Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

135 reviews

aubsends's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and War

florenceassetto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

i LOVE the handmaid's tale! most definitely did myself a disservice in taking so long to get through it but the honest and rawness of the sentiments that offred echoes are so captivating for a reader and i cannot help but hurt for her in her suffering. i think handmaid's is so painfully relevant to the modern reader, just as it was when it first came out in the 1980s, and it speaks so truly to societal attitudes to what it means to be a woman, love, sex and sexuality, patriarchy and so much more. i would always recommend this book 100%, one of my favourite dystopias out there and truly a classic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Confinement, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Pregnancy

Minor: Antisemitism

latoyareadsdaily's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 This is my first Atwood book and I found it to be a realistic dystopian story. I appreciated it for what is: a story from what seems to be an unreliable narrator who just wanted to be free but endeavoured to live according to the rules of the system until she found what she thought was a pleasurable distraction.

I read the introduction by Atwood and that alone made me salivate for the story. I really liked the writing style because I was immediately transported to Offred's world and I saw some glimpses into "June's" world before she became a nameless womb for the system. I didn't know what to expect each time I had interaction with the book which was over a few weeks as I really took my time on the only part of the book I didn't like: the academic presentation that I understood but did not feel like it was necessary. It just seemed like an afterthought that made me angry because it spoiled the story for me.

I believe June's story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, and Pregnancy

ryleee's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Suicide

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, and Abortion

Minor: Slavery, Forced institutionalization, and Religious bigotry

lhorner06's review against another edition

dark inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I didn't much like the ending seemed a little rushed and not quite to quality of the rest of the book, though I'm hoping that The Testaments will clear that up. Easy to read and very enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, and Pregnancy

kileyjojo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Everything great has already been said about this book. It’s intriguing and horrific at times. The dystopian future is eerie and the fact that so much of this novel had been based on real events speaks volumes. It can be a hard read at times but it had a very powerful message.

The pacing does struggle every now and then and the ending feels abrupt. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

apatheticastronaut13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Colonisation, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kayjezza's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

The story is sort of based around the concept of sort of mandatory sex with a random person assigned to you. And that person is treated like Harry Potter in his broom cupboard, except they go to school for child bearing not magic and aren’t allowed to have friends.

pokecol's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

It is hard to say much about this book as a story because I feel fundamentally there isn't one. A good deal of the design of the plot layout is to inform us and to educate us in this frame of reference so that we might interpret the smaller actions within the bounds of this set-up. This is very good at doing its intended job, making us uncomfortable, question and abhorred by such a possible interpretation of the future.
However, as a narrative, the amount of content could make perhaps 3 or 4 chapters maximum. All that is told occurs as: part of the collective, Moira vanishes, meet a man, eventually find a zone of comfort in the horror, find Moira again and "escape". But also not really, because some of the events aren't true at all, a lot of the story ends up having been a fantasy of the Main Character derived to display a measure of comfort compared to what she is known in the identity of telling the story herself.
I do think there is of course a lot of power in this whole way of telling The Handmaid's Tale, but it makes for an admittedly very dull experience besides the deeper reflective context of the book.

Fundamentally the divined idea of the society proposed is disgusting and the hyper subjugation tickles a sore-point for me in a way I do not enjoy. I feel there is required reading in the intent of the novel but it only explores so much through the idea of our Main Character and provides little in the expansive meaning or identity of these change beyond hierarchy. As a story the snippets we flashback to and compare the lives before and after, is excellent and made for compelling hope in drawing our Main Character out from this world eventually.

But the fact of the matter is we do not really have any progress to the story, at all, for the first entire two thirds of the book, and then the last third ends up not even necessarily being true. I do not fault the MC for her choices and attitude, considering the circumstances she is very much doing better than one might expect - yet as having just finished it, I do not at all recall her name.
The fact that some points of reference are used to describe the horrific nature of the set-up but we skip over the "really bad" parts near the end seems to be a really weird choice. I have no interest in abuse topics at the best of times but I have to say that it seems a backwards idea to avoid that harshest dichotomy to near the conclusion in the failure to escape - even if it is to help frame the whole scenario as a more positive outcome.

Unlike other deeply dystopian outlooks on modernity, I do not feel I got so much a good a grasp on things that allowed me to live the experiences, or understand character perspective. I feel a little trite in critiquing The Handmaid's Tale for solely it's story content, because there is more message to it than that, however, such a message can be conveyed by many means and Margaret Atwood chose for it to be a fiction novel - and in many respects the fiction novel part is where it fails the most in my reading experience.
I do think though, the world is revoltingly plausible, and in many ways these smaller accumulating elements are no stranger to a 21st century world already. In predictive, and cautionary, writings such as this I think The Handmaid's Tale does do its job providing the subject matter to a reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

joensign's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, and Classism

Moderate: Gun violence, Infidelity, Torture, and Violence