Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

57 reviews

muffinmanreal's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

good book, characters somewhat flat and meant to represent a type of reaction to society rather than be full fledged characters, which is pretty common in dystopia and works well here. i personally loved the writing style but if you need everything to be linear and make sense it might not be for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, and Alcohol

jennylarue's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Abortion, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Classism

reddeddy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Murder, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sunny_not's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Incredibly brutal and awful. It was emotionally draining to some extent since it was so heavy. Idk if I will read the second book since this was quite challenging. If the questions that are left in this are answered then I might read it. Overall not a good time dystopia of dystopias kind of vibe. Still very thought provoking and interesting, that's why I gave this a high rating however this is nowhere close to being a light read in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and War

violetsonata93's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

Honnêtement, j’ai vu la série télé en premier. L’idée à la base du roman est vraiment brillante et pousse à la réflexion, mais il y a pas mal de longueurs. Je ne recommanderais pas la traduction que j’ai trouvé boiteuse par endroits, je regrette de ne pas avoir commencé directement par lire la version originale. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Torture, Abortion, Murder, and Alcohol

q17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Acephobia/Arophobia, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

definitely a slow burn but i liked the way it built tension somewhat exponentially with the narrator at the center of three mini rebellions—

seeing the Commander, defecting with Ofglen and Mayday, and conspiring with Serena Joy and Nick

—but in the end it didn't really amount to all that much. i love the inclusion of the "Historical Notes," they're terrible and perfect.
it's definitely white feminism, with racism in this religious-extremist totalitarian regime only mentioned once, in passing, at the very end. compared to another modern classic published just two years later, Beloved, it's kind of embarrassing.
cover design review: ★★★★☆. instant one-star deduction for having author's name larger than the title (sorry Margaret Atwood), and this is especially egregious; the title is relatively tiny. we all know minimalism has become excessive but i really like this one. the centering of the title is very satisfying, with approximately equal overhang of "HANDMAID'S" on either side of the dress. and the best part, get ready for your mind to be blown: see that dot in front of the Handmaid's head? it's the eye of a face in profile looking to the left hidden in the negative space. genius

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, 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, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

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

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

Moderate: Lesbophobia and Alcohol

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

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

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