Name: Charlotte Dann's review of The Power by Naomi Alderman
Item: The Power
Rating: 4
Author: Charlotte Dann

Naomi Alderman

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 ORWELL PRIZE What if the power to hurt were in women's hands? Suddenly - tomorrow or the day after - teenage girls find that with a flick of their fingers, they can inflict agonizing pain and even death. With this single twist, the four lives at the heart of Naomi Alderman's extraordinary, visceral novel are utterly transformed.

The Power

Charlotte Dann

"In The Powerthe world is a recognizable place- there's a rich Nigerian kid who larks around the family pool; a foster girl whose religious parents hide their true nature; a local American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But something vital has changed, causing their lives to converge, with devastating effects. Now, with the flick of a switch, teenage girls can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world changes utterly. This extraordinary novel by Naomi Alderman, a Sunday TimesYoung Writer of the Year and GrantaBest of Young British writer, is not only a gripping story of how the world would change if physical power was in the hands of women but also exposes, with breath-taking daring, our contemporary world."

Interesting premise wasted on an obvious - and at time lazy - development. There is no need to write different povs if you don't know how to do it properly: sometimes a chapter about one character was actually from someone else's pov entirely and, although they all have their chapters, most of the the characters feels shallow and not flashed out at all. I have more things to say but, similarly to the author of this book, I just cannot be bothered to write them.

Diego

I have really mixed feelings about this book. The idea is so interesting, I enjoyed the way it included illustrations of artefacts and the writing style was compelling. However something about the plot turns me off and I just didnt enjoy how the story progressed. I think it's an interesting read, one that definitely makes you reflect but maybe just not for me

Marz 

Chris Dailey

Reading more like a HBO limited series than a novel, The Power is an incredible thrill ride of science/what-if fiction about a what would happen if women were the physically dominant sex. Set in-or-around the current time, women (specifically young women and girls) develop the power to conduct electricity and the world is not the same. Alternating between characters that are proxies of religion, media, politics and crime, the novel focuses on corruption of power and how two wrongs don't make a right. Utilizing alternate timelines, fake emails, artifacts, and more, Alderman uses formatting and the meta-novel to great, if not sometimes gimmicky, effect. Truly a page-turner whose strength is in its story and speculation as well as its honesty and horror. The characters are mainly flat and tropish aside from a couple (Eve/Allie, Tunde, maybe Roxy) but it doesn't matter when you're flying through the chapters to know what comes next. It'll do real well on the small screen. [Insert electric pun].

Patrick Book

WOMEN BE SHOCKIN’. Am I right, fellas?

(Also, smash the patriarchy and whatnot)

Ryan Mateyk

hmm.. this is a bit of a toughie to review. i loved the idea and it couldn't be more timely, but there was something about the execution that was off for me (probably because i love a good deep character study and the characters weren't ever really fleshed out here). also, that framing device was completely unnecessary.

a novel

The power

Emily Burns

I don’t often post reviews but WHAT A WILD RIDE. This book was riveting. Do not miss it.

While this book definitely held me captive with interesting and entertaining characters’ viewpoints, it definitely left me with a mix of positive and negative emotions overall. There are lines and paragraphs throughout the book that had me in tears. I do feel that there is a definite theme that empathizes with and gives light to the trauma of being a woman. 

However, there are two things that really irked me and that I feel are so basic, unoriginal and truly missing the point of the overarching problems/themes with sexism and feminism. One of those two being — it’s just a basic gender role swap. At first, you feel the excitement and thrill of women able to free themselves from dark situations and actually feel unafraid. Beautiful. But then it’s simply women have power that surpasses men’s which leads to the second — female anger and power is yet still portrayed as dangerous and cataclysmic, alluding that the solution is to simply love men more. There’s never any enlightenment in men realizing a need to change their ways towards women. 

