Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

111 reviews

allym's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pregnancy, Misogyny, and Infidelity

darbo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I’ll be fully honest, I needed my girlfriend to explain some things to me as we buddy-read this. It was, at times, hard for me to understand and follow what was going on - especially so in some night chapters - but in the end I managed to get the full picture of it and I ended up really enjoying this. It’s a very well written dystopian novel that follows our main character, Offred, through her daily life and thoughts as she goes along, through what can only be described as tyranny. I thoroughly enjoyed this, with the exception of one particular chapter - although relevant to story. I highly recommend this to any dystopia fans out there, and I personally am looking forward to reading its sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny

Moderate: Police brutality, Pregnancy, Death, Sexual assault, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Grief, Miscarriage, and War

lily1304's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No

4.0

Rereading made me wonder if Atwood studied totalitarian regimes before writing this, or not. I like to think that there would be more solidarity between women than what's portrayed, but I'm not sure.

It's interesting that the narrator seems to downplay the racist aspects of Gilead - we learn more about that from the epilogue than the narrator. I only saw a few episodes of the Amazon TV series, but half the reason I watched it was for Samira Wiley as Moira. I guess there's a trade-off - if Amazon wanted a racially diverse cast, they had to ignore the way that racism and sexism are intertwined, & would have to be intertwined in an American regime like Gilead. But Amazon didn't seem to care that much about fidelity to the novel anyway.

I also noticed more the way the narrator's mother is sort of complicit with the coup leading to Gilead. Her mother is a feminist but shares some of the same broad goals as Gilead - pornography is evil, women shouldn't be sexualized, every child should be a wanted child, women should be free from sexual harassment. The scene where

the narrator's mother takes her to burn books and pornography with a protest crowd

struck me in particular.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Antisemitism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Animal death, Miscarriage, and War

rory_john14's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Biphobia, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Infertility, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Moderate: Lesbophobia and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent, Racism, War, Child death, and Murder

rettasbookshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Torture, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Infertility, Gun violence, Grief, Death, and Alcohol

0l1v1a's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Rape, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Infidelity, Infertility, and Emotional abuse

evilyn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Obviously there are so many layers but if you haven't reread or read this after 2020 I would strongly recommend it because it's a very different perspective. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, War, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Rape, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Murder, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Infertility, Homophobia, Grief, Genocide, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Death, Colonisation, Antisemitism, Ableism, Abandonment, and Abortion

chiara_dose's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Infertility, Pregnancy, Torture, and Violence

aliceloyallaleon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and War

greendorito's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Infertility, Infidelity, Confinement, Pregnancy, and Sexism