Okay, where do I begin?
Well, firstly, go read the review of the first book in this series, The Handmaid's Tale - or better yet, go read the book! I have to admit that I am not good at reviews. I write book reviews because I like it, but I am not promising to change your life or whatever. This is just what I felt while reading the book.
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| ★★★★★ |
"Being able to read and write did not provide answers to all questions. It led to other questions, and then to others."
The Testaments follows the events in The Handmaid's Tale, only 15 years after and through the perspective of three other characters. And I enjoyed it.
Leave All Your Expectations at the Door
"Our time together is drawing short, my reader. Possibly you will view these pages of mine as a fragile treasure box, to be opened with the utmost care. Possibly you will tear them apart, or burn them: that often happens to words."
I heard many opinions about this book. Some were incredibly disappointed, other loved it more than the first book. So my advice would be... don't have any expectations. Go in with an open heart and just enjoy the ride.
It follows three characters, some new, some we are more or less familiar with, some are in Gilead, some outside. Will their fate intertwine? Well, obviously - it's a book thing that happens in all books, not a spoiler. But I had a great time getting to know the three voices of this novel and learn more about them.
There's a Tad Bit of YA
"I was the age at which parents suddenly transform from people who know everything into people who know nothing."
The tone and style of the book is quite different. It does not shock or scare you as much as the first book did, but that's probably because we are already familiar with Gilead.
Two of the POVs are quite young, which might explain why sometimes this book feels like a YA dystopian novel (minus the love triangle, or who knows). But I also feel like overall it is more idealistic than The Handmaid's Tale and things flow differently. Which is not bad, just different. And I think maybe more needed at the time I read the 2nd book.
Is The Testaments Necessary?
"I feared I might lose my faith. If you’ve never had a faith, you will not understand what that means. You feel as if your best friend is dying, that everything that defined you is being burned away; that you’ll be left all alone."
No, not really, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. We tend to want a conclusion, a true "The End", but I think we need to become more comfortable with not knowing, with continuously thinking about what happened, what could happen, and so on. And although The Testaments is not telling us what happens at the end of the first book, we can still piece things together, just like they are trying to do during the Gilead conventions in both books.
And if you still want to know what happens at the end of the first book... then watch the f*cking show! The way I see it, we have these two great books written decades apart, the events in them are 15 years apart, so from the 2nd season onward, the show is kinda telling you what happens in-between.
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood was first published in September 2019
and was joint winner of the 2019 Man Booker Prize, and it was also voted 'Best Fiction' novel in the Goodreads Choice Awards
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