[WARNING: Some topics may be distressing to readers]
[Spoilers Ahead!]
"The Republic of Gilead is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, two girls with radically different experiences of the regime come face to face with the legendary, ruthless Aunt Lydia. But how far will each go for what she believes?" - Taken from the blurb.
If you have not read The Handmaid's Tale, go read it quickly and then give this a read! This was seriously so good as a sequel. I did not know what to expect going into this but was pleasantly surprised. So this book follows three narrators, a young girl recounting her upbringing in Gilead, a girl named "Daisy" who has grown up outside of Gilead in Canada, and Aunt Lydia, who surprises all readers.
Considering how Aunt Lydia is portrayed in the Hulu series, this Aunt Lydia is shockingly different. Each woman and young woman narrates her perspective on the events that lead to Gilead's demise and finally we see the state for how it truly is.
I loved this book. As a follow up to The Handmaid's Tale, this was amazing! There was tension, questions were answered and in the question and answer section with Atwood I found the origin of the book so interesting.
Atwood certainly makes us question how we see society, both ours and other countries, and how we may behave in the Republic of Gilead. I nearly flew through this book! The beginning was slow but since I had read the first book the story was simple enough to follow. I was shocked to find out that Aunt Lydia was determined to bring the state down and my heart broke for the two daughters of "June". I would definitely recommend this to every female!
I do not want to spoil everything (or Atwood's first book) for anyone wanting to read either but I will say that it definitely will make readers angry and then will spin everything you think you know.
It is still not confirmed who Offred is, what her real name is, but a lot is explained in the Symposium at the end of the book and in the Q&A with Atwood. Atwood claims that her ideas came from real life events (as most inspiration does for most writers) such as a Romanian Law stating that women had to have four babies and were forced to explain if they were not pregnant. I mean it is not difficult to find inspiration for a dystopian like this - just take a look at the USA a few years ago - but what Atwood manifested a scarily similar world with it, and then made us question how we would behave in that world.
Due to the intensity of Gilead, women and men were forced to choose between survival or loyalty. Which is which depends on who is deciding; Aunt Lydia - in the beginning - was forced to decide if she wanted to be tortured and then killed or if she wanted to join the Commanders and torture others to maintain order within the state. If it were me, I would have just let them kill me...although Aunt Lydia chose survival, she then twisted this and swore revenge on the Commanders and became determined to take the Republic of Gilead down. Does she succeed? You will have to find out.
So when it comes to rating this book, I will give it a star for the characters who I adored and related to. Especially "Daisy". Another star for the plot which was just plain fab! I really enjoyed the twists and the intensity of the plot, there was so much going on but not to the point where it was overwhelming. A star goes to the ease of reading as if I had my way, I would have read this all day! I flew through this book from enjoying it so much. I love Atwood's writing style and the world she has created - haunting and the correlations are terrifying - so definitely a fourth star for that! Amazing read!
★★★★☆
#readingchallenge #june #feminism #family #suspense #gilead #history #future #dystopia #fiction #women
留言