Review: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Title: The Handmaid's Tale
Author: Margaret Atwood
Pages: 388
Genre: Fiction (Dystopia)
Rating: A

From Goodreads: It is the world of the near future, and Offred is a Handmaid in the home of the Commander and his wife. She is allowed out once a day to the food market, she is not permitted to read, and she is hoping the Commander makes her pregnant, because she is only valued if her ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she was an independent woman, had a job of her own, a husband and child. But all of that is gone now...everything has changed.

I picked this book up unexpectedly while passing it by in the bookstore. I wasn’t even planning on buying it but I have seen it so many times and I have always been intrigued by the premise.

I can’t say I liked this book because I feel like I would be saying I liked what happens in it. But I will say this is a very important novel about important issues surrounding women. I was uncomfortable reading through it yet I had to keep on. I knew I was reading something that matters.

This is also my first Atwood book. I have to say she deserves all the acclaim she gets; this novel is written in first person narrative in a stream of conscious kind of way. It is very effective for the story because of the intensity of the plot. I think it really highlighted the anxiousness I felt while reading it.

I really loved the ending and its ambiguity. I loved the historical notes at the end. I think this was so well thought out and it would have to be in order for people to buy into what happens. And I did. Even days after reading it I still think about it which makes this book an A for me. I recommend this to anyone interested in dystopias, women’s issues, or just good books.