From the Bookshelf of 2025 Reading Challenge…

The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)

Margaret Atwood

Start date: March 1, 2017

Finish date: March 31, 2017

Discussion: Group Reads

Discussion leader: Taylor C

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Group Reads

* December Group Read Nominations
By Carri Carey , TBR Twins · 1 post · 11 views

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* Group Read Rules and Timelines
By Winter , Group Reads · 1 post · 2556 views

last updated Jan 23, 2016 02:35AM

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What Members Thought

Aug 13, 2011 Annet rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: apocalyptic, dark, creepy, have-to-read-again, favorites, favorite-author, classics

Read in 2011, update 2017, this link to NY Times article makes you think.... https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/bu...

This book to me has been very very intriguing and clever because... the story just keeps you thinking, what happened, what's going on, what will happen? That is real quality, challenging writing material. Yes, it makes you think about 'Big brother is watching you...', Children of Men, this story just chills you to the bone, it's about a future world where women do have a really we ...more

112 likes · Like · see review

Jan 22, 2011 Annet rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: apocalyptic, dark, literature-pure

Never wrote a review I see now. What a weird book, what an absurd view on a pretended future....

30 likes · Like · see review

Jul 10, 2025 Netanella rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2025-july-reading-challenges, dystopian, 2025-horror-aficionados-mount-tbr, feminist, 2025-sffbc-read-all-the-books

I am a bit shocked at myself for having taken this long to read, finally, such a culturally significant work. I knew the basics of the story, of course - it's a dystopian tale set in near-future America where women have been reduced to their reproductive abilities. Handmaids in their characteristic red dress and white head covering have become international symbols of protest against governments that seek, again and again, to restrict women's rights to control their own bodies.

Margaret Atwood i ...more

27 likes · Like · see review

Jun 09, 2010 Martha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book holds up well a second time although there's a 30-year time difference between reading and listening. Clare Danes' voice was perfect for the story. I alternated between listening and reading. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 20, 2012 Beckey rated it did not like it

Shelves: read-2012

I might be one of the few people who just don't care for this book. I wasn't impressed with the writing. I found the story difficult to follow at times. The characters weren't developed enough for me to actually care what happened to any of them. Not even the main character. The story seemed to just meander along to the overly rushed, confusing conclusion. ...more

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Jun 13, 2010 Sara rated it really liked it

This novel would certainly stir up completely different emotions depending when it is/was read. In 1985, when it was first published, women had fewer options with regards to reproduction than we have now. It seems odd now that a novel set in the "future" would require women suffering with infertility to use surrogates and deliver at home without the supervision of a health professional. In 1985 IVF was not a widely available option... but it would surely be taken advatage of in such a society. I ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 19, 2017 Colette rated it it was amazing

“Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”

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Dec 29, 2012 Tanya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-young-adult, list-1001-btrbyd, format-audiobook, list-rory-gilmore, list-1001-btrbyd-2006, list-1001-btrbyd-core, 2015, challenge-2015-popsugar

I read this for the 2015 PopSugar Challenge in the category of a book that had bad reviews, as his was criticized by the NYTimes when first published in 1986. It is also one of the core books of the 1,001'Books to Read Before You Die list.

The epilogue was harder for me to get through than the rest of the book, which was from the protagonist's point if view. I am glad I waited until I was older to read this one as I could not have understood or appreciated this when I was in high school. The male I read this for the 2015 PopSugar Challenge in the category of a book that had bad reviews, as his was criticized by the NYTimes when first published in 1986. It is also one of the core books of the 1,001'Books to Read Before You Die list.

The epilogue was harder for me to get through than the rest of the book, which was from the protagonist's point if view. I am glad I waited until I was older to read this one as I could not have understood or appreciated this when I was in high school. The male characters were less developed, and I am not sure why the Commanders were said to be in power, but didn't seem to have as much authority, but perhaps that is because we see Offred's view only, so the male world is more hidden from her and thus, from us. That she didn't work harder at establishing or maintaining female friendships seemed odd to me too, even if that was forbidden, given that she engaged in so many other behaviors that were also forbidden. That made it harder for me to embrace her character fully, as humans have such a strong desire for companionship, but I didn't get that feeling from her...even her own husband she hadn't remembered so many details of him, the original love of her life, and over time he just faded and was somewhat interchangeable with the guard with whom she had the affair to get impregnated. She missed her daughter, but the lack of maternal instinct to break away completely from her own situation, even if it meant her own death possibly, made me feel like Offred just disconnected emotionally overall, possibly even before this new society had formed. There was a line in the story, delivered by her mother, about the acceptance of such a regime and how one gives in, but I just don't relate to that aspect. I know that being a mom and reading this affects my understanding in such a different way than it would have as a college student (which is when I probably would have read it, had I put my hands on it after its recent publication).

The author comments upon her book, "Anyone who wants power will try to manipulate you by appealing to your desires and fears, and sometimes your best instincts. Women have to be a little cautious about that kind of appeal to them. What are we being asked to give up?''

Think about that statement before you read the book and I think you will enjoy this one. ...more

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Feb 01, 2018 Melissa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: our-shared-shelf, feminism

Although the setting is fictional, the politics and gender stereotypes were all too real. The patriarchy in the story is similar to that which exists modern Day. It is reflective of a society which benefits a few and allows the rest to simply “fall in line.” It has similarities to the Nazi regime and Communist rule, but at the same time, is reflective of current U.S. policy. The Handmaid’s Tale is a grim warning of what can happen when we as a society allow fear to overtake reason, and when wome ...more

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