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. […]
Whoever heard of a neurotic frog? Where do humans get off thinking they’re the pinnacle of evolution?
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 […]
Speculative extremes of women’s futures clearly demonstrate how everyone loses when inequality wins
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 […]
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
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 […]
You can’t be the one that hurts and the one that comforts
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 […]
They do it because they can
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 […]