Kindle Book: A Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

Length: 311

Format: eBook
Price: Downloaded from Overdrive

How I heard about it: It's on my list.

Basic Premise: A handmaid has one job - to produce a child. But the child is not her own - it will belong to her master and his wife. Torn from her husband and child and stripped of everything down to her name, the handmaid struggles to find a way among this newfound bondage.

My Take: 7 out of 10 (scale here)

UGH. This book was so dark. And it was a lot like The Poisonwood Bible in that it dealt with people who cared more about following religious rules than they did about knowing God. It was intriguing (I read it in three days) and troublesome and depressing all at the same time.  I liked the protagonist, but I didn't quite feel like I connected with her. She was a bit unbelievable in parts. It's a dystopian book published in 1986 - well before dystopians were popular. I found that interesting from a literature perspective, and having read so many of them by now. I also discovered while I was reading that this is the second book I've read by this author. The first was Alias Grace, which I also enjoyed, but also found very dark.

List Progress:

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai review here
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher review here
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving review here
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver review here
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah review here
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeby Mark Haddon
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie review here
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer review here
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here