Now a Hulu Original SeriesThe Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive … beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men in its population.
The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid’s Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and a tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best.
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The absence of quotation marks when she’s telling rather than talking to another character makes it slightly confusing to read. I know this is because she’s telling the story but if even the words are were italicized it would have made it distinct.
The made up words/terminology are a bit distracting. The ending was kind of a let down and seems …
I couldn’t put this book down. It raises so many questions about humanity and all the possible places we could end up as a society. But it’s so easy to get invested in the characters too. I literally couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, right up the very last sentence. What an ending!!!!
This is a book i have ready many times and really liked it!
Best story and series ever
It took most of the book to figure out what it was about. Even then there wasn’t much to it. I could go on but it isn’t worth the time.
Despite the content, every word was amazingly well crafted. This was the kind of book you think about after it is done.
The lack of ending ruined the book for me.
Fascinating, but dark and foreboding. Dystopian world where women’s roles are very limited.
I had never read any of Ms. Atwood’s works before this and was very happy that the book lived up to all the hype surrounding it. At first, I found it difficult to read as her style is unique, but once adjusted the book flowed extremely well.
The plot is great. Characters are wonderful. The world-building rivals 1984 in respect to the control …
A book that sends chills up your spine. Hopefully unrealistic story that has you believing it really happened.
Great book
How depressed and creeped out do you want to be? Brilliantly realized but not bed time reading.
I first read this book when it came out, and it stuck with me forever. Now that I’m caught up with the Hulu series, I revisited the novel to see how the TV series diverged from the book as well as to prep for The Testaments. Pretending I didn’t know the basics of the story, I marveled at how little information Atwood doled out at a time. Despite …
This is not an easy book to get through. I have recommended this to several people and not one of those individuals liked it as much as I do. And now the problem is that there is a series that people like and then they try to read the book and it’s just not going to happen. The book is slower than the show and sometimes there is very little …
This book was scary! With politics the way they are, both on the local and international level, I could actually see something like this happening. The horror of this story, reads like what you would expect would happen in a sex slave trafficking ring. But even more than that, the way women are backed again as second class citizens, I could …
It’s scary to think that something like this could really happen.
Thought provoking tale about things that could actually happen
In this book, we are taken into a world where men have completely taken away all the rights of women. I am somewhat of a feminist, and it was interesting to read about life like the ones of the female characters.
The strength of the main character, June, was extremely inspiring.
Thought provoking
I first read this book when I was about 15 years old. At that time I did not understand it at all. I guess I was to immature to understand the nature and importance of a book like “The handmaid’s Tale”. I read it again in my late 20’s and loved it and I think its important book for our times as well ( although it was first published in the 80’s). …