Alderman is no stranger to writing success and it seems her novel The Power is no exception. Winning Baileys, Women’s prize for fiction award 2017, this novel has been leaping off the shelves of every major book store in the nation.

Based in a futuristic world, to our own but a historical in the larger context of the novel, where the balance of power lies in the hands of women, both literally and figuratively. The novel follows the lives of three people. Roxy, the street wise only daughter of a powerful gangster. Margot, an American public figure who struggles to protect her vulnerable daughter. Allie, a troubled foster child who is trying to find her place in the world by using religion. Tunde, an ambitious journalist who both praises and fears the new delegation of power in the world. The lives of all four protagonists are entwined through lies, faith and love. And as more women begin to harness the power, social norms begin to unravel in protests and the use of violence against women begins to make men fearful of their fall from superiority.

It’s an ambitious novel and at times the plot struggles with the weight of such large ideas. The storylines can seem far-fetched and although I enjoy employing grand schemes in dystopian fiction, in this novel they seemed unrealistic. However, Alderman’s strong narrative voices and beautiful descriptive language made up for this weakness.

Another aspect of the novel which left me struggling to keep immersion was the characterisation of some of the protagonists. Most notably Roxy and Allie. Roxy’s personality became almost a caricature based on a cockney mastermind, that felt quite hollow and I struggled to empathise with. In contrast, Allie’s character became a comical fusion of martyrdom and cult leader which, when originating from a teenage girl who murdered who abusive foster father less than a week ago, seems odd.

The strength of this novel really emanates from the interesting relationship between power and violence that it explores. It takes a magnifying glass to gendered language which although deemed subtle in modern gender issues, when abused by women in the novel becomes quite horrifyingly obvious. It draws attention to the current issues women face in the world and suggests this may be a correlation to power. Whether some of the women in Alderman’s novel become violent against men because of the power they develop or become violent because they have been abused by power in the past, is never quite answered.