Book review - The Power by Naomi Alderman

This is one of the books that I went into completely blind - aside from seeing the occasional photo on Bookstagram, I had no idea what this book was about, if people liked it, and so on. From what I gathered from the synopsis, this book was going to be a feminists' dream: an alternative world in which not men, but women are the dominant gender. For me, this sounded interesting enough to pick it up.

This book turned out to be endlessly fascinating, but not perfect. However, I could forgive this book it's flaws for the fact that it just had me so hooked - it was the first book in a long time that I wasn't able to put down. The strong point of this book is that it incorporates multiple perspectives, meaning also different parts of society as well as different cultures. This made it extremely real to me. One the rare occasions that I did put the book down and switched on the TV to watch the news, I half expected to see reports on the events of the book in the news. Rioting women on the street, from the US to Europe to India, shooting out electricity out of their hands (I do realize how fake and hard to believe this sounds, but it was actually so well done).

One the rare occasions that I did put the book down and switched on the TV to watch the news, I half expected to see reports on the events of the book in the news. 

The characters were not particularly loveable or relatable, the one I enjoyed reading about the most was Roxy as she probably was the most relatable. However, all characters showed the internal struggle of women that suddenly were more powerful than men, and all the different paths this could lead them to in a fascinating way. Some of these paths seem ridiculous, some of their actions seem despicable, but then you take a step back and realize: this has been the reality of our world for centuries, but just the other way around. In that sense, this book holds up a mirror to society in an unexpected but impactful way. It left me thinking, that's for sure.

So what were some of the flaws of this book? The most important one for me was that it tried to do too much in too little pages. It tried to paint a complete picture of the world society, including politics, economy and religion. However,  the story was so fast-paced the author did not have time to really go in depth and this made it feel less realistic. Things changed too quickly. I just refuse to believe that, if women happened to gain a power like the one in this book, they would be able to start their own countries and completely change religion in a matter of years, which is what happened here.



Another, well not really a flaw, but an interesting thing I noticed, is the author's cynical view on power. Would women all turn into raving, raping, power-mad lunatics as soon as they get the chance? I find that hard to believe - especially since women already possess more empathy and less aggression by nature. But aside from that, it was a hell of a lot of fun to read about a world in which it is like that, for once. But I have faith in humanity that it would not turn out to be that way in reality.

All in all, this was a fast-paced, multi-faceted, interesting read that really sucks you in. Even though it was a bit ambitious in terms of what it tried to do, it was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it!