There was something compelling here, I'm just not sure what it is. It's not the writing, which was choppy and disaffected. It's not the setting, because as far as I could tell, nothing about these stories being set in Palo Alto affected them one way or another. It sure as hell wasn't the characters, because I hated almost every single one of these kids.

All of the above issues were annoying enough for me that I didn't bother trying to figure out what kept me going enough to finish the entire book, and I think that's the main problem with these stories. James Franco is almost ruthless about how much he doesn't care, which comes across through these children.

If there's one true thing about this book, it's that it displays just how messed up this generation can be, and that people move on from horrible things as if nothing ever happened.

I would have liked this so much better if it wasn't dripping in what another reviewer called "poet voice". Half the time Atwood's prose is so flowery I had no idea what the hell was going on, and I began to lose interest in the story - which was frustrating in that Atwood was never too clear about. I know, it's called The Handmaid's Tale, so of course everything we see is through Offred's thoughts and feelings, but I really wanted to learn more about how the world got that way, not how she sees the way flowers bloom or whatever.

I'm tired. This review would probably make more sense if I weren't, but there you have it.