The Power (2016)

CW: rape and murder of men

While I was intrigued by the premise of the book, I really wish I had been warned ahead of time that there would be a graphic rape and murder scene, as women started to relish the power they had over men and used it to get what they wanted. The scene in question is from about page 313 to page 323, in the paperback version of the book. ( )

I *could not* stop listening to this novel, that’s how good it was. In fact it was brilliant! Seriously, drop everything now and go read or listen to it. This novel deserves ALL its awards. And, the author is the narrator, which was PERFECTLY done.
This review sums up how I feel about this novel:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1727164013?book_show_action=true&from_...

5 huge stars, and recommended to everyone.
(TW: rape scene, be warned).


( )

I really enjoyed this book, devouring it where I could. Loved the premise, though I disagreed with some of the choices she made in the direction it took towards the end.

I liked her visualisation of power as an organic network, branching and rebranching. I also enjoyed the insertion of "historical artefacts" depicting women with the power. It was incredibly easy to read. I even liked the correspondence bookending the main story, with the evolutionary psychology theories about why women are more aggressive than men (to protect babies, obviously) and talking about avoiding being pigeonholed as a "male author". It definitely made me laugh.

I think there's an assumption made about the "cycle of abuse" that, first of all, it is a cycle. It's taken as a given that abuse causes more abusers, and while many abusers were abused, many of the abused (esp. female) do not become abusers - whether this is because of current power dynamics or what, I can't say. I don't think that things would flip so quickly that all these women with recent memories of abuse would become what they hated. Perhaps I'm too optimistic.

There was also very little talk of motherhood, which I was a little sad about because I think it would have been fascinating to see how that could change under those circumstances. Also a sad lack of women's same sex relationships, which I'm sure would flourish.

I found it interesting that she mentioned that there was porn of this new ability, without addressing the complete change that the porn industry would have undergone had women developed this power. An industry with a large base in degradation of women and ignoring their consent could not survive in that form after such an event, but I imagine the images would survive as a power fantasy for the men - contraband they would have dealt around to deal with the complete collapse of the system they'd lived with for so long.

Obviously she had a limited amount of space to explore every issue, and was focusing more on a few key players to drive the story, which I do understand. I'm just pointing out what I'd explore more given a chance. The ending wasn't awful - I thought she struck quite a good balance between personal battles and politics/global events.

It didn't feel at all like the historical document (even historical fiction) that it was emulating, aside from the few pictures and correspondence telling you what it was. This wasn't a problem, and probably for most people that would be preferable. It was an easy read that I'm going to recommend to others.

I had a great time reading this book. The pure exhilaration at the beginning was incredible, and I didn't want to stop reading because I'd leave that world. To me, that's a great compliment for a book, so I'll leave my review at that. ( )

A fabulous book that turns the world upside down, challenging ideas on gender and the roles men & women play! A fascinating take on women gaining control in a male dominated world. Will certainly get you thinking about the human race and whether a word where roles are reversed would make a difference. ( )

Borrowed from Chris Khayi Thomas ( )