Alok's Reviews > The Handmaid’s Tale

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum"

I've mixed feelings about this book. This was too grim with little hope and taking everything to extremes. But with time you begin to get attached to the characters. You begin to hope for the best for the protagonist. There's an emotional connection.

I do not want to give anything away. I think every reader should experience it for themselves.

Could such an extreme thing be possible at such a large scale? I don't know. It should be possible. Worse had already been done at small scale - in religions, in cults, in homes; so maybe it's possible that such a sexist, hypocritical regime could start and sustain.

This book is also a classic example of show don't tell. Though it seemed to be testing my patience 8 chapters in, I still didn't know a hell lot about the world. It's slow. Very slow. And there are only hints given. How the world came to be? Why it happened? How it was so universally accepted, that was skipped.

Another thing I didn't like is there is no quotation in most of the dialogues. It was confusing and time consuming to figure out who said what to what extent. But then I realized why that was the case by the end and I was somewhat ok.

Also I wasn't happy with the ending.