Get Your Free Audiobook
-
The Power
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, Naomi Alderman, Thomas Judd, Emma Fenney, Phil Nightingale
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense
People who bought this also bought...
-
Invisible Women
- Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
- Written by: Caroline Criado Perez
- Narrated by: Caroline Criado Perez
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her new audiobook, Invisible Women, award-winning campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. She exposes the gender data gap - a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.
-
-
Phenomenal book on Gender data gap
- By Terene on 06-02-21
-
Girl, Woman, Other
- Written by: Bernardine Evaristo
- Narrated by: Anna-Maria Nabirye
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Girl, Woman, Other, written by Bernardine Evaristo, read by Anna-Maria Nabirye. Teeming with life and crackling with energy, told through many distinctive voices, this novel follows the lives of 12 very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.
-
-
overrated but easy listen
- By Solanki on 05-12-19
-
The Color Purple
- Written by: Alice Walker
- Narrated by: Alice Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by society and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate, and while Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante, married off to an older suitor, and sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband. In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters to God. The letters, spanning 20 years, record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment guided by the light of a few strong women.
-
-
Its like a soft breeze of wind
- By jyoti on 09-03-20
-
Americanah
- Written by: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As teenagers, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love in a Nigeria under military dictatorship. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America, where Obinze hopes to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?
-
-
Multi-faceted brilliance.
- By rohan parikh on 02-06-20
-
Half of a Yellow Sun
- Written by: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Zainab Jah
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. And Richard, a shy English writer, is in thrall to Olanna's enigmatic twin sister. As the horrific Biafran War engulfs them, they are thrown together and pulled apart in ways they had never imagined.
-
-
Very well written, brilliantly narrated
- By Amazon Customer on 20-02-21
-
Agent Running in the Field
- Written by: John le Carré
- Narrated by: John le Carré
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nat, a 47-year-old veteran of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.
-
-
Tiresome and boring
- By Srinath on 19-05-20
-
Invisible Women
- Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
- Written by: Caroline Criado Perez
- Narrated by: Caroline Criado Perez
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her new audiobook, Invisible Women, award-winning campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. She exposes the gender data gap - a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.
-
-
Phenomenal book on Gender data gap
- By Terene on 06-02-21
-
Girl, Woman, Other
- Written by: Bernardine Evaristo
- Narrated by: Anna-Maria Nabirye
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Girl, Woman, Other, written by Bernardine Evaristo, read by Anna-Maria Nabirye. Teeming with life and crackling with energy, told through many distinctive voices, this novel follows the lives of 12 very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.
-
-
overrated but easy listen
- By Solanki on 05-12-19
-
The Color Purple
- Written by: Alice Walker
- Narrated by: Alice Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by society and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate, and while Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante, married off to an older suitor, and sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband. In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters to God. The letters, spanning 20 years, record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment guided by the light of a few strong women.
-
-
Its like a soft breeze of wind
- By jyoti on 09-03-20
-
Americanah
- Written by: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As teenagers, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love in a Nigeria under military dictatorship. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America, where Obinze hopes to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?
-
-
Multi-faceted brilliance.
- By rohan parikh on 02-06-20
-
Half of a Yellow Sun
- Written by: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Zainab Jah
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. And Richard, a shy English writer, is in thrall to Olanna's enigmatic twin sister. As the horrific Biafran War engulfs them, they are thrown together and pulled apart in ways they had never imagined.
-
-
Very well written, brilliantly narrated
- By Amazon Customer on 20-02-21
-
Agent Running in the Field
- Written by: John le Carré
- Narrated by: John le Carré
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nat, a 47-year-old veteran of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.
-
-
Tiresome and boring
- By Srinath on 19-05-20
-
The Lying Life of Adults
- Written by: Elena Ferrante, Ann Goldstein - translator
- Narrated by: Marisa Tomei
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Giovanna’s pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, is looking more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Will she turn out like her despised Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father have spent their whole lives avoiding and deriding? There must be a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is.
-
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
- Written by: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our brains stay active for 10 minutes after our heart stops beating. For Leila, each minute brings with it a new memory: growing up with her father and his wives in a grand old house in a quiet Turkish town; watching the women gossip and wax their legs while the men went to mosque; sneaking cigarettes and Western magazines on her way home from school; running away to Istanbul to escape an unwelcome marriage; falling in love with a student who seeks shelter from a riot in the brothel where she works.
-
-
Simply unbelievable !! What a wonderful experience
- By Amazon Customer on 30-07-19
-
The Handmaid's Tale
- Written by: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Moss, Bradley Whitford, Amy Landecker,
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of 21st-century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit and astute perception.
-
-
Elizabeth Moss's voice is too sinister
- By Kirti on 01-02-20
-
Between the World and Me
- Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race”, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of Black women and men - bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a Black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son.
