Title: The Handmaid’s Tale
Author: Margaret Atwood
Genre: Dystopian, Classic. Science Fiction
Published: April 1998
Pages: 312
The Carpenter Confessions Rating:★★★★.5☆
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood tells an exceptional story of a dystopian world. She portrays the reality of what this world could turn into if just the right pieces fall into place. This story also brings a creepy and unsettling feel due to what this new world allows to go on, you aren’t sure if you can keep reading. However, I wasn’t able to put the book down, she did an amazing job at making you want to know what else is in store for this book.
The Handmaid's Tale is set in a dystonian United States, now known as Gilead, where an illness spread across the nation making most women infertile. Due to this, the population was going down therefore, the women who were fertile, got placed into a home of a high profile family to have their children for them. These women are known as the Handmaids. A two year assignment leads to them either getting pregnant and staying till the baby is born/breastfed for a few months or not being able to get pregnant. The Handmaid will move on to the next family in need of children once her assignment is completed and this is what they do for the rest of their lives. They are not allowed to have their own family or life because their “duty” is to have other people’s children. They believe this was God’s plan for Gilead.
In the book, it goes through the life of the Handmaid, June. It is told in first person and the journey June goes through while being a Handmaid. Once a month, June has to try and get pregnant with the head of the house, the Commander. If she doesn’t get pregnant within her two year assignment she is set to another family or has some form of punishment. June can remember life before Gilead, making it harder to live the life of a Handmaid. In the book, June is assigned to the Fred family, making her Handmaid name Offred. Going through pages, you’ll get a good sense of what it’s like day to day in the new world of Gilead.
I have heard of this book for a few years now but never decided to read it because it was frightening to read about what these women had to go through. Margaret Atwood does an impeccable job at making you think about the future and all the realities it could entail. She thinks of all the details and it sounds like something that could actually take place. There are books such as Divergent where it doesn’t feel as realistic as The Handmaid’s Tale did. Margaret never made you feel like she may have left something out or made the story too fictionalized and impractical. Reading this book made me realize this is a reality we face in terms of this world going to weird extremes because a group of people decide it makes sense. I loved this book and wished I would have read it way sooner than I did, but I'm glad I finally picked it up.
I gave this book four and a half stars mainly because I wished June would have interacted with more characters than she did so it gave a sense of how other people were. Also, I didn’t love how it ended. Other than that I can’t say there is anything bad about it. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone; it’s a fascinating story. Now I have to watch the show to see how it compares. Hopefully it doesn’t disappoint!
Up Next:
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
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