The Power was an interesting read and whilst I enjoyed it, it didn't particularly blow me away. It felt like there was a little spark missing throughout the whole book.
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For those that don't know, The Power is a novel within a novel, where a man recounts an imagined history where women take over the world. Within this imagined history the story flits between a variety of characters, mostly women who tell their story in several parts over time. These women tell the story of how their lives changed as they and women across the globe developed the ability to give electrical jolts from their fingers. In gaining this power we see how women were able to protect themselves from the abuse and dominance of men. Women rose to power and in some cases became matriarchal societies.
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The book was incredibly clever as it entirely flipped on its head the concept of violence against women and showed it as violence against men. Alderman showed how the power became abused as women turned violent, abusing and killing men because they had the power. It was a clever critique of the patriarchal structures and power that men hold today, which enables them to abuse and kill women.
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Alderman also made some interesting attempts to consider gender fluidity and identity as some men developed skeins, which gave them the ability to shock people too. I think Alderman could definitely have explored her concepts of gender and gender structures further here and it would have been interesting to see more of this.
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Overall I think the book had a lot of clever themes and ideas, but there was just a spark of something missing that meant I didn't totally fall in love with this book.

Reading Women Challenge Prompt 5: Women's Prize for Fiction Winner