Too Long; Didn't Read

"Teddy Cannon is a really dumb name." That's my first note on K.C. Archer's School for Psychics . I know, it's not the wittiest or most astute observation, but it would prove to be the narrative thread of the next 368 pages. Of all the issues I had with this book, the most egregious isn't even Archer's fault--it's that of the blasphemer who had the audacity to refer to this as "Harry Potter, but for psychics" in the book description. Then again, that was enough to get me to invest hours of my life, so who's the real fool here? School for Psychics centers on Teddy, a 24 year old millennial stereotype and orphan (√) with a penchant for "timely" references, geriatric idioms, and cringe worthy gambling metaphors. Teddy, who dropped out of Stanford and has trouble with authority (√√) is on the run from a Russian loan shark to whom she owes $270,000 of her adoptive parents' money. Just when she's made peace with her c...

On the surface, Naomi Alderman's The Power is a difficult book to explain. You start off by dipping your toe into pseudo-YA plot synopsis of how one day teenage girls suddenly had the ability to electrocute people with their hands, and before you know it, you're shoulder-deep into a metaphor pool, swimming with religious allegories and jumping off the "feminist doesn't mean better" high dive. It's not an easy book to pin down, and I can't think of higher praise for it--it makes you work for it, not have it spoon-fed to you. Canst thou direct the lightning bolts? Or do they say to thee, 'Here we are'? The Power is the alternate history story of a world where women quite swiftly and decisively cease to be the "weaker sex." Whether through an inevitable evolutionary step, the awakening of something that always was, or conspiracy theory water laced with post-war chemicals, the inexplicable shift changes everything. We get a peek i...