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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Different tone from Atwood's previous works, which I'm not sure I was sold on 100% (hence the 4-star review). But I was sold on it like 95%. I love her writing, always.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An interesting novel with an equally interesting premise. Saw some, but not all, of the twists coming. A good number of characters that meant there were a lot of variables, but they were all still memorable. As always, Atwood’s writing was well done.
NB: my rating may be skewed by how long it took me to finish the novel.
NB: my rating may be skewed by how long it took me to finish the novel.
I'm a big Margaret Atwood fan, but this was a strange, strange book. It started with a rather simple near-future dystopian premise: to gain economic security in a major depression/recession, people join a gated community with full employment. The catch: each resident must spend alternate months in prison. It starts out as a pretty transparent fable about people's willingness to trade freedom for security, but then spins off into a bizarro psychosexual take involving role play, dominatrix, fetishists, robotic Elvis sex toys and lobotomies sex slaves. Still, the plot is strangely compelling. The biggest problem, to my mind, was the main characters: Stan and Charmaine. The book is from their point of view, but they both seem to be vapid stereotypes with little depth or complexity. Maybe I missed something, but it just didn't work for me.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Didn't care about any of the characters, so I only finished this out of curiosity.
One of the things I always liked about the Handmaids Tale is that you find out very little about how Gilead came about and what the rest of the world is like and I think it was better for it. As soon as you try to give more detail, like in this book, I just start wondering about what else is going on and critiquing details that don't work for me (Elvis, really? Why?)
One of the things I always liked about the Handmaids Tale is that you find out very little about how Gilead came about and what the rest of the world is like and I think it was better for it. As soon as you try to give more detail, like in this book, I just start wondering about what else is going on and critiquing details that don't work for me (Elvis, really? Why?)
I liked some parts of this economic-apocalypse, but there was lots of twisted power/sex dynamics and psychological weirdness.
I liked the bio-apocalypse trilogy (Oryx & Krake, ...) much more.
I liked the bio-apocalypse trilogy (Oryx & Krake, ...) much more.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is an excellent story with wonderful character development. The portrayal of private prisons is especially intriguing to me and I can imagine a future wherein features described by Atwood could indeed come true.
adventurous
mysterious