The Handmaid’s Tale: Special Edition (The Handmaid’s Tale #1)

and where am I going? These are the questions, among others, that are answered in the much hyped sequel to The Handmaids Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

For the first eight chapters, The Testaments is a bit labored. Details are laid out almost like a narrative catalogue. Chapter 8 marks the beginning of Atwood magic and for almost 300 pages, youre drawn into a first person accounting of the events of the past, (during Handmaids)the intervening years and the present days of Agnes Jemima. This portion of the book is pure gold and 5worthy

At chapter 40, the 1st person POV continues but is now voiced by Nicole and takes on a snarky tone. The action for these next 90 pages is kicked up a few notches and the book ends with what seems like resolution and the overall writing in this section is not as engaging as the last section, imo.

This installment of Atwoods doesnt require warnings that are as strong as the first one. Violence is not an issue and there is only one very brief sexual encounter with very little description attached. There are references to the duties of a handmaid, but they are fairly obtuse. Language is the only issue that some folks will have a problem with. There are 4-5 f-bombs and a smattering of other expletives 3/10 used for literary accent, not gratuitously.

Closing out this volume are the historical notes to the 13th symposium. This is a presented as a list of references and narrative to a symposium board by way of evidence/proof to substantiate the document which is The Testsments

UPDATE: At the suggestion of two readers, I did look thru this book again to see if my review needed revision and it did in that Id
assigned POV credit to the wrong character. My apologies, that has been corrected. The remainder of my review stands. It
has been 35 years since Handmaids Tale and Ive not watched the Hulu production. My interest was not peaked by
by political application but by human motivation. Why would the Aunts live this way for so long, instruct other young girls
in this lifestyle, not look to escape? What motivates them? Did they find peace or love in God or the religious rites? These
are not easy answers to find in The Testament format

“Testaments” is the long-awaited sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale” first a bestselling novel by distinguished Canadian author Margaret Atwood and then a wildly successful series based on the book on Hulu.

If you expected a “happily ever after” story about “Offred” that isn’t this book. It’s more about the fall of the dystopian and non-functional Gilead from the point of view of some of the women, gender-traitors, who run the regime and also some of the young women born into the system. Haven’t you wondered what a young girl would think of her impending marriage in such a world where women are vessels, not allowed to read and treated as chattel?

Best of all in this book is the story of Agnes Jemima, a young girl growing up as a daughter of a Commander and a Wife. She’s an innocent, trying to make sense of the Gilead world where everything is kept secret or is an out-and-out deception. Her simplistic voice is almost like that of Offred in the original Handmaid book, with its cool observation and background of confusion about what went on before or behind her back.

Then we get the “autobiography” and first-person story of Aunt Lydia, the moral guardian of the Gilead society. As well as some of the story of the “Underground Female-Road” and the resistance (Mayday Movement) The deeper look into the complex villain Aunt Lydia fleshes out the cartoonish cruel and vicious prison matron picture into something much more interesting.

I wondered how such a dysfunctional society bent on execution, control and utter despondency could survive for long, so here is the sequel filling in that story.

The Testaments is set 15 years after the Handmades Tale. The story unfolds in a three-part narrative. Each narrator fills in the gaps of what went on in the preceding 15 years and chronicles their lives in the present. Readers will be updated on their favorite characters and introduced new players in the Gilead saga.

The book is an absolute page turner from page one. The prose are beautifully written in a style that readers of Atwoods work have come to expect. Be prepared to put everything aside as you will not be able to put the book down.

One thing that was pretty disappointing is there is almost no mention of June. There were also quite a few plot holes but it was great finding out about how things turned out in Gilead.
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Hopefully The Testaments will give Hulu a framework for the rest of the Handmaids Tale Series.

No suspense or excitement, nowhere NEAR as taut as the first. You learn nothing interesting and new about Gilead. Its just 3 women that you OUGHT to care about because of who they are, but in reality you do t care about any of them. Theres no character arcs, no journeys, no movement. I cant believe how many people rate this book highly. Is everyone just stuck in here worship because the first book was so amazing? Probably so.

Compared to her other works, The Testaments is definitely not one of her finer works. The characters felt very one dimensional and lacked any sort of depth or development, the plot line boring and contrived. It felt like something Atwood wrote in response to the popularity of the tv adaptation of The Handmaids Tale, and not actually something she felt passionate about.

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