From the Bookshelf of The Perks Of Being A Book Addict…

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

Margaret Atwood

Start date: May 1, 2017

Finish date: May 31, 2017

Discussion: Group Books of the Month (BotM)

Why we're reading this: May 2017 strong female lead character themed BotM
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What Members Thought

Jun 11, 2012 Carrie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, mgr, science-fiction, feminism, classics, alternative-history, dystopia, 4-and-a-half-to-5-stars

This is a book that you like as it is written very well, and it is fascinating but you also hate it because the events are horrifying. I almost threw my copy, I wanted to trow it at the wall out of anger. Not because Margaret Atwood wrote a bad novel but because she wrote a believable novel, and that's scary. As a woman the idea of living this is terrifying and sickening. I applaud Ms. Atwood for being able to make me feel and picture this world so clearly. This is my second novel by this author ...more

23 likes · Like · see review

Mar 31, 2015 Libby rated it it was amazing

The first of the dystopian future novels that I read - and an influencer of Hunger Games, Divergent, etc. Still the best in my opinion.

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 04, 2014 Radhika rated it liked it

In the Republic of Gilead the worst nightmare comes true. Women who had led free lives making their choices and having kids and loving were forced to use their ovaries to get healthy kids.

Offred is one of the handmaids who is subjected to this tyranny. She hopes and prays that the Kommandant gets her pregnant then she would not be subjected to this shame time and again and can live peacefully. She was viable only if her ovaries worked. She had no freedom to read, to going anywhere by herself. Sh ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 21, 2012 Beth rated it really liked it

I've wanted to read this book for more than a decade, so it's a double pleasure having enjoyed it so much and checking it off my to read list. What struck me most was not so much the social commentary, although that may have been Atwood's main intent, but the emotional life of the narrator. The way the novel was structured, I felt drawn in to what at first felt like a emotionally distant character. But by the end I was feeling her reactions viscerally.
I really loved the way Atwood crafted this ...more

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Oct 06, 2015 Cynthia Shannon rated it really liked it

I normally don't like dystopian novels or ones that make a Big Statement but I really enjoy Atwood's writing and she does a fine job in not being too preachy. At the end of the book I literally said WTF out loud and then there was the whole Historical Notes thing and I have to say, respect. ...more

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Oct 15, 2008 Julie rated it really liked it

Definitely chilling, in a this-could-be-the-possible-future sort of way. I've actually never read 1984, but I did read Brave New World and even though the two have the same overall subject of utopias gone horribly wrong, The Handmaid's Tale was something that I could quite possibly fear as it deals along the lines of female sexual slavery...
This is a book that sits with you. ...more

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