Naomi does speak on a lot within this book in a Bustle article. Easily found through google. She argues that it’s not women are good and men are bad. Power of control turned men into villains so why not women too? I see the point, but feel like it still could’ve been portrayed better.

Spoiler: ending insinuates that women eventually rule the world and it would’ve been better if men had run it. (Interesting.)

Also trigger warning for reading this book: a few mentions of SA/recalling it/feelings from it. 

taelor

While this book definitely held me captive with interesting and entertaining characters’ viewpoints, it definitely left me with a mix of positive and negative emotions overall. There are lines and paragraphs throughout the book that had me in tears. I do feel that there is a definite theme that empathizes with and gives light to the trauma of being a woman. 

However, there are two things that really irked me and that I feel are so basic, unoriginal and truly missing the point of the overarching problems/themes with sexism and feminism. One of those two being — it’s just a basic gender role swap. At first, you feel the excitement and thrill of women able to free themselves from dark situations and actually feel unafraid. Beautiful. But then it’s simply women have power that surpasses men’s which leads to the second — female anger and power is yet still portrayed as dangerous and cataclysmic, alluding that the solution is to simply love men more. There’s never any enlightenment in men realizing a need to change their ways towards women. 

Naomi does speak on a lot within this book in a Bustle article. Easily found through google. She argues that it’s not women are good and men are bad. Power of control turned men into villains so why not women too? I see the point, but feel like it still could’ve been portrayed better.

Spoiler: ending insinuates that women eventually rule the world and it would’ve been better if men had run it. (Interesting.)

Also trigger warning for reading this book: a few mentions of SA/recalling it/feelings from it. 

Lindy

Allie is by far the most interesting character and the whole book should have been from her point of view. Overall The Power does not live up to the hype that has been slowly building, but it's solid enough. It reads quickly and would make for lively book club meetings. 

The book does two things that get under my skin when it comes to ostensibly feminist fiction. First, it does a basic gender roles swap, expects me to deepen my insight into how awful patriarchy is through this and empathize with men, but does not explore further ramifications or particularities of the switch. Second, it portrays women's anger as dangerous and implies that the real way to everyone's salvation is just that we should, like, love men more or something. 

Or to put my ambivalence another way: When I was about two thirds done with the book, I turned it over and saw that Joss Whedon had provided a blurb and I couldn't stop thinking for the remainder of the book about how he almost certainly jacked off to it.

Micaela Rangel

I'll be proceessing this for a while, but the violence and geniality of the whole premises deserves the praise, the awards and the stars. Brilliantly done, to the last pages.

Really tried to finish this book but why put myself through the punishment? I really enjoyed the premise and even the first few chapters, but the further I got into the book the worse it got. The execution seemed lazy and the plot progressively predictable. I think the final straw was when the Saudi women started to shed their head coverings. Ultimately pretty disappointing

One of the New York Times's Ten Best Books of 2017A Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2017One of the Washington Post's Ten Best Books of 2017An NPR Best Book of 2017One of Entertainment Weekly's Ten Best Books of 2017A Bustle Best Book of 2017A Paste Magazine Best Novel of 2017A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2017Winner of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction One of President Obama's favorite reads of 2017 "The Power is our era's The Handmaid's Tale." --Ron Charles, Washington Post "Novels based on premises like the one at the core of The Power can quickly become little more than thought experiments, but Alderman dodges this trap deftly -- her writing is beautiful, and her intelligence seems almost limitless. She also has a pitch-dark sense of humor that she wields perfectly." --Michael Schaub, NPR A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice An Amazon Best Book of 2017 **WINNER OF THE 2017 BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION** What would happen if women suddenly possessed a fierce new power? In THE POWER, the world is a recognizable place: there's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power--they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets. From award-winning author Naomi Alderman, THE POWER is speculative fiction at its most ambitious and provocative, at once taking us on a thrilling journey to an alternate reality, and exposing our own world in bold and surprising ways.

esperanza 

tongue and cheek, witty. smartly written, wow.

