The Testaments Book Review

[foreverdawning]

I just finished Margaret Atwood's newest book The Testaments. It was really fun to read. I was a bit hesitant to pick it up but ultimately glad I did. It really redeemed some characters that were given awful treatment in the television show

I was very surprised with how easily I fell back into the world of Gilead. One thing that disappointed me with Handmaid's Tale was that there wasn't enough world building; we only saw the handmaids' perspectives but there were other classes of women. This book allowed us to see into their inner worlds and how Gilead warped their worldview. Margaret Atwood always said that all women were oppressed in the Gilead regime but the reader really gets to see it.

Aunt Lydia was one of the characters that I really enjoyed watching in the TV show. She really flew under the radar in Handmaid's Tale but she takes the stage front and center in Testaments. I loved reading about her beginnings and how she was coerced into her role as head of all the Aunts. In the TV show she's sort of seen as this normal Aunt that isn't high ranking at all, but in Testaments she's got her portrait hanging in every single classroom of the domestic arts school. Aunt Lydia is powerful but kind. She does everything because she's been backed into a powerful corner. It's impossible to not sympathize with her despite knowing it was she who was behind most of the awful ideas. Still, she looks out for women however she can. Half way through the book we find out that it was Aunt Lydia who was the one assisting with sneaking children out of Gilead.

I will also applaud Atwood for giving us a definitive ending for the Handmaid's Tale. We know that Offred was successful in her escape and so was baby Nicole. In these times, it was really appreciated to know that evil will not always triumph even if that's only true in fiction.

tl;dr Fantastic book with satisfying beginning, middle, and end.