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The Power

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The Power

By: Naomi Alderman
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, Naomi Alderman, Thomas Judd, Emma Fenney, Phil Nightingale
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About this listen

2017 Winner of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

'She throws her head back and pushes her chest forward and lets go a huge blast right into the centre of his body. The rivulets and streams of red scarring run across his chest and up around his throat. She'd put her hand on his heart and stopped him dead.'

Suddenly - tomorrow or the day after - girls find that with a flick of their fingers, they can inflict agonizing pain and even death.

With this single twist, the four lives at the heart of Naomi Alderman's extraordinary, visceral novel are utterly transformed, and we look at the world in an entirely new light. What if the power to hurt were in women's hands?

©2016 Naomi Alderman (P)2016 Audible, Ltd Dystopian Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Science Fiction Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction Exciting Heartfelt Suspense

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Critic reviews

"Electrifying! Shocking! Will knock your socks off! Then you'll think twice, about everything." (Margaret Atwood)
" The Power is a subtly funny, lyrical and utterly subversive vision of an impossible future. As all the best visionaries do, Alderman shines a penetrating and yet merciful light on to our present and the so many cruelties in which we may be complicit." (A. L. Kennedy)
"Alderman is a fluent and powerful writer." ( Sunday Times)
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I am an hour from the end of this and I am thoroughly depressed. The idea is that women, if they had the opportunity, would subject men to the worst excesses of inhumane treatment that has been visited on women through history. Don't tell me that I don't get it, that it is really shining a light on how women are treated by reversing the roles, i got it and I still didn't like it. I found this "shoe on the other foot" not challenging but childish. It is not truthful or honest about actual gender roles. It assumes that all men, with one or two exceptions, are beasts and not actually human beings at all. It relies on an oversimplified view of the world and sexual politics. It is not the messiah, it is a kind of wish fulfilment revenge porn masquerading as a clever concept. Sorry, but the concept is threadbare and obvious.

Parts of it are well written and it is well executed for what it is. The gushing reviews about blown minds and suggesting it should be mandatory reading at school are worrisome.

Fortunately for reality many men are prepared to defend the lives and the rights of others. Thank goodness life for the majority is not a game of men against women. Men and women get on much better than this author and others would like to admit. I fundamentally reject the notion that you can define a person by their gender. Nelson Mandela said that racism is racism whether practised by a white person or a black person. I think you can also say that sexism, regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of the perpetrator, is sexism. No one has a right of revenge against a whole gender or race - to suggest so is sexist and racist.

Not the messiah, a very naughty trope.

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What a sensation. Do not ponder upon reading/listening to this book, do it immediately. This should be required reading for school children across the country, if not world. Beautifully written, the characters carefully crafted to be no more easily loved than hated. The style/form of the book is so incredibly clever that it leaves you open mouthed.
I could not recommend this more highly, it is a must read. I will be recommending it to everyone I know.

One of the greatest and most inspiring, thought provoking texts I have ever read.

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I could rave about how amazing this was for days. My thoughts are too jumbled, too skewed to convey how much you should read/listen to this. Read on for a ramble, or just buy the book. (You'll be better off reading the book. )

The layering of narrative, and how every character and event and item is a Chekhov's Gun, it's stunning. it's not just one bang, it's a war where one gun firs and then two more fire and suddenly everything is connecting in a horrifying, enlightening trap that you can't escape. And no character is good or evil, black or white. I loved and hated each one at a time, and made my peace with all of them.
The voice acting is superb. It pressed this book into my mind, it grabbed me by the throat and choked me until I could not think about anything other than listen. I listen to audio books while I work- they're fun. You miss a bit here and there, but you get the gist and enjoy the story. but with THE Power I could not do anything else but listen.
I'm ashamed to say I wrote this off a little because of Atwood's reccomendation. It sounded like a good read but I studied Atwood at A-level and I never liked her work. It seemed a bit 'rape and pity'. But Alderman showed me convincingly and succinctly that I was wrong.

Please read this book.

Put a gun into my mouth and blew my mind

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This starts off really good, the early chapters which introduce the premise for the story is very well done and written. For me though once the premise has been fully covered the overall plot starts to drag, with the various stories of the individual characters failing to keep me engaged, being a little naff and increasingly rambling, compared with I suppose the potentially fairly epic idea behind the book. Just a shame it didn't maintain the quality and fully utilise the main idea brought out in the early story. Narration was pretty good if a little annoying in certain areas.

Excellent start - drags as it progresses.

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I was pretty blown away by the subject matter. What if the tables were completely turned? Women in power, no longer in servitude. The level of violence only reflects the reality that women face daily. An extremely difficult but clever look at societal inequality from the other shoe.

There were times I lost track as the action became overwhelming but the fundamental moral remained true. Dark and disturbing but is it dystopian? Hard to say because that's the reality for many today.

Disturbing for its anthropological truths

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