Reviews

My 300th book. I'm quite pleased it was this one.

This was somehow the easiest "hard-read" I've come across. The content was sinister, bleak, desperate, at times horrifying. But the words the story was told with utterly compelled me and kept me reading. Despite that content, I often found myself thinking "just one more chapter..." at bedtime.

I first picked this up when I was maybe seventeen or eighteen, and I wasn't ready for it. Now, I think I was in the perfect place for it, even though I chose it by chance (I've set up a lottery system because I've got too many books on my TBR, and it helps me decide when I don't know what to read).

I think, at eighteen, I lacked some of the experience to understand this. That doesn't mean that the experience is essential to understanding this book, but I definitely gained more of an appreciation and an interrogative stance on it because of what I now know. How I feel about women's lives, women's rights, sex, love, friendship, relationships, children, control, power, government, hierarchy... it all came roaring at me in this book. Felt like I had to plant my feet and meet it head-on. It's not the kind of book you let wash over you. You must listen to it.

Listening, not always in a sense of believing without question. Listen to what it's saying, and let it inform what you think. There were times I felt morally conflicted, and had to sit with the ideas for a while, to understand why I felt like that. The episode at Jezebel's, and the Particicution, were two examples that will stay with me. The last 'lecture' section was brilliant; it put the whole story under a completely new lens.

What else can I say? So much more, probably. Somehow, if I ever had a daughter, I'd want her to read it, but at the same time I'd want to protect her from what's inside. Either way, I'd want her to read it because she chooses to and when she's ready for it.

I like a book that feels like a turning point in life. Dark though it was, The Handmaid's Tale was one of those. Here's to the next 100.

bethandunlop's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

4.5

wondrouswitch's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

2.0

This isn’t a bad book per se, but very much not the book for me.

I had to read this book for a school assignment and I chose it because it was so popular.
I know this is not the kind of book that you sit down to enjoy, but even with knowing this is not that kind of book, I still didn’t appreciate it as much as others do.
I read for the purpose of enjoying a reality better than my own, and this is not the book for that.

Still well written nonetheless. Makes you kind of scared for the future in a way.

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