-
-
A powerful tour de force.
- By Adi L Narayan on 07-02-21
-
Caste
- The Lies That Divide Us
- Written by: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond race or class, our lives are defined by a powerful, unspoken system of divisions. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson gives an astounding portrait of this hidden phenomenon. Linking America, India and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson reveals how our world has been shaped by caste - and how its rigid, arbitrary hierarchies still divide us today. With clear-sighted rigour, Wilkerson unearths the eight pillars that connect caste systems across civilisations and demonstrates how our own era of intensifying conflict and upheaval has arisen as a consequence of caste.
-
-
‘Introduction to racism in America’
- By Chii on 06-11-20
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- A BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation
- Written by: Maya Angelou
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, Cecilia Noble, full cast,
- Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abandoned by their parents, Maya and her older brother, Bailey, are sent to live with their grandmother and uncle in the small Southern town of Stamps in Arkansas. Struggling with rejection, they endure the prejudice of their white neighbours and suffer several racist incidents. One day, their father unexpectedly returns and takes the children to live with their mother in St Louis, Missouri. Aged only eight, Maya is abused by her mother's boyfriend, an experience that haunts her for a lifetime.
-
-
beautifully narrated
- By Jen on 24-02-21
-
The Discomfort of Evening
- Written by: Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
- Narrated by: Genevieve Gaunt
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ten-year-old Jas has a unique way of experiencing her universe: the feeling of udder ointment on her skin as protection against harsh winters; the texture of green warts, like capers, on migrating toads; the sound of 'blush words' that aren't in the Bible. But when a tragic accident ruptures the family, her curiosity warps into a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies - unlocking a darkness that threatens to derail them all.
-
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
- The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
- Written by: Shoshana Zuboff
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is neither a hand-wringing narrative of danger and decline nor a digital fairy tale. Rather, it offers a deeply reasoned and evocative examination of the contests over the next chapter of capitalism that will decide the meaning of information civilization in the 21st century. The stark issue at hand is whether we will be the masters of information and machines or its slaves.
-
-
Great read
- By Sundar on 02-03-21
-
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
- Dark Star Trilogy, Book 1
- Written by: Marlon James
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 24 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter - and he always works alone. But when he is engaged to find a child who disappeared three years ago, he must break his own rules, joining a group of eight very different mercenaries working together to find the boy. Following the lost boy's scent from one ancient city to another, into dense forests and across deep rivers, Tracker starts to wonder: who is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And, most important of all, who is telling the truth and who is lying?
-
Apeirogon
- Written by: Colum McCann
- Narrated by: Colum McCann
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin live near one another - yet they exist worlds apart. Rami is Israeli. Bassam is Palestinian. Both men have lost their daughters. Rami’s 13-year-old girl, Smadar, was killed by a suicide bomber while out shopping with her friends. Bassam’s 10-year-old daughter, Abir, was shot and killed by a member of the border police outside her school. There was a candy bracelet in her pocket she hadn’t had time to eat yet. The men become the best of friends.
-
-
an usual subject...worth reading.
- By Vishnu Krishna on 15-08-20
-
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line
- Written by: Deepa Anappara
- Narrated by: Indira Varma, Himesh Patel, Antonio Aakeel
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a boy at school goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from episodes of Police Patrol to find him. With Pari and Faiz by his side, Jai ventures into some of the most dangerous parts of the sprawling Indian city, the bazaar at night, and even the railway station at the end of the Purple Line. But kids continue to vanish, and the trio must confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force and soul-snatching djinns in order to uncover the truth.
-
-
First half dragged, climax over too soon
- By Pragya Singhal on 13-09-20
-
Normal People
- Written by: Sally Rooney
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years. This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person's life - a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us - blazingly - about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege.
-
-
I suffered through this
- By Amazon Customer on 28-10-20
Publisher's Summary
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?
Critic Reviews
" 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)
More from the same
What listeners say about The Power
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tim
- 09-01-18
Entertaining story, nice structure, perfect performance
Story flows easily and in an addictive way despite a series of characters (and perspectives) that never meet. Performance is perfect. The different characters come to life, adding richness to the story
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Clarien Luttig
- 27-12-20
A thought-provoking read
The Power weaves a compelling narrative from the perspectives of a few characters whose stories we follow. In the process, it raises insightful questions about gender and society.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- NurseLisa
- 06-09-20
What did I just listen too?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I can’t decide if this is a feminist masterpiece or a complete train wreck in the way it depicts women’s rise to power in a new world. What would we do if we held that kind of power over men? I’d like to think the world would be more rational but I doubt that would be the case.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 06-10-19
WOW
This story was amazing and the performance completely gripping. Thoroughly enjoyed it, didn't notice the time at all!
-
Overall
- Zaira
- 02-11-18
Mind Blown!
