the way). The book is well-paced and a real page-turner, an excellent read!

Xavier Roy

The rare cases where the movie was better than the book...

Chris Aldrich

I know I saw the movie when it came out, but either don't remember it well or the script was significantly different from the novel. Overall an entertaining thriller, though there were some holes that could have been better filled.

Absolute Power

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