when you want to love it but just can’t – ‘The Power’

My reading material this year has been pretty reflective of the world and all the horrible things that have come to light. Mostly about women. The books I have been gravitating towards have included titles like ‘The Book of the Unnamed Midwife’, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, ‘Too Fat, Too Slutty‘ and other fantastic lady empowering reads. I guess the one positive thing about Trump is that he has really inspired a lot of women to write some good books! And before you think I have been biased in my reading, this has also been the year of Murakami as I managed to read through his entire catalogue – apart from IQ84 which I find a little intimidating..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that I think about it, most of the books I have read this year have been dystopian or fantasy which has definitely made for a few unsettling dreams. I have really fallen in love with the genre this year, I think for the way anything is possible in a dystopian world and how no explanation is ever needed. So when I heard about Naomi Alderman’s ‘The Power’ I was all over it.

‘The Power’ is a story set in a world where women develop an electric power which allows them to kill men with a single touch. It starts by telling us that it’s ten years before, although before what we are never told. And to be honest I never found out because 3/4 of the way through I officially threw in the towel with this book.The chapters are told from the perspective of different characters – mostly female – and divided into years leading up to whatever the before it. I was hooked at the start of this as the girls begin to realise their powers and use them as revenge against men who have raped them or as a threat to those who might which begins to create a world in which men are afraid of women. It’s a fantastic way to start a dystopian story, however I did think that Alderman could have done a bit more in terms of developing this. She hints at how boys begin to attend separate schools because they fear women but there is some really obvious parallels when it comes to how women are currently intimidated by men which weren’t touched upon.

Once the characters have been introduced ‘The Power’ flicks between their lives to tell us how the world has begun to change. There are (of course) groups dedicated to teaching women how to suppress their power, groups of women who start their own cults/religions which praise the female and men who want to develop the power themselves. It sounds interesting and I wanted to love this so much, but to be frank I found the story boring and none of the characters enjoyable. I think by flicking between so many different people Alderman was unable to really develop a gripping plot and too much time was spent on describing the setting. While I tried to get through it eventually I got to the point where I didn’t care enough to keep reading, so we are putting this down as a DNF.

It goes to show that just because you love a genre you wont love a book. But more importantly if you aren’t enjoying it just close the damn book. There are plenty more fantastic stories out there.