5 out of 5 stars
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How I discovered this book: I didn't so much discover it as awaited it with baited breath after reading The Handmaid's Tale.
In a Nutshell: A dystopian Christian fundamentalist America - what happened next.
Fans of the TV series should not expect the continuing story of June, for this long-awaited sequel is a different version of the story, in which June features only in occasional references. This is the written/spoken testament of three people: Aunt Lydia, Hannah/'Agnes' (the daughter of June/Offred), and one other person whose name I won't reveal because it would be a major spoiler.
The book is written in alternating chapters between the three, dotting from one to another with little indication of who is speaking, at first, or the exact timescale, though you get used to this. All three stories held my attention absolutely, all the way through - and I loved the inclusion of a group that doesn't feature in the TV series. The Pearl Girls are missionaries to other countries to recruit for Gilead, and are essential to Margaret Atwood's new plot.
Any negatives? Only very slightly - the path of Hannah/Agnes means that she knows no world other than Gilead, of course, and although she is something of a rebel in her head, she is bound to have their belief system ingrained within. At the beginning there was little difference between her 'voice' and that of the third POV, but she becomes more devout as she grows up and follows a route other than the one her 'parents' chose for her. The story speeds up in the last third, and the change in her seemed to come too suddenly. I was unsure about one aspect of the continuity, too, as the three POV stories converge.
Despite any slight misgivings, this book was even more compelling than I had hoped, faster moving and with more action and events than The Handmaid's Tale, and gives more indication of what really goes on in Gilead, and how fragile the whole structure really is. Also featured is a backstory for Aunt Lydia that is different from the one on the TV, and just as interesting. Highly recommended - if you loved the prequel and are an addict of the TV series, you'll adore this.
5 GOLD stars
On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads
How I discovered this book: I've read one of Margaret Atwood's dystopian books before, Oryx and Crake, and liked it, though, like thousands of others, I was inspired to read this after watching the TV series.
In a Nutshell: Dystopian, set in an imaginary former America, in the 1980s
If you're one of the five people in the world who haven't seen the TV series,
much of America has become 'Gilead', ruled by Christian fundamentalists
and cut off from the rest of the world; this is the story of one of the
'handmaids', rare fertile girls forced to bear children for high profile couples after sterility has become commonplace.
The story is told in the first person by 'Offred', though in the book we never have her real name confirmed, or that of her child. It is slow in pace, especially at first, but this does, of course, reflect the pace of her life. I did wonder, during the first few chapters, if anyone reading the story without having seen the series might take a while to appreciate it or even understand what is going on, as the world in which 'Offred' now lives is revealed to the reader only gradually. I adored this book, all the way through, and couldn't read it fast enough, though I did feel frustrated by the lack of explanation - but when it comes, half way through, it is all the more shocking to find out how the 'normal' world became Gilead.
Although written in 1984, the story is chillingly prescient; Offred talks of the false flag* operations, designed to create fear within the people, so that they will not complain when their privacy and liberty is taken away ... then there is the lack of paper money, with transactions made only via 'Compubank'; another withdrawal of privacy and removal of a person's ability to stay anonymous.
Even though the people are kept relatively safe, they are fed, and have comfort and adequate medical attention, it is the the removal of liberty and the ability to communicate, and the ever-present, underlying threat should one not comply with all rules, that makes this the worse sort of horror story.
Obviously the TV show has ratings to think about, and so the story develops differently; viewers will want some happiness and resolution for June/Offred, some reconciliation, and a 'personal journey' for her, in which she grows, positively - but this was written in a time before heroines were required to be kick-ass. The end is left open for almost all the characters... but after it finishes there is a great addition to the book that rounds it off in a different way: a transcript of a lecture given in the year 2195, talking about all that is known about the Gileadean era, much of it from Offred's account.
Good news for those who, like me, can't get enough of either the book or the telly version - the long-awaited follow-up, The Testaments is out on September 10th.
*...countries organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks
appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that
was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression and military aggression.
