This book was disturbing.

There's no other way to describe it - disturbing, haunting, echoing, loitering. It sticks with you, it pulls you in every time you put it down. Certainly, it is deserving of its position as a must-read, as a classic.

Potentially most enthralling about it, is the unknown. We don't know the narrator, we can't fully trust everything she says - we can't even be sure it's at all true. Rather than take away from the story line, this acts to pull you in - this unknown women, Offred, could quite easily be you, or your mother, or your sister; she becomes a symbol for femininity.

However, it was not a perfect book. The idea that within the space of 10 years she has forgotten everything about her past life, that the state she lives in has changed so drastically, to me, seemed unrealistic. It bothered me that her level of distance from the 'old world' was so ingrained and yet did not seem to really push the plot forward in any way.

Other than this slight irritant, the novel was undoubtedly as good as everyone says and I will certainly be reading the sequel as soon as possible!