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The Power Hardcover – October 10, 2017

by Naomi Alderman (Author)
Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy
See all formats and editions
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In this stunning bestseller praised as "our era's Handmaid's Tale," a fierce new power has emerged—and only women have it (Washington Post). 

In The Power, the world is a recognizable place: there's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family.

But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets. From award-winning author Naomi Alderman, The Power is speculative fiction at its most ambitious and provocative, at once taking us on a thrilling journey to an alternate reality, and exposing our own world in bold and surprising ways.

"Captivating, fierce, and unsettling...I was riveted by every page. Alderman's prose is immersive and, well, electric." —New York Times Book Review
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  1. Print length
    400 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Little, Brown and Company
  4. Publication date
    October 10, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0316547611
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0316547611
  8. See all details
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  1. Already there are parents telling their boys not to go out alone, not to stray too far.
    Highlighted by 2,166 Kindle readers
  2. Sometimes a bloke is better at that than a woman—less threatening; they’re better at diplomacy.
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  3. There’s a sort of constant ease, as if it’s high summer all the time inside her.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for THE POWER:


"Electrifying! Shocking! Will knock your socks off! Then you'll think twice, about everything."―Margaret Atwood

"Magnificent. I'm agog. I'm several gogs. Smart and scary and sad but true. It's a classic, in the way that it's hard to imagine it ever wasn't there."―Joss Whedon

"Alderman has written our era's Handmaid's Tale, and, like Margaret Atwood's classic, The Power is one of those essential feminist works that terrifies and illuminates, enrages and encourages....This book sparks with such electric satire that you should read it wearing insulated gloves."―Ron Charles, Washington Post

"Narratively complex, philosophically searching, and gorgeously rendered."―Lisa Shea, Elle

"Fierce and unsettling...Through immersive prose and a riveting plot, Alderman explores how power corrupts everyone: those who gain it, and those resisting its loss."―Radhika Jones, New York Times Book Review

"Richly imagined, ambitious, and propulsively written."―Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic

"Alderman's writing is beautiful, and her intelligence seems almost limitless. She also has a pitch-dark sense of humor that she wields perfectly."―Michael Schaub, NPR

"Alderman's tilted dystopia is a smartly layered place of slippery slopes and moral ambiguities, a fitting folktale for strange times."―Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly

"I was riveted by every page. Alderman's prose is immersive and, well, electric, and I felt a closed circuit humming between the book and me as I read."―Amal El-Mohtar, New York Times Book Review

"An instant classic of speculative fiction... Smart, readable and joyously achieved."
―Justine Jordan, Guardian

"Bold and disturbing...it's not just a book of the moment. The Power is a major innovation in the overlapping genres of feminist dystopia/utopia, science fiction, and speculative fiction."―Elaine Showalter, New York Review of Books

"Fans of speculative fiction (see also: Margaret Atwood and Ben Marcus) about empowered youth will be struck by Alderman's speedy and thorough inhabitation of a world just different enough from ours to jolt the imagination. Mothers, lock up your boys."―Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair

"Alderman has the daring and good sense to eschew go-girl uplift in favor of terrifying and complex dystopia."―Boris Kachka, Vulture/ New York Magazine

"A suspenseful thrill ride filled with deep, contrasting female leads on a scaffolding of philosophical questions about how different men and women are at heart....Reminiscent of the work of Alderman's mentor Margaret Atwood, The Power is perfect for book clubs, where readers will undoubtedly debate the finer points of nature versus nurture."―Jaclyn Fulwood, Shelf Awareness

"The Power is stupendous. It's gorgeously written, endlessly exciting, fun, and frightening."
―Ayelet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day

"The Hunger Games crossed with The Handmaid's Tale."
―Cosmopolitan

"What starts out as a fantasy of female empowerment deepens and darkens into an interrogation of power itself, its uses and abuses and what it does to the people who have it... Alderman's breakout work."
―Claire Armitstead, Guardian

