Reviews with content warning for Excrement - The Power

I really enjoyed reading this one, though the entire book is nightmare material (content warnings not to be taken lightly). Great pace, very tense, and adventurous. It draws attention to many social discrepancies and is full of female viewpoints and characters, which, in and of itself, felt refreshing.

That being said, I didn't appreciate the book's binary view on gender, the conflation of sex and gender, and the complete disregard for the multitude of gender identities; in this book "male" equals "man", "female" equals "woman", and that's all there is to it. Also, I had hoped that the book will have a more positive stance towards society; I've had my fill of the whoever-has-the-bigger-stick-must-oppress-whoever-has-the-smaller-stick point of view. That's alright though, I think the author delivered the narrative they chose pretty successfully.

Content Warnings

sallytiffany's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It started off really good and had a good premise but quickly became religious and political. Not a bad book when read for school but not one I would read for pleasure. I also really didn't like the ending.

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alexbobalex's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-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

Everyone should read this book at least once. It’s a story everyone can relate to, as we all are affected by gender and it’s power dynamics. This book made me relook at human history itself, and wonder. All that being said, strongly recomend.

Content Warnings

octopus_farmer's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense fast-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

3.0

It was gripping to read, especially with the frame narratives of the letters and the "artifacts". I also liked how it avoided gender essentialism in the violence and horror of the story. I hadn't expected quite so many

Spoiler

rape attempts,

but it made a sort of sense for the discussion of gendered violence at hand, and

Spoiler

the failed attempts did make the last rape in the refugee camp much more horrific.

I don't know if I'll read it again. I certainly wouldn't recommend this as a light-hearted speculative book.

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inkstutter's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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marionlundqvist's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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engoldment's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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thevietvegan's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I started reading this book after procrastinating starting it, and yall IT STARTS WITH A BANG. Immediately hooked in.

I really enjoyed following Roxy, Allie and Tunde's storylines, really couldn't care less about Margot. I found her motives were shit, her emotional manipulation was shit, and her general character just was frustrating. I understand that women like her exist haha. And from what I can tell, that's the same type of mindset that propelled the

Spoiler

reverse matriarchy that happens in the end.

Maybe I just have more faith in humanity but I struggle to believe that we'd completely turn the extremes of the patriarchy around to be a mirror version in matriarchy.

I really struggle to see how anyone could justify (specifically in this new era where we already are aware of historical and current day atrocities) genital mutilation, extremely culling men's rights to mirror Saudi Arabia's women's rights in Bessapara, and that women-led states would nuke themselves into oblivion. I JUST DON'T SEE IT.

Roxy's storyline felt so anticlimactic to me, and so sad. Despite the fact that she is like a drug lord, I was really invested in hee success lol. I don't know why.

Mother Eve/Allie's storyline took such a turn that it felt out of character for her, but I guess she was manipulating people from start to finish anyway so I shouldn't be surprised.

I just think the whole Cataclysm was ridiculous and I don't understand why anyone thinks bombing countries into oblivion is helpful to anyone.

Also the end email messages between 'Neil' and 'Naomi' were really clever ways of relaying the culture of the new world. It is gross to see current patriarchy mirror displayed so overly as their matriarchy.

I was excited for a compassionate utopia because I do believe humanity when we work together is beautiful and peaceful, but this story implies that women will get drunk on power and I think that's just a bummer lol.

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