"Can power only corrupt?"

"It doesn’t matter that she shouldn’t, that she never would.

 What matters is that she could, if she wanted."

Man, oh man. Where to start with this one? Naomi Alderman’s “The Power” is certainly a force to be reckoned with. It has definitely left a mark on me as a reader that I doubt will leave me until a long time goes by.

The storyline explores a dystopian world that starts off being a reality much like our current one. However, as we continue our reading, the History takes a shocking turn. All of a sudden, women around the world begin developing electric powers. That’s right: they start producing electricity. And, using it...

Now, you may think: this literally has only two ways it could possibly go: either really, really well or really, really badly. Non-spoiler alert: it goes really badly from the very beginning, but you don’t even know the depth of what “bad” can mean until you finish reading.

The book explores the idea of how power can corrupt a soul, being constantly reminded that this new-found source of strength raises the possibility that it isn’t a question of whether you need or don’t need to do something, it’s about whether you CAN do it if you wanted to.

The book has been described as a feminist science-fiction novel, but I must say the way women are depicted in this story didn’t make me feel empowered at all. Quite contrary, it made me feel like the message was the opposite: if women were given the chance to avenge their sisterhood throughout History, the viciousness of this vendetta would be unimaginably horrendous.

And, to me, creating the image of a ruthless, blood-thirsty sisterhood isn’t empowering. It’s brutalising.

Reading the novel, I felt nauseated by half of the scenes. The author’s capability to create impactful images is absolutely astounding, but most of these are so gruesome that I’d much rather she had just left the reader to infer them.

Both the character and the setting's creation and evolution throughout the story must be praised because the usage of both and their masterful development must be reckoned.

However, personally, I wouldn’t recommend reading this novel unless you’re very interested in the exploration of “feminism” in contemporary fiction.

The book was extremely explicit in all possible ways (I want to emphasize trigger warnings for issues such as rape, mutiliation and extreme violence: all depicted very graphically) and I strongly felt against the message the characters and storyline conveyed.

The writing was wonderful and the storyline was gripping, but the scenes were insanely crude on all levels. If I'd been told how many triggering scenes and issues this book tackled, I probably wouldn't have read it in the first place. Be warned.

My Spanish version of Naomi Alderman's "The Power" is the 2018 Roca Editorial Edition.