Aamna

3.5

Great premise. The pace for the first 35% was perfect and I couldn't put it down. Thereafter it slowed down quite a bit. The writing also got less appealing; I found my highlights to be a third of the ones from the first half. Got the feeling the author rushed the second half under pressure from the publisher. But hey I'm just speculating.

Recommended reading for all women though. It's a...satisfying read.

         I’m always baffled when the Book of the Month Club includes a book that is, ahem, old.  The BOTM club, at least on the surface, focuses on new releases, and usually the books available are months old, not years old.  I added this one to my list having zero knowledge of it, so I was taken aback when I saw the original publication date.  When I start a new book, I try to remember to post an update on my social media, and since I did remember to post this one, I was even more aback than my previous aback to read the comments.  Apparently, this book was made into a show on Amazon Prime.  Again, I had no idea.  However, it fits into my self-imposed narrative that I must read the print version before I explore a non-print version of the same story, especially when the print story came first.

            So, in I dove to this mysterious and old tome, though upon further reflection, can it really be called a tome if it’s an ebook?  This book is about power, as cliché as that sounds.  Who has it, who wants it, and who wants to stifle it.  The story isn’t new, but the delivery here is certainly different.  Here, it’s women and girls who have manifested an ancient ability harness electricity.  It’s a fascinating premise.  Of course, it is followed by frightened men who try desperately to curb the ability of these women to not only use said power, but to realize the potential and, more importantly, to organize with each other and take over the world.  Gasp, women with power?  Abso-fucking-lutely not. 

            In order to make this story believable, the women eventually turn into what can only be described as nut-cases.  That is where my own frustration set in.  Why would you take this amazing storyline where women are finally able to prove they are, if not superior (let’s face it, we have the power to grow a life; women are goddesses), at least equal.  Alderman let a massive opportunity slip through her fingers here.  Or did she?  Do women need to have some sort of supernatural power in order to make equality happen?  Is that really the story that should be told?

            At the end of the book, I was disappointed.  I was disappointed that women can’t hold immense power without turning into lunatics.  I was disappointed that a book that should have been about women, turned into a survival story for the one male protagonist.  I’ll still watch the Prime version, but I’m not excited about it. 

Kristen Claiborn

         I’m always baffled when the Book of the Month Club includes a book that is, ahem, old.  The BOTM club, at least on the surface, focuses on new releases, and usually the books available are months old, not years old.  I added this one to my list having zero knowledge of it, so I was taken aback when I saw the original publication date.  When I start a new book, I try to remember to post an update on my social media, and since I did remember to post this one, I was even more aback than my previous aback to read the comments.  Apparently, this book was made into a show on Amazon Prime.  Again, I had no idea.  However, it fits into my self-imposed narrative that I must read the print version before I explore a non-print version of the same story, especially when the print story came first.

            So, in I dove to this mysterious and old tome, though upon further reflection, can it really be called a tome if it’s an ebook?  This book is about power, as cliché as that sounds.  Who has it, who wants it, and who wants to stifle it.  The story isn’t new, but the delivery here is certainly different.  Here, it’s women and girls who have manifested an ancient ability harness electricity.  It’s a fascinating premise.  Of course, it is followed by frightened men who try desperately to curb the ability of these women to not only use said power, but to realize the potential and, more importantly, to organize with each other and take over the world.  Gasp, women with power?  Abso-fucking-lutely not. 

            In order to make this story believable, the women eventually turn into what can only be described as nut-cases.  That is where my own frustration set in.  Why would you take this amazing storyline where women are finally able to prove they are, if not superior (let’s face it, we have the power to grow a life; women are goddesses), at least equal.  Alderman let a massive opportunity slip through her fingers here.  Or did she?  Do women need to have some sort of supernatural power in order to make equality happen?  Is that really the story that should be told?