"Outstanding... Alderman imagines a world much like ours, with one difference: teenage girls suddenly have the ability to electrocute people. This is the perfect read if you've been itching for something to get you through to season two of The Handmaid's Tale."―Melissa Ragsdale, Bustle

"The Power is at once as streamlined as a 90-minute action film and as weirdly resonant as one of Atwood's own early fictions... Alderman has conducted a brilliant thought experiment in the nature of power itself...Turning the world inside out, she reveals how one of the greatest hallmarks of power is the chance to create a mythology around how that power was used."―John Freeman, Boston Globe

"This is a thriller that terrifies and leaves behind a lingering tingle that's part discomfort and part exhilaration. Easy to read, hard to put down, difficult to forget."―Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

"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

"Please, please, PLEASE read Naomi Alderman's The Power. It'll crack your brain open in all the right ways. Such an important, timely book."
―Literary Death Match

"Audaciously depict[s]...the most extreme results of a movement that seeks rather than interrogates power: That if feminism has become a means for domination, it has lost its way."―Bridget Read, Vogue

"Ingenious....Deserves to be read by every woman (and, for that matter, every man)."
―Francesca Steele, The Times UK

"A page-turning thriller and timely exploration of gender roles, censorship and repressive political regimes, The Power is a must-read for today's times."―Lauren Bufferd, BookPage

"Gripping and disturbing, it pushes the reader -- even the confidently feminist reader -- to question the assumptions underlying many of the mechanisms that drive relationships between women and men."
―Harper's Bazaar UK

"Alderman's storytelling is visceral and brave; you'll stay up all night reading after a thousand deals with the clock that you'll put it down after just a few more pages. Gleeful, intelligent, clever, and unflinching, The Power is the kind of book to keep a person going."―Fiona Zublin, Ozy

"A searing critique of how power is used in a world in which a long-oppressed class can suddenly fight back."―Renay Williams, Barnes & Noble Blog

"By gleefully replacing the protocols of one gender with another, Alderman has created a thrilling narrative stuffed with provocative scenarios and thought experiments. The Power is a blast."

―Suzi Feay, Financial Times UK

"When we say that The Power is profoundly disturbing and you may well want to argue with it as you read, we mean that in a good way."
―SFX, Five Stars

About the Author

Naomi Alderman is the recipient of the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction for The Power. She is also the author of The Liars' Gospel and Disobedience, which won the Orange Prize for New Writers, has been published in ten languages, and has been made into a film by Rachel Weisz.

Alderman was selected for Granta's once-a-decade list of Best of Young British Novelists and was chosen by Margaret Atwood as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. She is the cocreator and lead writer of the bestselling smartphone audio adventure app Zombies, Run! She contributes regularly to The Guardian and presents Science Stories on BBC Radio 4. She lives in London.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; First Edition (October 10, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316547611
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316547611
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
27,291 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book fascinating and engrossing. They also describe the content as thought-provoking and uncomfortable. Readers describe the plot as incredibly interesting. Opinions are mixed on the writing style, with some finding it well-written and complicated, while others say it's confusing and straightforward. Reader opinions also differ on the characters, with others finding them relatable and underdeveloped. Readership also disagrees on the mature content, with those finding it provocative and tragic, while other find the illustrations not good or added much to the book.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more
PlotReadabilityContentGender rolesWriting styleMature contentCharactersPacing
337 customers mention "Plot"253 positive84 negative

Customers find the plot interesting, speculative, and action-packed. They appreciate the novelty of the ideas and the great ending. Readers also mention that the story is truly unusual and at times weird.

"The plot of this book is great and I loved the comment on society but it is also a tough read...." Read more

"...There is this particularly powerful scene in the book where a governmental official realizes during a meeting that she is the most powerful person..." Read more

"I love this work of speculative fiction...." Read more

"The story is interesting because it posits if females would be any less horrible if they had a biological reason that they were "stronger" and more..." Read more

284 customers mention "Readability"280 positive4 negative

Customers find the book engrossing, extraordinary, and wonderful. They also say the first half of the book is wonderful and thought-provoking. Readers also mention that the book has flaws and is not without flaw.

