The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

2 Stars

 

“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.”

The Handmaid’s Tale is the foretelling of what will happen once this guy . . . .



is elected President. I keeed. Maybe. Anyway, this is the story of Offred who after the rise of the religious right has been forced into the strangest form of indentured servitude – that of being a “breeder” for the wealthy. You see, the new world fell victim to all of our daily sins:

“Women took medicines, pills, men sprayed trees, cows ate grass, all that souped-up piss flowed into the rivers. Not to mention the exploding atomic power plans, along the San Andreas fault, nobody’s fault, during the earthquakes, and the mutant strain of syphilis no mold could touch . . .”

which killed off many and left a good chunk of the remainder sterile so now the world needs to be repopulated before it’s too late.

Nearly EVERYONE loved this book. Except for Stacy. Thank Jeebus for Stacy and her review because it says EXACTLY what I thought the entire time I was reading. This book is supposed to be the end all/be of dystopian literature as well as the voice for feminists the world over, but to me it was simply . . .


(*insert audible gasps and ohnoshedidn’ts*)

Sorry, but I didn’t enjoy it. Any 300 page book takes me THREE DAYS to read is not going to end up with a high rating. I didn’t connect with the characters or story at all and if this is Atwood’s typical writing style I’m fairly certain I won’t like any of her other books either. I don’t like getting caught up on mundane details and I’m not a fan of the MC entire farking population turning a blind eye to what had to have been tons of warning signs of the superbadawfuls that were getting ready to go down and then pointing the blame finger at everyone except themselves. I also don’t enjoy the thought process that being pro woman means you have to be anti-man . . .

“Men are sex machines and not much more. They only want one thing. You must learn to manipulate them, for your own good.”

Srsly? Ick. I could get real ranty here, but I’m just going to pass because it won’t end in anything except a bevy of trolls coming out from under their bridges.

Basically, I wanted more than what this book delivered. I wanted to explore the world of the Unwomen and Unbabies, I wanted someone to be ballsy enough to take a stand even if it meant being sent to the Colonies. To do SOMETHING to take the world back. To do ANYTHING aside from being a bunch of mealy-mouthed nothings. But it never happened and in the end instead of getting super emotional, my reaction was kind of like . . .



I probably read it wrong. It happens.