FEMLIT: The Power Review

This month for FemLIT, we decided to read a book that's been buzzed about a lot since last year: The Power by Naomi Alderman. Here's my review of it!

Title: The Power

Author: Naomi Alderman

Publisher: Viking

Genre: Sci-Fi

Blurb: In The Power the world is a recognisable place: there's a rich Nigerian kid who lounges around the family pool; a foster girl whose religious parents hide their true nature; a local American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But something vital has changed, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power - they can cause agonising pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world changes utterly.

This extraordinary novel by Naomi Alderman, a Sunday TimesYoung Writer of the Year and Granta Best of British writer, is not only a gripping story of how the world would change if power was in the hands of women but also exposes, with breath-taking daring, our contemporary world.

Me: How can I possibly express how much I adored this book? It was groundbreaking, it challenged so many of my thoughts, it moved and excited me - I think it's my favorite FemLIT book of the year.

The Ups: As the blurb can tell you, the book begins with the premise that women, starting with teenage girls, begin to awaken a power within them that allows them to create electricity. Without revealing too much of the plot, this spins the world completely upside down, upsetting the gender imbalance and changing history for good.

One of the parts I found absolutely incredible and almost eerie about this book was how the passage of time could be physically felt as things started to spiral out of control. In the beginning, even I as a reader thought this could possibly be empowering - and in the book, women actually begin to fight back their harassers and oppressors.

But what's so smart about this book is how eventually gender inequality begins to flip the other way - women begin to abuse men, relish violence, and build power around themselves. It's extremely unnerving to see how quickly the power turns to extreme control. What's more unnerving is the moment you realize that most of the developments these newly powerful women implement are all those that men have implemented against women in society today. Seeing it the other way around really reveals how absurd and horrible our reality is now.

For example, one of the best depicted aspects in the novel is the changing of religion to fit a power narrative. God is now a She, a Mother, all her prophets are women. We get to see inside the mind of the guiding prophet of this new movement, who sees growing religious extremism and the subjugation of men in the name of religion. Maybe the world isn't quite ready to face these questions head-on yet, but I've always believed referring to God as Father and He are consequences of the patriarchy: would a supernatural force have a gender? The Power made me revisit these questions and their implications.

From sexual assault to political power, so many varying and complex topics are explored throughout the novel with similar depth as the religious aspects. 

The Downs: For me, the ending felt a little anticlimactic for how strongly the rest of the book developed. It didn't seem to really wrap up all the loose ends of the book. Another thing is that the book is bookended (excuse the pun) with these "letters" between a fictional writer and editor - for some reason, that just seemed to break the feeling of this world for me when I encountered their letters at the end. 

I adored every single one of the characters, and felt like the end didn't allow their arcs to really resolve. Maybe there'll be a sequel?

Rating: 5 kisses!