"The Power was really good, and really thought provoking and uncomfortable and made me shamefully pleased and horrified and really mad at once...." Read more

"...It's a great read and made me think differently about the phrase girl power." Read more

"...The characters, be they male or female, are so extraordinary and so very real in their slow realization that there truly is no black or white when..." Read more

"A friend recommended this and I agree with her that it’s a quick and fun read. I love the idea...." Read more

187 customers mention "Content"135 positive52 negative

Customers find the content thought provoking, intelligent, and well written. They also say the novel is a revelation, convincing, and ambitious in its scope. Customers also mention that the plot clips along and there are no tropes or predictable events.

"The Power was really good, and really thought provoking and uncomfortable and made me shamefully pleased and horrified and really mad at once...." Read more

"The plot of this book is great and I loved the comment on society but it is also a tough read...." Read more

"...But to me, it was overall unimaginative and uninspiring...." Read more

"...of science-fiction before and it was strangely liberating and incredibly insightful...." Read more

44 customers mention "Gender roles"37 positive7 negative

Customers find the book fascinating, incredible, and alarmingly realistic about gender roles. They also say it highlights the need for true equality and understanding. Readers also mention the book makes them confront the ugliness of ego when it's attached to power.

"...It was an interesting concept, and I appreciated how it played with gender...." Read more

"...It has action with great relationships and is a great book about the power of women!! Great book to enjoy!" Read more

"...is a bit choppy, and the writing could be better, it's an interesting take on gender roles, power, and corruption of values...." Read more

"...What Alderman does so brilliantly is to avoid exaggerating...." Read more

194 customers mention "Writing style"96 positive98 negative

Customers are mixed about the writing style. Some mention it's well written, believable, and easy to read. Others say it could get confusing at some points because of slight wording issues. The plot is pretty straightforward and not the most creative. Some say it reads like a history book at times and that the author is too lazy to connect the dots. Overall, the book is an entertaining read and hard to put down.

"...Let's break it down:It was good because it was well written and original...." Read more

"...book is great and I loved the comment on society but it is also a tough read...." Read more

"...The book is complicated, but not too much. You must read the beginning, even though it looks like a foreword from the author; it is not...." Read more

"...The author is too lazy to spend 3-5 pages to connect the dots to give you a thread to follow as to how we ended up here; just some vague references..." Read more

99 customers mention "Mature content"45 positive54 negative

Customers are mixed about the mature content. Some find the book provocative, mind-bending, and thought-provoking, while others say it contains graphic descriptions of violence and sexual assault. They also say the book is gruesome, tragic, and depressing.

"...And it's gross and tragic. But some part of me, some part that maybe I didn't want to admit was there, felt so satisfied by that violence...." Read more

"...I have never read this sort of science-fiction before and it was strangely liberating and incredibly insightful...." Read more

"...Lots of violence and SA and at some point I was just trying to finish so it would be over 😅 still recommend though, just go in prepared...." Read more

"...and an absolute joy to read, and, as the cover says, absolutely electrifying." Read more

75 customers mention "Characters"41 positive34 negative

Customers are mixed about the characters. Some find them relatable and news-like, while others say they're underdeveloped and stereotyped.

"...Interesting and cool characters that make you fond of them no matter how weird. Give it a try - nothing to lose!" Read more

"...No matter how much she writes about her, Allie is still a fairly boring character...." Read more

"...As far as book elements go, suspense and plot and character are all very strong. Roxy, Jocelyn, and Tunde’s POVs were the most interesting to me...." Read more

"...I also found that the inflection of the speaker colored the characters in a way I did not experience in print, which if I were Alderman I might be..." Read more

43 customers mention "Pacing"23 positive20 negative

Customers are mixed about the pacing. Some mention the paced is quick, with lots of action and a timely subject. Others say it has a slow start, but then picks up well.

