I do like a good dystopic book and this one is unique in its own way.

I don’t recall reading another one that was focused on this utilitarian role assigned to women: get pregnant or become an outcast. And the cherry on top was the idea of these women being sent from family to family in order to give birth.

This was a bit too much for me, it felt very dehumanizing.

Where there are tight rules and order, there is also an underground scene of all the prohibited things and we get to see it.

One thing that I didn’t enjoy that much was the lack of context.

We know there was a before, where things were normal, and now there is an after where everything is covered in a veil of religion and strict rules that mainly apply to women (but not only). We know there is a war going on, we might be winning or losing it, and their enemies seem to be another religious faction.

The story revolves around our handmaid, and it works without these details.

I liked the ending, the setup and scene of this big conference taking place where the handmaid tale is discussed as one of the few recordings of that period that survived and provides a glimpse of what life was like in the Republic of Gilead. The speculations, the possibilities of uncovering more in the future, also acknowledging some of the shortcomings of the material that are missing important pieces of this puzzle of an era.