Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ had been on my TBR for far too long, even when it had a resurgence following the passing of Rode vs Wade I didn’t get around to reading it. It’s relevance with the current social context in the US is a stark example of dystopias becoming a reality, whereas in leaving it on my TBR for such a long time and hearing so much about it, I overestimated it and disappointment myself. The story focuses on Offred, a Handmaid living under an authoritarian government in Gilead that enforce strict religion and patriarchal systems, a woman’s role in society being determined by class and fertility. Handmaids serve the role of providing children for infertile upper classes as the population dwindles due to war (which is only mentioned as a background to the novel) and an unexplained reduction in human fertility. Atwood spent a lot of time Worldbuilding or going on off-topic tangents, neither of which I minded too much due to my fascination with dystopian systems, however simultaneously there was lacking elements in the actual plot. I disliked the breakaways where Offred broke the fourth wall and spoke to the reader, despite a system that restricted women for reading and writing, and she is never described to be writing this in secrecy. I won’t go into the ending, but it left the story unexplained and though there is a recent sequel (that I cannot be quoted talking on as I haven’t read it), it came out many years after The Handmaid’s Tale and I have heard doesn’t continue the same story anyhow. Though it has its flaws, the books relevance and the dystopia it establishes is highly commendable, and I think most of my disappointment is due to the long anticipation prior to finally reading this book.