            At the end of the book, I was disappointed.  I was disappointed that women can’t hold immense power without turning into lunatics.  I was disappointed that a book that should have been about women, turned into a survival story for the one male protagonist.  I’ll still watch the Prime version, but I’m not excited about it. 

Patricia Nelson

This is a very thought-provoking book. The phrase "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" came to mind, particularly toward the end of the book. The author's addition of letters at the end of the story adds another layer to the book - who tells the story? who is writing history? when you turn our 'norms' on their head, don't they sound ridiculous? This would be a good book club book.

I really enjoyed this book--it's an exceptional addition to the sci-fi/dystopia genre and definitely resonates after reading.

Having each chapter be central to a specific character really helped bring the story together, although some chapters felt slower than others. The premise is also chilling, but again some chapters felt a little bit lacklustre, but didn't spoil a good read.

Intrigued to see the series-- this book was a great read and a great vision for a dystopian, hellish reality, one that takes "Who run the world? Girls" to a brand new extreme.

Holly

I really enjoyed this book--it's an exceptional addition to the sci-fi/dystopia genre and definitely resonates after reading.

Having each chapter be central to a specific character really helped bring the story together, although some chapters felt slower than others. The premise is also chilling, but again some chapters felt a little bit lacklustre, but didn't spoil a good read.

Intrigued to see the series-- this book was a great read and a great vision for a dystopian, hellish reality, one that takes "Who run the world? Girls" to a brand new extreme.

Alexgui

Predictable. Writing style doesn’t really work. It makes everything confusing you don’t get to see any character development at all.

Colleen

4 Stars
 
The Power joins books such as The Handmaid's Tale and The Celestine Prophecy where the ideas are stellar but the storytelling is so-so. 

The premise of the The Power is straightforward. Women suddenly develop the ability to generate and manipulate electricity. The story follows several individuals as they navigate the changing world. In some places a cultural revolution takes place right away as women overthrow their chains of gender submissiveness. In other places, the changes are slower and more subtle. But they are all rivers flowing to the same conclusion: the overthrowing of male-dominated society. This book does not gloss over issues, so I’ll include a trigger warning for violence, assault, rape, and murder.

Now, I’m sure there are going to be some chauvinistic dirtbags who read this book and say, “See, this is why women should never be given power! They’ll ruin the world. Hell, they shouldn’t even have the vote!” That isn’t the point of this book though. It's not even about being a man-hating feminazi. This is a work of speculative fiction examining the ways in which power affects society. It explores gender norms and today’s rape culture. It explores victim blaming and the never-ending excuses that people make. It takes commonly heard excuses such as “Boys will be boys,” and “she was asking for it,” and flips them. It made me think of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s challenge to reverse the gender in any statement and see if it still stands up to society’s norms. Would anyone say “girls will be girls” in response to a woman sexually assaulting a man? No. But the opposite is used all the time to try to justify assaults committed by men, and people turn a blind eye to it. 


  “One of them says, 'Why did they do it?'
And the other answers, 'Because they could.'
That is the only answer there ever is.”

I have mixed feelings about this book. In terms of thought-provoking ideas and relevance to today’s issues? Five stars. Hell, a hundred stars! But the actual story, the characters and plot, were only about three stars for me. Some of the viewpoints were more interesting than others, and time was not equally distributed between the points of view. I was captivated at the beginning of the story, but the plot in the second half started to drag and I lost interest at times. It took me a couple of weeks to finish this book. So yes, if I was looking at this book purely as an entertaining novel, it would only get three stars. But I cannot discredit the ideas behind this story and its haunting relevance to today’s society. Even when the book was closed, I found myself thinking about it. When I was driving in my car, as I fell asleep at night, during many random moments, my thoughts rolled over and over these ideas. I thought about the story itself. I thought about the ways it echoes things I have experienced in my own life. 

