I liked all of these covers, so I added them all.
For some reason, I had no idea that this book was published in 1986. It feels so so current. I wanted to read it before watching any of the Hulu series, which looks great. This will officially be my fifth Margaret Atwood book. I think I like her 🙂
This book just tosses you right into the everday slog of being a Handmaiden. You wake up in a blank, meaningless room, put on your red clothes, and walk downstairs. You’re not supposed to look at yourself. In fact, you wear the white wings around your head / face so that no one looks right at you either. You get your tokens, then walk with your assigned partner to the store. This is your exercise. Someone is always listening. You must be careful or you’ll be killed. Then once a month, you have the ceremony. I’m so sorry, I can’t remember what it’s called! Lemme look it up… Ok, it’s called The Ceremony. I guess I remembered that correctly since it’s so grosssss and rapey. Although in the book it’s not technically rape. Even though the Handmaid doesn’t really have the choice of consent, it’s implied consent, which is gross. There are also weird rules and customs that they must abide by. There’s a mob style beating of a man accused of rape. There’s “the wall”, where “traitors” are hung (dead) on display. I really don’t want to spoil anything else.
The background of this world unfolds slowly throughout the book. We mostly learn how Offred got to this point. We also kinda learn what happens afterwards. I can’t wait to start the Hulu series. In fact, I pictured Elizabeth Moss the whole time I was reading. That sounds like great casting to me!