Cannonball Read 11

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Heckin’ Yes – The Power

The Power by Naomi Alderman

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Post-apocalyptic fiction is my my favorite genre. I am also on a kick of reading rocking female authors. Also, I love Margaret Atwood, and she mentored Alderman and has mentioned this book as one to read. Soooo, post-apocalyptic fiction with Margaret Atwood’s seal of approval should be a slam dunk for my tastes, and oh, it certainly was. In Alderman’s world, “the power” is a muscle across the collarbone of young women that allows them to send out electric shocks to animal, vegetable, or mineral. And it is a power only wielded by women. I KNOW RIGHT?! Things get real, […]

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12/14/2018 's CBR10 Review No:46 |

This felt a little good to read right now

The Power by Naomi Alderman

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This weekend was either the worst weekend or the perfect weekend to start and finish reading The Power by Naomi Alderman. It’s a what-if novel – what if first teenage girls and the women awoke within themselves powerful abilities that made them the physically dominant gender? What would change? How would it change? And how quickly? I have a feeling that Naomi Alderman is a big N. K. Jemisin fan because her writing style feels very similar, just … stilted. Like it’s not how she naturally wants to write, it’s an affectation. I’m a huge Jemisin fangirl so I feel you, […]

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10/9/2018 's CBR10 Review No:116 |

They understood their strength, all at once

The Power by Naomi Alderman

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CANNONBALL!!!! Sorry. I just can’t believe that it happened this fast for me. Back in the olden days of CBR 3,  I read mostly shortish YA books and still struggled to eke out 52 books and reviews by the deadline. Now that I am drunk on CBR 10 early completion power…..let’s talk Naomi Alderman’s “The Power.” The premise itself is very simple.  Young women begin to have the ability to harness electricity and manipulate it. Its source is a mysterious skein located in their collar bones. Once the young women are aware of this, they discover that they can also awaken […]

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10/4/2018 's CBR10 Review No:52 |

Whoever heard of a neurotic frog? Where do humans get off thinking they’re the pinnacle of evolution?

Rubyfruit Jungle; The Anubis Gates; The Third Hotel; Gun Love; Basic Black with Pearls; The Power; W or A Childhood Memory; Foreign Affairs by Rita Mae Brown; Tim Powers; Laura van den Berg; Jill Clement; Helen Weinzweig; Naomi Alderman; Georges Perec; Allison Lurie

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Rubyfruit Jungle – 4/5 Stars So I didn’t know much going into this novel except that it’s seen as an early and fairly beloved novel about growing up gay as a woman. So in MY mind, that meant some stolen glimpses at girls, some little caresses, and other subtle moments that read pretty clearly through a contemporary gaze. Turns out this book was published in 1970 or so and is SUPER GAY. What is super gay? Well, I guess I don’t know how to answer that at all except to say that this book is unafraid to be blunt and […]

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9/18/2018 's CBR10 Review No:351 |

Speculative extremes of women’s futures clearly demonstrate how everyone loses when inequality wins

Red Clocks: A Novel and The Power by Leni Zumas and Naomi Alderman

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I’m reviewing these two books together because despite their opposite takes on speculative futures, they use similar storytelling techniques to describe how women’s lives might be different in both the near, and far future. Naomi Alderman’s The Power imagines a future where women develop an ability to physically harm others with electric shocks. Due to the release and dispersion of an environmental hazard, women begin to develop a “skein” within their bodies which allows them to physically overpower people (men) with a jolt of energy. The strength of this ability varies from woman to woman, but seems to be stronger in women and […]

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8/13/2018 's CBR10 Review No:11 |

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

The Power by Naomi Alderman

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Buzzfeed’s book reviews have never steered me wrong, so when one of their lists suggested The Power as a must-read Dystopian novel, I felt I should give it a go. And it was WORTH IT. Disturbing, mind-bending, and surprising, The Power feels like this generation’s answer to The Handmaids Tale. I was not surprised to read that Alderman thanks Margaret Atwood in her acknowledgements because the book follows an updated take on the The Handmaid’s Tale structure. Complete with excerpts from fictional archaeological findings to the mind blowing epilogue and chapters counting down to an unknown coming, The Power is riveting and twisted. At the start of […]

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6/27/2018 's CBR10 Review No:12 |

You can’t be the one that hurts and the one that comforts

The Power by Naomi Alderman

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The Power (2017) by Naomi Alderman is another book recommended by President Obama. Again, I had no idea what it was about going into it, but I’m really glad I read it. Not only does it give me something to talk about with Obama if I ever happen to run into him [very likely], but I thought it was interesting and thought-provoking. The Power begins five thousand years in the future. Neil Armon just wrote a book and is getting feedback from a fictional Naomi Alderman. They live in a world that is matriarchal and women have the more powerful roles. Neil’s […]

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6/22/2018 's CBR10 Review No:28 |

They do it because they can

The Power by Naomi Alderman

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The Power considers a world in which women can create and conduct electricity with their bodies, with enough juice to kill a man. Now the tables have turned, and it’s men who have to be afraid. What will become of this new world order? The story unfolds through four main characters. There’s Roxy, daughter of a London gangster; Allie, grown up in foster care and creates a new persona once her power comes in, that of Mother Eve; Margot, mayor of somewhere in the US (if it tells me where I already forgot); and Tunde, a Nigerian journalist. This is […]

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6/20/2018 's CBR10 Review No:22 |


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