Lindsay Gloade-Raining Bird

I really really wanted to love this book. Naomi Alderman had a winning pitch with the exploration of what would happen if teen girls all over the world could suddenly channel an electric force, and awaken that power in older women as well. Just writing that I’m like YAS QUEEN, but the book itself never fully realizes its potential nor does it ever feel half as engrossing as it should.

Framed as a book proposal sent in the reimagined future from a male researcher to his female critic friend, and told through 4 perspectives—a British gangster’s daughter Roxy, a mixed-race prophet Allie, a male Nigerian journalist Tunde, and an ambitious senator Margot—The Power never really delves too deeply into any character and generally spends too much time meandering yet somehow still progressing the plot in ways that seem stereotypical and unlikely.

Had this been marketed as a YA novel I wouldn’t have been nearly as disappointed. The idea was ambitious but a bit reaching in execution and far too hyped up for what it actually delivered. Still, apocalypse fiction is such a draw for me, I did enjoy the read despite its flaws.