Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
Dystopian | Science Fiction
422 Pages
Released 2021
Rating: ★★★
Goodreads
Content Warnings
Please note that since this book is a sequel, there will be some spoilers in order to properly review.
I know that many were content to leave The Handmaid’s Tale as a standalone, but I had questions. The cliff-hanger ending always left me wondering and so I did not hesitate one bit to pick up Testaments, the sequel.
This book follows three women and their experiences and ties to Gilead. I’m keeping this brief on purpose because that’s really all you need to know going in.
I really enjoyed this book. Was it necessary? Perhaps not but I ate up every bit of it nonetheless. This book alternates between three different women and I found it to be really well done. The timelines of these women overlap and cross paths and due to the way it played out, the book kept my interest from start to finish. I also found it read very quick despite its size.
While The Handmaid’s Tale is very much a warning, I found Testaments to be a wonderful counterpoint in resistance. Each of these women took action in order to survive their circumstances and I found this book to be both harrowing and uplifting. I know that not everyone will like the direction this book takes, because it wraps up much more “prettily” than its predecessor, but I felt comforted by it. In a way, I needed to know that things could get better, that there was a way to fight the awfulness of Gilead.
I loved seeing how Aunt Lydia came to be. I always presumed there was more to her than met the eye and I was fascinating seeing her become what we knew her to be in The Handmaid’s Tale as something out of necessity and survival. It is easy to judge a morally gray or even presumably evil character when we have not been put in their spot and I found that this book humanizes her. I enjoyed the other two perspectives as well (for these, I will not go into detail in order to keep things unspoiled) and loved seeing how the tied back to the original book.
Overall, if you enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale but had questions (like me) or need a hopeful ending (also like me), then definitely pick this one up.