The 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.
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Community Reviews
The Power by Naomi Alderman
382 pages
What’s it about?
Imagine a world in the future where women develop a power that makes it possible to physically dominate men. How would society change? Naomi Alderman cleverly asks this question in her new novel.
What did I think?
This novel is based on a really interesting question- how much does physical power really affect the relationship between sexes? What if women were the ones with the physical dominance? What would it change?
Should you read it?
This was an interesting premise and made for a pretty good book. I would recommend this selection for book clubs. Lots of interesting assumptions are made in this story that would generate good discussions.
Quote-
“There is a part in each of us which holds fast to the old truth: either you are the hunter or you are the prey. Learn which you are. Act accordingly. Your life depends on it.”
If you like this try-
The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The change in religion is certainly brilliant, and the maneuvering for power, but some of the plot just doesn't work. The ages of the characters - Allie starts as 16 and ends as 26, Roxy 14 to 24 - is just too young to take control of all that they do. Is it possible? Sure, but it isn't written in a way that makes me have confidence in the characters' non-electrical abilities.
At times the writing was insightful - for some reason I really enjoy the paragraph (p. 245 in my edition) where Margot is describing Tunde's reporting, describing his body, asking how she can take him seriously with that body shown off, and getting horny. Yes, men are like this, and if women had the upper hand, well, it's quite foreseeable that we, too, would be dismissive of the opposite sex even while tolerating them.
I think it was the Roxy-Darrell event at the end that made it unbelievable for me. I think the concept was brilliant. I also think the author should have taken another year to write the book, because then it would have been a classic. Instead, she's put it out there early, and someone else will write the story that really does the concept justice.
This one is so vivid and suspenseful (sometimes brutal) and poetic in places. You root for everyone and no one - all the characters are a little great and a little awful in different measures that shift through the story which I found super engaging. Really made me think and feel it.
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