Reviews - The Handmaid's Tale

41.5k reviews for:

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

4.18 AVERAGE

ava_formaini's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

inpagesimlost's review against another edition

5.0

Find it on my blog https://victoriasshelves.wixsite.com/blog/post/the-handmaid-s-tale-and-the-alabama-abortion-plan

A couple of days ago, I started reading the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Unfortunately it coincided with the Alabama Abortion Ban.

For those of who haven;t read this book, it would be better if you stop reading now as I will be including a few spoilers from the book.

Now, they say that sometimes reality is scarier than fiction and it is true. We all know the story in the book, the women have lost all control of themselves, they belong to the government, they are there for a specific reason. They have no freedom of choice and worst of all, the government uses them for reproduction.

While this is far fetched to become reality, in the 21st century we have political representatives who have such beliefs. It is scary to think that there are people in power, in the government, with the power to pass legislation, who think that women should not have access to abortion. That it is God's will. Maybe they should stop funding Viagra then, as a limp d*ck is also God's will, why try change that? I respect their beliefs but I don't feel that it is fair and democratic enough to pass a legislation that forbids a woman to have access to safe and legal way of terminating a pregnancy - just because it your belief. Funny how in the eyes of America, Islam is the religion/way of life that imposes certain ideologies, when the same government that condemns Islam, does the same to it's people with legislation. Apparently, they don't care if the pregnancy was a derivative of rape or incest, which is so absurd and ridiculous.

North Ireland follows closely behind. This is the time where people around the world fight for the freedom to be, to choose, to live and instead of the governments to support such fights, they try to take our rights away from us. Like in the Handmaid's Tale we have propaganda, that some things we do are wrong, that we need to be protected, that this in fact is protection. They are pro life. How can you be pro life when you do nothing to ban guns? How can you be pro life when your country is involved in wars thousands of miles away from your soil? How can you be pro life when you force your people to live in fear or have to seek an illegal and probably unsafe way to terminate a pregnancy?

In the Handmaid's Tale, there were signs that things would turn bad, they were signs that people would lose their freedom, the world would change and i believe that these are signs too, that something is going to go terribly bad. They say that a country's President is the representation and image of a country...so far I have to agree with this saying as America has been proved to be indeed Trump's America. Trump through his words and actions proves once more what we are all afraid of. That America is indeed what we think it to be: A shiny red apple that's rotten in the inside.

It is our duty to fight this, to take our rights back. We have the power to do so.

Sorry for this political post but I noticed some terrifying parallels between the book and the current situation.

reflejx's review against another edition

5.0

This novel, in inventing a near-future dystopia, shows not only how easily modern society could slip into totalitarianism under the influence of fear, but also how second-wave feminism, after it ended, had still not been sufficient in ending inequality. This is apparent in the ways the transition period into the Gileadean era (presumably to be set in the late 20th century) is portrayed, as these parts of the story show the dismissal of continued active feminism and civil rights and equality movements by those who believe and proclaim that they are "woke", but who also refuse to take a stand because they believe all the problems are pretty much solved by now, and that those who continue to address inequality might want to take a break. The Handmaid's Tale is about the eventual results of the indifference of such people, the passive allies, in the face of attacks on liberty and equality. It is horrifying, not just because the state of affairs in Gilead is a patriarchal wet dream, but also because the buildup to it is disturbingly familiar.