"...from multiple angles as well, and it was a very engaging and fast paced read...." Read more

"...or a rumour of something that the author teases us with but is too lazy to deliver ... instead wasting ink on Allie...." Read more

"...The pace is quick, lots of action. Most of the book is following a set of engaging main characters..." Read more

"The first half of this novel was very choppy. It introduced many characters but then did not return to some of them for 100 pages...." Read more

Holy cow! What a book!!!
5 out of 5 stars
Holy cow! What a book!!!
You’ve got to read this ladies!!! I found the reactions of the male population to be accurate. This book most popular with my share library I keep at work! 😳
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Top reviews from the United States

myra
5.0 out of 5 stars The Power: Powerful, uncomfortable, and Thought-provoking
Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2018
Verified Purchase
The Power was really good, and really thought provoking and uncomfortable and made me shamefully pleased and horrified and really mad at once.

Let's break it down:

It was good because it was well written and original. I loved the interplay between the main text and the correspondence that took place at the beginning and the end of the book. It was thought-provoking in presenting a different idea for consideration and doing so in a way I hadn't seen before. The role reversal between men and women was fascinating and infuriating. I loved all the details and nuances that the author included that I just got because I live them every single day as a woman.

The Power made me uncomfortable in itself and uncomfortable in the things it made me feel. There's some really cruel scenes in here, abuse and assult and rape. And it's gross and tragic. But some part of me, some part that maybe I didn't want to admit was there, felt so satisfied by that violence. Like finally, we are in control. Women don't have to bow to the power of men. Men have to feel the fear and the insecurity and the discomfort of being scared, insecure, unsure for a large majority of seemingly mundane circumstances (like walking alone, walking at night, being approaching by groups of people of the opposite gender, being approached by a single individual of the opposite gender, having to be constantly "protected" and validated by the opposite gender), and part of me loved that and totally rejoiced in imagining a world where I wasn't powerless in the way that I am. But that's awful and really I don't want anyone to feel powerless and fearful because it sucks.

It also made me really mad because it was SO RELATABLE. The dialog between the man and the women at the beginning and the end of the story made me clench my teeth because the power/dominance relationships that it presented in business/work/professional settings was so true and so infuriating. But I don't want to give too much away...

Definitely worth the read!
18 people found this helpful
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Ms. Davis
4.0 out of 5 stars interesting read
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2024
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The plot of this book is great and I loved the comment on society but it is also a tough read. Lots of violence and SA and at some point I was just trying to finish so it would be over 😅 still recommend though, just go in prepared.
One person found this helpful
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LaBouquinisteImpertinente
5.0 out of 5 stars What if women had the power?
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2018
Verified Purchase
This was a timely book to have happened upon during this era of #MeToo. Definitely a one of a kind book. I have never read this sort of science-fiction before and it was strangely liberating and incredibly insightful.

It is amazing how it takes such a simple exercise of role reversal to make you rethink some of the things you've long accepted as "normal".

There is one main character in the book that really shows you the progression of change that is occurring in this fictitious society. He goes from living in a world where he ALWAYS feels safe, to living in a world where he is likely to get violently attacked at any moment (and does). Having that sort of mental exercise put into context the violence that we, as women, have to face on a nearly daily basis. And if we are not directly facing it, we are living in constant fear of violence against us.

The UN recently released a report titled a Global Study on Homicide: Gender-related killing of women and girls. One of the key findings of this study was that of the 87,000 intentionally killed women in 2017, more than half of them (58%) were killed by intimate partners or family members. This study made headlines because it was stated that in the four regions of the world with the highest share of murdered women, the home was the most likely place for a woman to be killed. To put this into context, women and girls account for only 20% of total homicides. And only one out of every five homicides at the global level is perpetuated by an intimate partner or family member. However, women and girls make up the vast majority of those deaths (64%).

The Power gives the reader the opportunity to imagine what the world would look like if women no longer had to fear for their lives. If women no longer had to fear for their lives in their own homes. If women no longer had to fear their significant other or their family members.

