The Power

So many times while reading this, I just said: “Wow!” I loved the biblical/historical framing, and it was a gripping, entertaining story. This was one of the most thought-provoking and brilliant books I’ve read recently.

What if, all over the world, women suddenly discovered they now had all the power? Questions around equality are always at the center of my own writing and much of what I read, so this book went straight to the top of my reading pile when it was released!

This is a dystopian novel with a difference – it turns the status quo of millennia upon its head to create a world in which girls and women can literally dominate men with a flick of the fingers and a flash of electrocution. Bad men are overthrown, and new sisterhoods are… show more.

Imagine a world in which women are suddenly and unequivocally given the power to control their own fates and finally be seen as powerful in their own right. In this book, that’s exactly what happens when girls and women across the globe suddenly gain the ability to shoot electric currents out of their hands. 

I loved this book because it masterfully explores the question at the heart of the modern uptick in widespread misogyny: what would happen if women had the power to subjugate men the way men have done to them? Some of the women in her story want… show more.

In Alderman’s novel, young women get the power to electrocute others by touch overnight, and the young women are then able to awaken this power in the older women.

In a very short space of time, the world’s power structure is flipped on its head as women realize that they no longer have to fear nor submit to the strength of men.

The novel follows multiple characters in different facets of society, we see these changes evolve through the eyes of a political figure, a mob boss’s daughter, a troubled teen who founds a new religion, a handsome male reporter,… show more.

I love how Naomi Alderman flips the mirror on our reality, building a world in which women possess great physical power over men.

Men are sometimes belittled and oppressed by women, but they’re always aware of the imbalance in power. Boys are told not to go out alone at night—and yet Alderman renders this dark satire with many laugh-out-loud moments that illuminate the hypocrisies and dysfunction of our current power dynamics.

For me, it was a reminder and a lesson in how even when you’re building a chillingly unpleasant (although plausible) world, you can still use humor to help readers… show more.

When teenage girls begin to develop a powerful electrical charge in their hands, their new ability turns the world upside down.

They can set things on fire; fight back; hurt; kill. Boys and men are now vulnerable like never before. I love the way Alderman plays this out: society is definitely not an instant utopia now the girls are in charge! This story is a fascinating vision of what might happen if the order of the world were turned on its head, and girls were suddenly the ones with all the power. 

This book blew my mind. It’s the story about a world in which women discover a physical ability that means they’re, suddenly, the stronger sex. The gender roles are reversed. The power dynamic flipped. Men are walking in groups to stay safe. Men need chaperones in the street. And chaos ensues. It’s up to the reader to decide if it’s good or bad. 

It’s a completely thrilling venture into ‘what if’ and I loved every second of this book. Reimagining the world in a woman’s image was cathartic, thrilling, and a wonderful escape.

I picked this book up when it won the Orange Prize for Women’s fiction. The premise is that teenage girls suddenly realize they have an electrical power that they use to tame men. We soon start to see how they use it and pass it on to other women, and I loved how it grew into a ‘good vs evil’ exploration. I found the novel a thought experiment on what would happen if power dynamics were reversed. I loved it and read it over a weekend. 

The Power was hands down my favorite dystopian book of the past five years. It explores a world in which power, physical power followed shortly by political power, lies with women rather than men. 

The story is told through six vastly different points of view, and in turning the tables from a patriarchal culture to a matriarchal one, The Power shines a light on the disparity within gender dynamics in our current world. The Power was thrilling, brutal, and surprisingly cathartic to read.