This book really blew my mind and left me feeling emotionally charged at the end. Not just the story but the letters exchanged between Neil and Naomi - really had an impact. The fact that this book was actually written by a man makes it even more interesting! There were parts of this book that were down right gruesome and soo hard to digest - let alone imagine! I wanted to look away but couldn't "move on" with the story without reading every word! This really makes you re-think the way the world works today.. the cruelties, the injustice, the compassion, the peace - we all, male or female, have the power to change things that happen in this world today. Question is do we really want things to change and if so, what do we want the future to look like?
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Raine
- 29-12-16
Visceral, Stirring and Inspirational
Would you consider the audio edition of The Power to be better than the print version?
I only listened to the audio version.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Power?
There were so many moments, but overall the finding of the 'power', as told by several different perspectives, was so intense and made you think so much. It made me reflect on so many issues in my daily life I never would have reflected on otherwise.
Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favourite?
I loved Ally. Her journey and how she changed over the course of the books, leading up to her final realisations of what she had become were incredibly moving and thought-provoking.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Absolutely!
Any additional comments?
The narration was the best I've ever heard on an audiobook. Wonderful.
18 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S. J. Veal
- 22-02-19
Oh, I really am not sure I can make it to the end....
So, I don’t like being negative about any literature generally... and even shy away from reviews unless the whole experience is one I would recommend.. but this is really grating on me now, I am about 2/3 of the way through and unlike pretty much every one of my audio previous books ( of which would number in the hundreds), I don’t think I can make it all the way through. The narrator is good most of the time and her “normal” voice is sufficiently husky (filthy) and likeable (sexy) to narrate well, however the Russian and Nigerian accents do start to struggle at times to the degree I find myself thinking about skipping forwards to avoid them (but stugglingly haven’t so far), regardless of missing any plot twists (although there don’t seem to be any evidence there will be an clever sub plots at play as it’s a very linear book) and I can’t recommend it as the plot is paper thin and based on so much drivel I am getting a refund as quickly as possible.
Spoiler alert!!!!! Don’t read on less you want to hear further book details.
Omg! It’s like all the wimmin in this book go feral, packs of them roaming the countryside gathering up harvesting blokes to use as sex slaves, raping and knuckle bumping each other, killing children! Just so unbelievable...drives me nuts listening to this tosh! It’s like being able to have “the power” makes you superhuman, but where are the military ? It’s almost as if the author forgot that guns would still exist, it’s just so far fetched story most of the time I am biting my knuckles not to shout into the air that they are “F****** idiots”.
Please look worse where for you entertainment..
28 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lisa
- 12-01-17
Great narration and engaging story
Please get Adjoa Andoh to narrate all of the books on audible. Her narration is engaging beyond belief, and she inhabits each character uniquely. With regards to the story itself, I very much enjoyed the idea of turning the genre structure of our current society inside out with the help of a novel within a novel set 1000s of years in the future. Looking forward to more from Naomi Alderman.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Maya Connell
- 09-01-17
Okay, yes, oddly stared...
So... I really enjoyed this, but as a whole piece! There were certainly sections that frustrated me, or I did not understand why they were integral to the whole arc of the story- even if they might be interesting . Some of the actors voices also drove me a little mad but overall and for the 'main' characters I found her enjoyable to listen too. As a whole story, as a comment on society and a almost parallel universe idea it was sound and extremely enjoyable. This book did leave me thinking about the world differently which is what all good books should do.
Highly recommend!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jo
- 18-12-16
Reeling from the power of this book.
I may become a bit evangelical in my wish to share this book... It is astonishingly good. This book makes me feel invincible. (Hope I remember soon that I don't, in fact, have The Power so I'm not!)
Can't say too much in case of spoilers, but it's so clever and thought-provoking and engaging, it's hard to 'put down'. It is blunt in places - the reversal of women using rape as an instrument of war, for example - but some bits so subtle it's almost painful to realise how immune we are to incipient sexism until we hear it reversed in this way. The conversation between the two authors at the opening and closing of the book is a superb illustration, and the final line just says it all.
Honourable mention should go to the narrator who is *phenomenal*. Great dramatic performance AND she's very good at the many different international and regional accents, which is often such an irritation.
Can't praise it highly (or articulately) enough.
46 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Asper
- 26-01-17
Awesome, in the true sense of the word
Would you listen to The Power again? Why?
Yes. The story is both compelling and well written, and the Adjoa Andoh is easily one of the best narrators I've heard.
What did you like best about this story?
The tenacity of the plot; prologue and epilogue serve as a heady contrast to the main body of the work, especially in audiobook format.
Which scene did you most enjoy?
It's difficult to say without spoling the plot. There are so many viewpoints and reflections of our patriarchal society, it really is something to listen to. This book would be an excellent read for teenagers of both sexes.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Easily.
