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

Margaret Atwood

Start date: July 1, 2019

Finish date: July 31, 2019

Discussion: The Handmaid's Tale

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Showing 2 of 11 topics — 57 comments total

The Handmaid's Tale

Final Thoughts & Discussion *spoilers possible*
By Jennifer · 11 posts · 41 views

last updated Aug 01, 2019 06:55PM

Chapters 35-39
By Jennifer · 4 posts · 13 views

last updated Jul 30, 2019 06:35PM

What Members Thought

Jun 11, 2017 Maria rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review was originally posted on my blog, ReadingMaria:

This novel broke my heart over and over again. You can just feel everything Offred felt, from being stripped of her status to the painstakingly long, boring days she exits through. I don’t even want to use the word “live,” because she isn’t living. She’s just passing each day, trapped in her thoughts and unable to speak her mind. A prisoner, I guess I should say.

Is it worse to be a prisoner behind bars, or a prisoner who is free to go w ...more

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Aug 22, 2019 Suzanne thebookblondie rated it liked it

Shelves: up-next

The story takes place in a “near-future” America in which women are subjugated by a male-dominated society. Women no longer have freedoms and are “owned” by the men they serve. Offred is the main character and all women are stripped of their birth names and given possessive names such as “of Fred.”
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I kept the synopsis succinct so I could spend more time explaining my thoughts. Margaret Atwood wrote this book from the perspective of Offred, the main character. Offred’s stream of consciousness com ...more

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Jul 17, 2022 Lory Sakay rated it liked it

I was not as in love with this story as I expected I'd be. Maybe this was because I waited so long to read this and had already expected some of the "shocking" plot? Or maybe it was because the ending was just "blah"? Dunno really. I intended to actually watch the show after I read the book and now, I'm not really interested. It was an interesting story, introducing outrageous ideas (those don't seem as unlikely as they might have when it was written), and definitely original. It was just "okay" ...more

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Jul 20, 2019 William Stanger rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It took me a while to get round to reading this book, but I'm glad I finally did. I figured I should at least read it before watching the TV show.

This is, at times, a harrowing story. There were moments of hope, but these were drowned out by the overall despair of the situation of Offred, the narrator of the story, who is the Handmaid referred to in the title. What was most interesting for me is the this book was written over 30 years ago, yet it spoke to many of the things happening in our worl ...more

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Jun 02, 2017 Sasha rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this short read. Though it is not written in a style that i would deem the most engaging of narrative, the plot itself was intriguing. I'd say the way this book was written has hints and nuances of a book one would read in a high school class. I do think this would be great for a high school class, by the way. It might take a hot second to get warmed up to the book. It wants to catch up on what you missed. You learn about how one is to act, the narrators past, yadda yadda. Thing ...more

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