The Power

Hooooooooooly crap, y'all. This book is AMAZING. And seriously violent and triggery and, on many levels, a depressing meditation on the fact that humans are garbage. At the same time, however, it is absolutely cathartic; while it may very well trigger those who have had sexual assault and abuse experiences, I would encourage fellow survivors to read it anyway, because the process of the book creates an emotional and experiential arc that, in the end, is both horrifying and deeply, deeply satisfying.

Let's be clear: this is speculative fiction that looks toward the near future and is drawn straight from today's very real gender dynamics. In the book, teenage girls and women manifest the power to produce electricity in their bodies show more sufficient to electrocute -- you might imagine that such power turns society on its head, and it is that upheaval that the novel follows. It's also set up a book-within-a-book, with far future citizens looking back at what would be our near future and arguing amongst themselves about what's true in their history. That very set up creates enough distance to make even the more violent scenarios of the internal story fascinating in context.

A friend of mine told me that there are two camps of people who read this book: those who think it should be viewed purely as a meditation on the absolute corruption of power (which, on many levels, it definitely is) and those who finish the book with the phrase "Burn it all down" on their lips. I leave you to decide which camp you are in, but I'm telling you that you need to read this book. The very last line of the very last far-future letter puts the entire novel in perspective -- when you read it, it will hit you. Amazing. Seriously. show less

What if women, starting with teen girls, suddenly developed an extraordinary electrostatic ability? How does this change gender dynamics? Politics? The whole world? With this new ability, women finally have the power to upend the patriarchy.
The story follows the lives of just a handful of people in this new world: a young woman in Britain from a crime family, a young mixed-race woman in America who has been in the foster system most of her life, the mayor of a major city whose daughter shares her power with her, and a Nigerian reporter (the only male POV in the story) who travels the world documenting the political changes as they happen.
The first half of the book is incredibly empowering to read as a woman. The women in this book no show more longer have to be afraid to walk alone at night. They can seek their own retribution. It kicks ass. Come the second half of the book, though, things take a turn for the worse. Our main characters suffer some defeats, and the world itself becomes more and more dystopic. (Of course, since the author basically just gender flipped everything, to call a world in which women are in charge and men are subjugated a dystopia, means that we also have to recognize that the real world we live in where women are subjugated, is also a dystopia. Food for thought there, for sure.)
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. Some characters took some time to grow on me, and most of them surprised me in their own ways. I wish the author had included more diverse perspectives. What happens to trans people in this world? What about black women in America? Or anywhere else? What of people in Asia? There is so much more room for other stories within this world and I wish the author had taken that opportunity. Nonetheless, I think this book will appeal to readers of science fiction and feminist stories. show less

When I heard that Naomi Alderman’s mentor is the queen of speculative fiction Margaret Atwood, I knew The Power was a book I had to read. The Power is written as a book within a book. It starts with a letter from an author named Neil Adam Armon (an anagram of Naomi Alderman) to another author named Naomi. Neil has written a historical fiction novel set 5000 years ago (which would make it set in the present day) about what happened when teenage girls suddenly developed the power to shoot powerful volts of electricity out of their hands. The balance of power in the world shifts when women are suddenly able to overpower men whenever they want.

It turns out that power corrupts women just as much as it corrupts men and a female-dominated show more society isn’t the benevolent matriarchy one might imagine. It’s an interesting thought experiment that Alderman engages in. She does so with nuance and a touch of dark humor. Once I finished, I immediately wanted to read it again because I know I’ll get even more out of it when I know where the story is headed. We read this book for one of my book clubs and there was a lot to talk about – it makes for a great discussion. My book club is all-female – I’d be really interested in what male readers think of it. I’m guessing most would find it pretty eye-opening. Highly recommended. show less

"The shape of power is always the same; it is the shape of a tree. Root to tip, central trunk branching and re-branching, spreading wider in ever-thinner, searching fingers. The shape of power is the outline of a living thing straining outward, sending its fine tendrils a little further, and a little further yet." - page 3

Originally, the premise for this book seemed a bit outlandish. BUT page three immediately had be nodding along with the set up. I saw Alderman comparing power to the branches and roots of trees, and rivers leading to the ocean, and lightning, and was really rooting for her to make the connection to the nervous system...and she did. I've always thought that trees are like the blood vessels of the world. Trees do create show more oxygen, after all. The world is a beautiful coincidence (or a system of perfection). I appreciate that Alderman noticed that too.
The book is set up as historical fiction, as if the writer is basing the plot from recently discovered history. Alderman speculates on what might happen if the power in the world was in the hands of women rather than men. Suddenly, young girls have the power of electricity emanating from their body at will. It causes quite a rabbit hole of a plot. The book's setup mainly follows four characters: Allie, passed through the foster system as an orphan who hears a voice called 'Mother Eve' from a young age and becomes much more than an orphan. Margot, a mayor who is rising up the ranks of government and a mom of a teenager with the power. Tunde, a college boy from Nigeria who starts traveling the world to become the chronicler of the revolution. Roxy, a young girl who first uses her power when her mom is killed because of her family's penchant for crime. All of the characters start to intertwine and I'm amazed at Alderman's skill at representing all four characters equally. And all four are equally essential to this story. The newfound power the women have quite changes their thinking, a bit too riotously. The power shifts too much and of course the men are scared. The characters are a little too man hating. I was thinking this book was just alright, but there were a couple more things I appreciated: Allie has a grand realization that should have been a Hail Mary (pun intended) for saving the world, which might have been too easy for the narrative. So I appreciated the book for that realization AND that it wasn't enough for redemption. This made the book for me. show less

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 show more 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. show less

Science fiction dystopian novel that follows the lives of four primary characters to show how the world might change if women were physically stronger than men. In this dystopian future, women have a skein near their collarbones that enables them to conduct an electrical current, capable of inflicting great harm or even death. This novel provides one view of the impact of such a change on religion, politics, crime, education, social mores, families, and culture. It is cleverly concealed in the format of a “book within a book.”

I thought the author came up with an extremely creative premise. I found it engrossing, especially Tunde’s story, which was the only segment from a male character’s perspective. I thought the characters show more were rather thinly drawn, and the writing style very straight-forward.

The extreme violence against men in this book can be shocking until one realizes that these men are being treated in the same manner that females are currently treated in the real world. Content warnings include: descriptions of slaughterhouse processing, extreme violence (murder, rape, assault, torture), a profusion of profanity, and a variety of sex-related topics.

I found it extremely thought-provoking, though I would not classify it as a pleasant reading experience. Recommended to fans of dystopian fiction and book clubs, as I imagine it could engender strong opinions and interesting discussions.

A role reversal dystopia that provides a rather grim view of human nature. show less

This one is good, and might end up in my top five or ten for the year.
Girls have electrical power in their skein and it turns the world on its head - slowly they start to escape all the parochial oppression, rapes, sex-trafficking, and tyranny of male perpetrators and the tide turns. At first I was put off by the twisting of religion into a feminist text because I did not know where the author was taking it. I think it demonstrates how men have twisted the bible to justify their actions historically, so I was able to go with it. The tide takes a full parabola as the power shifts from men to women, which also has great social commentary and questions the assumption that women would run the world better or differently than men (assuming show more that assumption exists in the general populace to begin with).
The story unveils through Allie, Roxy, Tunde (the only male voice), and Margery (might have her name wrong) as well as a few others. There are a lot of side issues brought up too, so this book would make a great book club selection. It is Sci Fi officially but more dystopia than typical sci-fi. show less