Any additional comments?
Alderman takes a subject currently under much discussion - that of whether gender is innate, or even an undeniable factor in how people are in themselves, and how they treat each other; or if we are all people, some of the female sex and some of the male, all capable of the same highs and lows.
I am so very glad this book didn't trek down the well travelled road of females being more nurturing, more caring; that a matriarchal society would be inherently better. After all, the sex of ones brain is not biologically discrete from the rest of ones body; and although society likes to think so, men and women are only physically different. The most compelling thing, for me, were the many moments of 'what if' triggered whilst listening to this.
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Mrs Charlotte Gaeta
- 22-02-17
Brilliant!
This is a must read for anyone who cares about relationships, human rights and everything in between. What starts off as a fantastic twist of fate which finally sets women on the path to the potential for proper equality gently and systematically turns the tables and shows how the gaining of power can corrupt. A morality tale for the 21st century, highlighting where inequality is still riff in the world and pondering whether if women ruled the world it would be any better? It's also an incredibly brilliant read!
24 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- blewp1977
- 17-02-17
a clever and provocative narrative
This was an absolute find. Thought-provoking and compelling, I could have listened to this in one sitting.
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Barry
- 23-07-18
Not the messiah, a very naughty trope.
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.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kaggy
- 24-10-17
A thriller to make you think
My head is still buzzing several days after finishing this story and I don't think I have ever read something that horrified and inspired me quite as much as this. Naomi Alderton has a fresh and insightful voice and the ability to write a thrilling and captivating tale to really make you think about power and its abuse, both in an imagined future and the real world we live in today. The narration of this audiobook is first class but a special mention has to be made of Adjoa Andoh who is one of the best narrators around.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 16-08-18
Fantastic thought experiment!
Great book, very simple concept well executed. The book takes a simple and obvious concept; that the physical power and strength men have that allows them to dominate women is the reason they have dominated governments, militaries and religion through the ages. It then imagines a future where women have the power to hurt and dominate men in the same way and how that would transform society. This future is not a feminist ideal of equality and peace but rather a dystopia of inequality and violence between the genders which is horrifying for its cruelty and injustice but much more viscerally for the way it holds up a mirror to the horrors of our current world.
Oh and the voice performances on the audiobook are entertaining and energetic.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jac Dircks
- 28-03-18
Great concept but lacked depth
Some great passages, and a great exploration of the concept. Would love to hear what happened next. Some chapters were a little tacky or too dramatic, particularly conversations.
The big downer was the accents - they were pretty bad and detracted from storyline.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hilary
- 21-09-17
Next Big Thing
I loved this book. Genuinely gutted when it ended. The characters were fascinating, the premise was well thought through, the story was performed with flair and drama. It felt more like a play than an audio book. Totally recommend.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 24-12-18
Remarkable
A most remarkable and insightful exploration of power, gender, and what it might mean to be human. The intersection between writen history and gender is explored, in terms of its limiting effects. This is a marvelous book, and every woman and man should read it!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 18-09-18
Just couldn't get into it...
I wanted to like this book but I just couldn't quite get into it. The concept was great but the story itself was kind of average. Personally, the narrator is what killed this book for me in the end; she was more like a newsreader not a story teller.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MISS
- 01-06-20
Interesting Concept re a change of Power
I liked the concept of the book, and a great way of looking at the idea of 'if women suddenly become more powerful than men' seen through the eyes of gender and race.
Great narration, felt more like a radio play at times.
Explores inequality through the concept of power.
I initially struggled to engage with the book, as it was hard to dip in and out of, I then started to listen on a long car trip and found it most enjoyable.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 13-05-19
promising and interesting but it waned
I was hooked for the first third, maybe half, but then it lost me. The 'power' is a great fictional device for inverting gender based inequalities for both serious and humorous effect.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- simon
- 15-03-19
Fzzzt.
A great concept but the execution is woeful. The accents of the narrator are terrible - Southern American, African and Russian. Just read the story please. The ending is messy and rushed. The post script goes on far too long. The whole thing needed to be thought out better.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sarah
- 05-03-19
Narration produced a gag reflex
Great concept and reasonably well executed. I felt that the main story sort of just petered out in the end.
But I reserve my main criticism for the woeful job done on the narration: frequently overwrought, at times verging on hysterical, it was as though the narrator thought it was all about her and her (very mediocre) acting skills rather than the story itself. And the accents - particularly the Russian/ Moldovan accents- were nothing short of appalling.
In all, the narration really distracted and detracted from the story itself, a great shame as the story was really rather interesting.
my recommendation: Read it, but avoid the audiobook.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Bird
- 28-08-17
Great story
Nice job of turning gender bias and inequality on it's head. Captivating storyline and well narrated. I'd recommend this to anyone.
7 people found this helpful