There is this particularly powerful scene in the book where a governmental official realizes during a meeting that she is the most powerful person in the room. That if she wanted to she could do anything she wanted to anyone she wanted. The internal discussion she has with herself is incredible because she thinks to herself, "Is this how men have always felt?".

All in all, a great read and highly recommended.

Additionally, I highly recommend checking out these two French films that do a similar mind experiment: Oppressed Majority and I Am Not An Easy Man.
38 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Stomiidae
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro
Reviewed in Mexico on April 4, 2023
Verified Purchase
Este libro es BUENÍSIMO me tuvo enganchada de principio a fin, y me hizo reflexionar mucho acerca de las mujeres, el poder, y el sexismo.
Se lo recomendaría a quien sea que le guste la ciencia ficción, pero más aún si eres mujer y MÁS si eres feminista. Excelente entretenimiento 5/5
One person found this helpful
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Elisabetta
5.0 out of 5 stars Mindblowing
Reviewed in Italy on March 12, 2024
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Can't stop thinking about it. A great book!
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TG
5.0 out of 5 stars Libro súper interesante
Reviewed in Spain on February 28, 2023
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Súper interesante el enfoque que le dan
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Sapphire Bubble
5.0 out of 5 stars An unflinching, dystopian look into the corruption that power brings
Reviewed in India on April 9, 2020
Verified Purchase
It is a fantasy that all women have had. The power to strike down our oppressors, our abusers, the ones who leer at us on the streets, touch us without consent, and grope us at our workplace, in public transport, in clubs. Anywhere and everywhere we go, we are told to keep vigil. To be alert; because maybe we will be safe that way. But we never are. So, when the Day of the Girls come, girls live that fantasy. They strike down their oppressors with all their might, leave them injured and even near death as electricity pumps through their veins. A striated muscle in a female's collarbone, called the skein, is the cause of this power. The power only awakens in girls but they learn to rouse it in women as well. And suddenly, the tables are turned. The women are the ones with the power, and men without.

The book takes us through a journey that we have all dreamt, a world where women will have all the power to resist, to fight, to bruise and to stop those who oppress them and benefit from their misery. A girl who was being sexually assaulted by her adoptive father leaves him lying dead on the floor with his pants around his ankles. Women who were sold into sex slavery, gather their strength and unleash their wrath upon all those who had any hand in it. This is all good, right? Why should they not be allowed to torture those men as they had tortured them? Why should they not have the right to remove them from this Earth, so that they could never do it again?

But it doesn't end there. The book is so well-written and it grips your mind, daring you to look away yet you can't. It makes us question everything we know, and everything that we believe about ourselves. It makes you ask a million questions. Will this really happen if the landscape changes so suddenly? Will all women really become oppressors after being oppressed for centuries? And worse of all, will they all really become abusers when given all that power?

I would like to think not. We would all like to think not. When we fight sexism and patriarchy every day, the fight is for equality, to be treated fairly. But when given the power, will we become the same as those men with their toxic masculinity? We do not know for sure, but Naomi Alderman explores that avenue too well. This book is not for the light-hearted. It is about the possibility of what will happen if women are given power more than men have ever possessed, and what they will do with it. It begs the question, whether those with power always exploit those without.

To say that this book changed me and my perspective would be accurate and yet underrated. It made me question every facet of my being and every ideal that I pride myself upon. I, for one, can't wait to read every other book written by Naomi Alderman and see how she changes my being with them.
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Mtm
5.0 out of 5 stars What if women suddenly weren't afraid of men?
Reviewed in Canada on May 31, 2018
Verified Purchase
Gripping plots and incredibly intelligent details make this impossible to put down! If you're looking for a thought experiment on gender balance, this is the one.
There is the main story, contained within a larger narrative. The main story is us, now, with a power injection. The larger narrative is the future, looking back on this time and trying to make sense of it. Layers of meaning in the text require a thoughtful reader. The overall effect is stunning!
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