Book Review: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood


The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟 (3 stars)
Publisher: Chatto & Windus

I'm torn between 3 and 4 stars. And I can't tell you how much that saddens me.

This began wonderfully and Aunt Lydia really saved the whole thing for me so I'm very glad I've read it. But here's the thing, I was never in this for what happened to OfFred's baby Nicole. I cared more what happened to her first child that was taken from her but that's not what made me want to know more at the end of The Handmaid's Tale. I was always most interested in Gilead and how this society took over and took shape (who are these Sons of Jacob who attacked & liquidated Congress... like, what does that even mean?! I need details!). I was relishing learning how it falls and seeing it happen. Well, that's hinted at, glossed over and it's stated it does indeed fall but there's nothing here to show it. And that was profoundly disappointing to this reader.

I should also say, I've only watched the first season of the series (I have to pace myself with intake of misery porn & borderline misery porn between books & television) and this may well read differently for those who have watched more of the series. I showed up for strictly the book Gilead and I don't think The Testaments is just an answer for that.

I've mentioned that Aunt Lydia was the saving grace for me, so I should also say the real drag in the story was Daisy aka Baby Nicole. She was exceedingly tedious and I had a very difficult time buying her and buying the fact that she'd survive given the stakes. She never seemed to really understand the danger or gravity of the situation into which she was thrust. She did at least convince me that Gilead was indeed on the cusp of its nadir as she wasn't summarily dispatched. Agnes Jemima was much more tolerable and not just because she was in her early twenties for much of her recounting. I understood her actions and thinking and even empathized with her given the circumstances. Her friend Becka aka Aunt Immortelle was, of the three young women the one who I will remember most fondly. She was pathos personified.

Also to the good were moments of wry wit and some truly memorable quotes that will remain with me. Atwood has a turn of phrase that demands notice. Recommended, even though you can't go home again. Not even to the hellscapes.

Some of my favourite quotes:

"I was pleased with this story. Ir was only later that I pondered it" how could Job have allowed God to fob off a batch of new children on him and expect him to pretend that the dead ones no longer mattered?" It's always nice to see a character voice a long-held opinion of your own.

"The strain of being in a strange and debilitating environment, such as Canada, can have that effect."

"Not for nothing do we at Ardua Hall say "Pen is Envy."

"Reading was not for girls; only men were strong enough to deal with the force of it; and the Aunts, of course, because they weren't like us."

"All things come to she who waits. Time wounds all heels. Patience is a virtue. Vengeance is mine."

"What am I doing here? I thought. This place is weird as fuck."

"The truth can cause a lot of trouble for those who are not supposed to know it."

From the Afterword:

"How did Gilead fall? The Testaments was written in response to this question. Totalitarianism may crumble from within, as they fail to keep the promises that brought them to power, or they may be attacked from without; or both. There are no surefire formulas since very little in history is inevitable."


Summary: More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.
Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.

As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.
Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.
As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.




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