Monday, July 2, 2018

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood ~ Review

Title: The Handmaid's Tale
Author: Margaret Atwood
Genre: Adult, Dystopia
Length: 311 pages
Publisher: Anchor Books
Release Date: March 16, 1985
Source: Purchased
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now...


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I read this book a long time ago. With the recent rise of making mini-series for books on NetFlix, Hulu, and prime cable channels, book club selected it so they could read it before watching (at least most of them did). I loved having a chance to pick this incredible story up again. The TV show was quite different the further I got into it. It was a great way of highlighting things that I “liked” better or worse between the two and opened a whole new conversation about the events as well.

Most of you will know the basics of the story – a dystopian somewhat futuristic society that has reverted to extreme religious views (of a sort) and certain class of young fertile women are related to basically be breeding stock for the military higher-ups and the elite. Not a very pleasant situation.


I think what I enjoyed most about the book was the ending – so I won’t say too much other than it surprised me. It’s quite open-ended, which I usually don’t like. But in this case, it just seemed to fit. I highly recommend this book – and it seems to be a quite fitting read in our current political climate as well.

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