naomi alderman – Cannonball Read 17

I’m not sure we’re better off in this universe either…

The Power by Naomi Alderman

March 15, 2025 by genericwhitegirl 2 Comments

This is a story that Alderman describes as feminist science fiction – a type of speculative fiction that I like to call a “what-if” story. The Power examines how power comes in various forms – whether physical, societal, something you are born into, something you can take from someone…and the list goes on. Alderman explores what happens when women develop an organ called a skein that enables them to deliver electrical shocks. Their inherent ability to physically overcome any man changes the balance of power […]

dystopian utopian escapism

The Future by Naomi Alderman

January 17, 2024 by wicherwill Leave a Comment

I will give this book a pass because it does get better towards the end, but to explain would ruin the reason for which the book gets good! More relevantly I don’t think it’s as good as The Power, but it’s definitely an engaging book. Despite only having read one book by David Eggers (The Circle) I do get a similar vibe from Alderman’s work. The genre is scifi, set in a near future that seems rather reasonable but with a few tweaks that are exaggerations […]

Shocking

The Power by Naomi Alderman

June 8, 2023 by Caesar's Wife Leave a Comment

The Power is actually about the reversal of power. What if the raw, physical power held within the bodies of men was overshadowed by the raw, electrical power generated within the bodies of women? Would this changing of the guards of power cause the scales to rebalance? Would it usher in world peace? Would women, the mothers of all, take on a caring and nurturing role and reset the world to be a functioning matriarchy? Or would power redistribute to bring untold instability? Would this […]

“News always reached Miss Marple, one way or another.”

Marple: Twelve New Stories by Various

December 29, 2022 by narfna Leave a Comment

I would read more of these Agatha Christie short story collections featuring notable authors, for sure. Even the ones where Americans tried and failed to capture that British Marple feeling were entertaining in their failure. But most of these stories were pretty successful! One nailed it completely. Highlights for me were the stories from Ruth Ware (I know!), Naomi Alderman, Elly Griffiths, Kate Mosse, and Leigh Bardugo. This may be the easy way out, but I’ve just copied and pasted my Goodreads status update mini-reviews […]

What would happen if women could thoroughly, completely, permanently turn the tables?

The Power by Naomi Alderman

August 1, 2020 by Bothari43 1 Comment

I feel like this was meant to be a cautionary tale, with an ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ type of message, but maybe I was in the wrong mindset for it, because my reaction was way more on the side of “FRAK YEAH, GET ‘EM!!!” All of a sudden, teenage girls all over the world develop the power to produce electricity from their fingertips. A (long-dormant? brand new?) organ called a skein, located over the collarbone, allows the girls to create and deploy electricity. Parents and […]

“One of them says, ‘Why did they do it?’ And the other answers, ‘Because they could.’ That is the only answer there ever is.”

The Power by Naomi Alderman

February 3, 2020 by narfna 3 Comments

I will not let this book ruin my review streak. I finished it last week and have just been sitting on a final rating and review because I wasn’t sure what I thought of it when I finished it, and I’m still not really sure now, but I don’t think waiting any more will help. Maybe typing up my thoughts will help solidify some things. I’m a little behind the times with this one. It was a big deal a couple of years ago, but […]

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