Rating: 3.5 stars

The Handmaid's tale is a classic for a reason. It's a powerful text, and I wish I'd gotten around to reading it sooner, particularly when some of my favourite books are 'Handmaid's Tale inspired'. I'm looking forward to reading The Testament and digging into the TV show. I've been holding out until I finished the book, so now it's time!

My favourite part of this novel was the worldbuilding. Gilead is vividly described, and the flashbacks allow the reader to start piecing together what happened to end up at this point. This was particularly interesting to me because this transitional period, even shown in small snippets, is unusual for dystopian novels. In my experience the vast majority of dystopian characters are born into the inequalities the reader sees them wrestle with. It would be interesting to see more of that transitioning period to understand how a recognisably independent world could become so restrictive and subjugating.