The Heart Goes Last

I love Atwood and all of her fiction. This book had a very interesting plot although less complex and less beautifully written than her usual style. More straight to the point. It was surprisingly plausible for a dystopian novel. My biggest complaint was the female narrator who was incredibly annoying. I don\’t think the female character herself is incredibly likable but it was impossible with this narrator. If you\’re considering the audiobook I might pick up the hard copy instead.

Great premise compromised by unbearable characters and execution that falls short. She could have done so much more with the concept. But she decided instead to add a level of comedy that, while clever in itself, took away from the gravity of the dystopian setup. I\’m not saying tongue-in-cheek humor has no place in dystopia; in this case it felt like two different novels at times. I\’d have been more interested in the day-to-day of this exceptional lifestyle, and the psychological impact it has on the characters. But this element was missing from the novel. Instead we are treated to a few intriguing developments which held great promise yet were blunted by the comedic overtones. This could have been a very differently executed novel— had she focused on the gravity of the situation and the impact it had on the characters I\’d have enjoyed it more. But her choice to seemingly amuse herself with a parody was less to my liking. That said, this book is a solid choice for fans of Atwood\’s oddball side. It\’s got a lot of clever ideas and satisfying developments. My taste hoped for more of her serious side.

primarily, Charmaine\’s voice and up talking almost drove me to return the book in the first ten minutes. I couldn\’t get used to that, it was obnoxious to me. Charmaine\’s character in general was painfully bland and predictable. Part of this was written in, but she was honestly so boring I hoped for her to be killed off. The book progressed and while I found it mildly enjoyable, it was predictable and even the plot twists were just meh. I\’ve read many many Atwood books and this was my least favorite by far.

I normally love Atwood but this was hard to finish. She was trying to create an interesting world but it seemed to continually fall short with inconsistencies and boring dialogue. I finished it, but only because I wanted to give it a fair shot. I\’m sure someone could love this book but it sure wasn\’t for me.

Society is falling to pieces and a dystopian solution emerges where in people volunteer to spend alternating months between living in a lovely suburban setting and prison… this premise for Margaret Atwoods book conjured up so many questions of how this would work and WHY this would work, so I downloaded it. I dislike spoilers, but I truly would have appreciated having a key piece of information left out of the book description which is below (stop reading now if you want total surprises about the world in the book). This plot quickly descended from an interesting dystopian novel into an outlandish tale of sex robots and cheesy porn plots. What happened Margaret?! Its as though the entire focus of the story derails Midway through and focuses on such ridiculous circumstances that render the story painful to finish. Oh my… and the end… Just picture an untied balloon painfully deflating into a pile of rubber in your hands. That is about as satisfying as the ending is. I dont need a happily ever after, but I need something that eradicates at least 50% of the plotholes. Im going to scrub my brain clean of this experience and dive into something else.

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