This books is honestly so over-hyped, it's not half as eye-opening as people keep insisting it is; it's certainly no comparison to George Orwell's 1984.
What warning was I supposed to get from this? Why do people keep saying it's relevant? It might make a good stand-alone dystopian read (more on that in a minute) but I didn't find a message in this novel. What is Atwood trying to say? Don't let fanatic Christians take over America? With the constant quoting of bible verses (selectively of course) you'd think that the Gilead type of society is every devout Christian's dream of a 'proper' or 'traditional' society, it's really not.
Yes as Atwood pointed out herself in an interview, she didn't make any of this stuff up per se, things like identifying people by their clothes were actually used by a regime (the Nazis) once. Handmaidens, shipping people off to be worked to death, strict rules for women (mostly) and men, governments based on strict interpretations of a religion (e.g. Taliban, Islam); have all been implemented at some point somewhere. Pulling all of that stuff together makes for a great dystopian story but I wish people would stop reading it as some sort of dire warning of what's to come or even that society is already on a path to this kind of living.
That brings me to my other point, let's say this isn't taken as a warning of where society is headed and we can focus purely on aspects such as writing, characters, plot etc. My dislike with this book is hardly because of it's portrayal of a strict christian society,( I didn't find it very biblically based in any way, just so you know), no it's that at the heart of it... this novel had no story.
You can focus on the society within this book all you want, it's in my opinion the only thing this novel has going for it. The writing was different and I know some people disliked it for that but it really wasn't that bad. The story is told present-tense but at a later date (if that makes any sense) so it might be hard to distinguish thoughts from dialogue and from flashbacks but I found it ok mostly because I've gotten used to this style from other books such as 'All the Light we Cannot See'.
But there was honestly no plot. I was always waiting for something to happen and nothing ever did, it was just a series of events. We didn't go from point A to point B and we didn't come full circle. The ending left me with so many questions, which, while acknowledged in the 'Historical Notes' as being unanswerable, made for a very unsatisfying finish. And all the subplots present in the book were left open-ended.
Nothing that happened in this novel I would classify as a story, the character's had no growth (the narrator, Offred, especially). For me, there were no lessons to be learned. No morals to take away. The characters didn't learn or grow as people, they lived from one event to the other without any life.
In a book about oppression it makes sense for the character to already be used to their monotony, to have adjusted to their circumstances, I get it I do. But make them do something about it! Why would I want to read a book about a character like that? I read books to break out of Mydaily monotony. I want to read about inspiring characters who stand up in some way, who want to keep going, who fight for what's right, who learn something, who do something admirable or inspiring or worth reading about.
Overall I'm disapointed because I didn't get anything out of this novel. I wasn't entertained, I didn't learn something new, I didn't gain a new perspective, or any of the reasons that make us pick up books and read them in the first place.
To conclude this little rant, I gave it a rating of 2 (meaning ok, not simply disliked) because there were a couple of redeeming points so despite what you might think after reading through my review, I don't hate this book (really I don't). If there was no plot, at least there was a consistent flow from one event to the next. I had moments where I rooted for Offred or one of the other characters ( my disappointment coming not when things didn't work, but that there was no closure, I can take heartbreak and I love happy endings but you can't just leave me hanging). And I was never bored even though I wished for more to happen. It had a nice consistency, the characters were ok though more could have been done with them, and some scenes were very memorable.
Overall would I recommend this book? Nah. Go read something more worthwhile.
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