*WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS, WHICH I WILL HIGHLIGHT OFF*


The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my first review with spoilers, because there are things I find confusing. So here goes....

Judging by the ratings, a lot of people seem to love this book. Me, on the other hand; I have a love-hate relationship with it, I think.

It took me a while to get used to it due to the way it’s written. There are very little conversation-openers, and the entire thing constantly shifts from ‘the now’ to ‘before’, that I had a bit of trouble at first determining which was what.

What I still can’t understand though, is how the thing all is. Offred describes having classes with the other handmaids, taught by the Marthas (or rather, Aunt Lydia in particular). But then again, in other scenes, she’s described as being the only handmaid in the household, apart from Rita & Cora who works in the kitchen, and Nick who’s the Commander’s driver. There is no mention of Offred going to another household or building for the ‘classes’, as the classes are very clearly described to be with the other handmaids as well.

Then when they have their ‘afternoon nap’, it is described (such as in the beginning of the story) that they do it in an old university gym. I originally thought that perhaps there were other handmaids living under the same roof, but then when there is a Birth Day, Offred is the only one to go from her household, to the one whose handmaid is having the Birth. That confused me.

Apart from that, it was overall okay. Maybe just not exactly my kind of thing.
Don’t get me wrong; the story overall did get interesting about halfway through. Just that I don’t really understand what all the hype was about.

View all my reviews