Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Power by Naomi Alderman

303 reviews

nluchs's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Murder, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, and Violence

madisongturner's review against another edition

4.25

This was a pretty good dystopian-style science fiction book. I do think it targets the same demographic of people who enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale. It does a great job of demonstrating how the oppressed are not without the ability to become the oppressors. While I do not think it is inevitable that they would, I appreciate the look into how we see the worst come out in those who are in charge, no matter how much it seems like they would never act that way. The only major qualm I have with this is the same as we are used to seeing in this style of feminist literature, it is a little trans-exclusionary which was unnecessary. Otherwise, it definitely made me think and was a very intriguing style of book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, War, Violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Transphobia

Pretty much any content warning you can imagine, consider it given for this book.

bellbookcandle's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

True dystopia - humankind is bad, and might makes right, even if we do get an interesting glimpse of a world where women are stronger. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Violence

madelinedalton's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Oof, this book is a total clusterfuck. 

The characters are very hollow. They’re just props for carrying out the plot, which made it hard for me to get emotionally invested in them. The constant shifting of perspectives between the characters also contributed to my emotional detachment. As soon as I felt like I was excited to see what happened next to a character, their chapter would abruptly end. Giving each character roughly one chapter per year over a ten year time span was also jarring. They each lived so much life between those chapters, and we didn’t get to see any of it. 

My perception is that the “thesis” of this book is that disproportionate power in anyone’s hands can be deadly. While I agree on the whole, the execution was sloppy in this book because the story started in our current patriarchal society. It would have been more interesting to deeply examine how the remnants of misogyny and patriarchy hung around during the shift to violent matriarchy. There were glimmers of this—the UrbanDox guy, and the line towards the end talking about how there are still a handful of men with power and money out there. But I think those moments fell flat because they weren’t properly connected to the overall thesis of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Violence, Death, and War

Moderate: Blood

vivikasweiven's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Torture, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Murder, Misogyny, Cursing, Child abuse, Medical content, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Death, and Adult/minor relationship

fsws's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Rape, Trafficking, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, War, Slavery, and Sexual assault

pebbletown's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Disappointing, for something so beloved by Margaret Atwood—its gender politics are largely boring and toothless. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, and Body horror

woahjeny's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

christynhoover's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I found this to be a rough read. For the most part I did NOT like the characters --often intensely! Which doesn't mean it's a bad book or poorly written. Just be prepared. Lots of violence, brutality.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, Gore, Hate crime, Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Moderate: Drug abuse

hannahmdejong's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Violence, Torture, Death, Rape, War, and Sexual violence