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Cindy's Reviews > The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale
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I have no idea how I should rate this book. I was enraptured by the story and looked forward to reading it each time I picked it up, because the writing style and moodiness had a way of immersing me into the universe. I was very intrigued with discovering how the main character and her society ended up in these circumstances. The stale atmosphere, motonous daily life, and characters' hopeless complacence all felt very real. But I'm also dissatisfied by how much is left to the imagination due to the ambiguous ending and incomplete world building. I wanted answers to how there could be such a dramatic cultural shift in a short amount of time in one of the most liberal countries in the world � getting these answers would have helped the story be more believable and immersive. I also wish we got to follow more character development, relationship building, plot structure, or pretty much anything other than just atmospheric writing and a haunting concept. I keep juggling between rating this 3 or 4 stars, but for now I'm going to lean towards 4 stars since the book still had me more captivated compared to other novels of its time and genre, and mostly succeeded with its message and writing. I'm looking forward to checking out the TV adaptation so that I have more story to chew with.
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Reading Progress
July 19, 2018
– Shelved
July 19, 2018
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 8, 2019
–
Started Reading
January 15, 2019
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-13 of 13 (13 new)
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rated it 4 stars
Jan 15, 2019 06:10PM
There is definitely more of everything the book left out in the show!
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It’s been a hot minute since I read it but I remember I had many of the same reactions to this book.
I love the TV adaptation, it does dive deeper and in general is just a great show
Atwood has actually written a sequel for this, and it's coming out in September this year.
Wow, I had just finished reading the book as well and I had a similar dilemma. I thought it was really engaging but there was just something else that made me wonder why it was so acclaimed. I think you managed to put my thoughts into words. :D
I was the opposite. I really liked that it felt so shattered, that we did not get all the information about what happened and why. It was a diary by a woman living during that time, and it felt more real because of it. It was her life as it was, it felt like reading Anne Frank's diary. But at the same time, I understand if not everyone is satisfied with that.
I was hungry after all... wished to know more, what happened to her. That sudden ending was kinda irritating to me.
"I was the opposite. I really liked that it felt so shattered, that we did not get all the information about what happened and why. It was a diary by a woman living during that time, and it felt more real because of it. It was her life as it was, it felt like reading Anne Frank's diary. But at the same time, I understand if not everyone is satisfied with that."I feel exactly the same way!!
I fell in love with the book, even with all the background information missing. It felt very much real and intense that way.
The series does well about covering more of the background story and side characters stories.. but there's so much dialogs (that in the book is almost none), some vibes that is different from the book (I really don't care that much, but I prefer how it is in the book) and some things like how they do their shoppings and walks that felt more "libertarian" than how it's done in the book (they can look at each other, trade partners, speak... it's really different). But I'm enjoying the series adaptation <3Less
I believe she's writing a sequel to this. I'm not sure if it's directly related to how the show is trying to piece things together now that they have run out of content from the original source, but I guess that's what happens when the book ends in such an open way with a lot of world building left to explore and there's a season two looming. I'm only a couple of episodes in to the second season, but so far I think it's pretty good.
I kind of think of the way it’s written as being a major point of the story. Like this is how fast something like that can happen if people don’t challenge power, if we don’t have a more representative power structure. Almost like a warning? Maybe I was just thinking to deeply as the story left me feeling.....just all sorts of feels really
You basically summed up how I felt about it.
I'm late to reading this book or even watching the show for that matter, but your review is EXACTLY how I felt. I just wanted to know more about what was going on. But, I do kind of like how we only know just as much as the lead does, it puts us in a similar position to simply have to keep moving on without knowing.
Exactly how I felt after reading this!
