Book Review: The Power by Naomi Alderman

Spoiler alert: we just finished reading The Power as the featured read for October and we’re ready to let y’all know our thoughts! Below, find our two founders’ takes on October’s featured read. Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments!

Molly:

If we’re being honest, until the last 100 pages, I was not into this book at all. It’s hard because the idea is really powerful - there’s a “power” slowly spreading into the bodies of women that allows them to use their newfound abilities to cause physical pain or even death to anyone who threatens them. Because they can now outpower men, they are quickly redefining the balance of power between the genders and causing upheaval of societies  and destruction of societal norms.

Through the of years we follow a few characters as they try to cope with their new powers and a new world order. There’s no doubt that the message is powerful (get it, get it?) and it’s often extremely unsettling as we see men in positions of weakness or vulnerability that are frightening and life-threatening (much in the way that women all around the world suffer daily). There are scenes in this book that will send tingles up your spine and won’t leave your memory for months (or even years to come).

That being said, I didn’t really like any of the characters and although I understand that each was meant to represent a vertical of society (politics, religion, etc.) I felt like they could have been deeper and more developed.

I would still recommend this one - the message behind it is important and timely, but it’s not a beach read or a casual pre-bedtime book.

Amanda:

I couldn’t have said it better myself.  I was not a strong fan of this book and most times forced myself to push on to the finish.  Where to begin…?

For starters,  the book follows multiple characters and their individual life paths set in the modern day.  Stylistically, this is never my first choice of book because I think it’s difficult for an author to seamlessly connect multiple worlds and viewpoints without leaving the reader confused and or forgetting what happened four chapters back.

Naomi Alderman breaks the characters’ stories up by chapter, jumping from one to the next.  It becomes difficult to stay interested as none of the character’s lives connect (spoiler alert!) until the last 100 pages or so.  There were far too many storylines to develop and, aside from perhaps one character, it was impossible to see where the author was going with any of them.

On the opposite spectrum, I really enjoyed the strong underlying political voice reverberating the issues happening in today’s society.  Whatever your views may be, I think everyone at one point or another while reading this book can take a hint at the women’s rights parallels.  I was constantly comparing my own life and situations I’ve been exposed to to what was happening to the men in the novel. The author was not at all shy to blatantly attack the injustices women face daily.

Aside from my (harsh?) critique of the book, it was an excellent conversational piece and really got the group talking so for that I can appreciate The Power.  Can’t wait to hear from all of you in the comments below, and we look forward to seeing everyone December 7th at our next meeting - Holiday Edition!  P.s. my Grandmother loved this book.