So let’s talk real life for a minute. In the United States, marital rape was not outlawed in all states until 1993. All because of the archaic belief that saying marital vows force a “conjugal debt” to the husband wherein the wife is not allowed to deny him sexual congress. As of writing this review, in 2018, only seventeen out of fifty American states prosecute martial rape the same way they prosecute rape committed by anyone other than a husband. Most states have much less severe sentencing for husbands who rape their wives, and the women have less time to report the crime and have a greater burden of proof. There are many loopholes hidden in the legalese. Some states still only consider it rape if aggravated assault or threat with a weapon is involved. Some loopholes turn a blind eye if the wife is rendered unconscious during the rape using alcohol or date-rape drugs. All of this ignores the fact that the majority of violence against women will be perpetrated by someone they know (usually a significant other) rather than by a stranger. Yet the law protects those scumbags. And these are just examples of U.S. laws. There are many places in the word where marital rape is completely legal and women have no recourse to protect themselves. 

Here is another thing about power: people often think that the imbalance of power between sexes is because of men being (on average) bigger and stronger. And that certainly is part of it. But when you have generation after generation for thousands of years taught that being bigger and stronger means smarter and better, then that beast takes on a life of its own. That is why today we still struggle against laws that subjugate women. Yes, bad men still get power from being able to physically overpower women and beat and rape them. But they get even more power from the law letting them skate by. And then that power is increased exponentially when society turns a blind and reinforces that women have no voice, no power. 


  “You have been taught that you are unclean, that you are not holy, that your body is impure and could never harbor the divine. You have been taught to despise everything you are and to long only to be a man. But you have been taught lies.”

More real life: when I was in college, I used to wait tables. It was (mostly) decent money and allowed a flexible schedule to work around my classes. But it was also one of the worst experiences of my life. It was dehumanizing. Sometimes it was just the general way that customers treat employees like dirt, blowing up about things completely out of your control like whatever song was playing on the radio or the fact that the establishment served Coke when they wanted Pepsi. But many times it was because of sexual harassment. Unfortunately, many people think that waitresses are required to flirt - or more. No. You are paying for a meal to be brought to you. You ARE NOT paying for the right to harass or touch an employee. THAT’S CALLED PROSTETUTION. Even strippers get physical protection from handsy customers. But waitresses don’t have that. The second you try to turn down a customer then, “You’re not doing your job,” ”You aren’t servicing the customer,” “You don’t have a sense of humor,” “You’re a tease,” “You’re frigid,” “You’re a bitch.” I’ve heard it all. During the time that I worked as a server at multiple restaurants, I was sexually harassed, physically threatened, groped, assaulted, and stalked. These were not isolated incidents. These occurrences were perpetrated by countless different individuals. Many other female employees experienced the same harassment. And you know what? Those incidents were not about physical dominance. I’m 5’11” and have a blackbelt in Taekwondo. I’m not exaggerating when I say that most men can’t physically overpower me. The power in those situations was that employees get fired for situations like that. Because of that God-damned awful institution that “THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.” To this day, I refuse to frequent any chains owned by the restaurant company I used to work for because I know that they care more about the social media backlash of a customer posting a bad review than they do about protecting their employees. Yes, that is illegal. But it is honestly what happens. Employees who report harassment are punished by getting less lucrative shifts and smaller sections. One time after a customer threatened to hit me, I was forced to remain at work for the rest of my shift but was not allowed to take any tables. So I made no money. And the customer got their whole meal comped. In six years of waiting tables, do you know how many times management called the cops on a customer being violent to me? Once. Do you know how many times other patrons intervened in situations of obvious harassment and assault? NONE. I know there are Good Samaritans out there. But none were ever around me. The cold reality that I experienced was that people will watch you being harassed and then yell at you for not getting their refills. And the feeling that comes from being harassed right in front of two-hundred-and-fifty people and not having a single person intervene? THAT is what it feels like to be powerless. I was powerless in those situations because I had no viable recourse, because customers were rewarded for complaining, because the negative results would only affect me and not the perpetrators. No indeed. Those people get to literally laugh in your face as they hand you seventeen cents and say that’s all the tip you’ve earned then waltz out of there with a free meal because “the customer is always right.” Even when their actions are illegal. That is the society we live in. 


  “The world is the way it is now because of five thousand years of ingrained structures of power based on darker times when things were much more violent... But we don't have to act that way now. We can think and imagine ourselves differently once we understand what we 've based our ideas on.”

Ok. Deep breath. I know not much of this review was about the content of this book. But I wanted to demonstrate how important it is to discuss these issues rather than burying them. Yes, my experiences in the horrorland of restaurants were before #metoo. But this stuff still happens every day. That is why books like this are so important. So read The Power and draw your own conclusions. Start a conversation. Stand up for someone rather than turning a blind eye. Always remember that you do have power. Your voice is your power. Never let anyone silence it.

“Silence is not power. It’s not strength. Silence is the means by which the weak remain weak and the strong remain strong. Silence is a method of oppression.”

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars 
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 5 Stars

Ali Angco

Joana da Silva

This book got me on a reading slump so big, I had to claw my way out of it. Much like my love life, the beginning was exciting, but then something clicked off and it was all pain and heartache. The plot's so interesting, and I really thought this was going to tackle some important issues, but then it got crazy. So, so, so crazy. I know I should expect so from a dystopian novel, but this one was way too much and derailed in such a way. I'm so glad it's over.

Andrew Louis

The book was strongest when exploring subtle behavioural changes resulting from the electrocution powers. I enjoyed it less when the premise got extrapolated to the geopolitical scale.

Hooray for contemporary science fiction, I thought this was stellar. Talked some more about feminism, structure, and god figures in my video discussion.

Addie 🌻

‪This is my first ever book review, so apologies in advance because I know it’s gonna be all over the place review so y’all better buckle in. 

This book, oh it leaves me with mixed feelings.

Okay, firstly, let’s talk about the good parts (or the lack of), I liked how the book was told in different Points of View (PoVs). Roxy’s was definitely my favourite. She was total badass and I loved her. She’s my favourite not gonna lie, like I don’t care about anyone else in the book - Roxy was the only character that mattered!! (Maybe I’m being dramatic but it’s true)

(2) Anyways let’s get back on track. I also liked how the book followed the many characters coming to terms with the power and I how everyone was affected by it.

And that’s all I liked about the book to be honest.

So, let’s discuss what didn’t necessarily click with me in the book. The main thing for me was the plot. As I mentioned above, the book follows the characters coming to terms with the power but I felt like that was it all the book dealt with. And I know that’s not true because it was so much more than just a handful of characters coming to terms with this new found power. But, honestly, for me that’s all I felt the book was just Woman taking control because they could and showing how this would change everything, which was interesting but also boring (if that’s possible)....

Another point I’m gonna mention is the layout of the book. The book itself it divided into eight different parts (I think) and as you read on you quickly realise that they are counting down. “To what?” You ask. Well I wish I knew(!!) but after finishing the book I still don’t really know the answer to that. The book just kinda ended really, it felt like nothing was truly resolved and I’m not a fan of that.

So yeah, overall this book was pretty ‘meh’ it was okay in some parts (mostly the parts were Roxy was there) but to be honest I just didn’t connect with the story so I didn’t really like the book and I originally gave this book 3/5 stars but now I’m thinking about going lower to 2/5.

I think that’s all I have to say on the book - I didn’t realise I had SO much (more than usual) to say.

Shona Tiger

Very thought-provoking. For some reason, reminds me of The Moon and the Other :))

Carah Gedeon

I DNF'd this. I couldn't get into it. None of the characters were interesting to me and I didn't love any of them. The multiple perspectives was confusing and wasn't my taste, though I've read books that execute it well -- I don't think this book executed it well.

Charlotte Dann &
The Power by Naomi Alderman

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