Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Handmaid's Tale

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

397 reviews

vulcajes's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

1.0

Hated this book so damn much. I understand what Atwood was going for, and I understand why she made Offred so insane, but my god. What the hell is going on. Why does Offred want to fuck an egg.

Also Atwood said that she never intended for Offred's name to be June, which doesn't matter but pisses me off personally. Literally why else were there so many June references throughout the entire book. June is the only name in Chapter 1 that we don't see repeated. The month June is in the book. Aunt Lydia tells the handmaids to stop mooning and June-ing. Margaret what the fuck.

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itsredandread's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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mhmmmichelle's review against another edition

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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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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katiey's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

5.0

Everyone should read this book. It is written in a vivid way that makes the strange world and characters jump out and feel so real. I love how the way it is written truly makes it feel like the main character telling her story to someone. In some ways a cautionary tale, as well as a reflection on patriarchy and control of women, it is an important story to be told and to be read. This book pulled raw emotion out of me.

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wjb11's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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emilyvannoy's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

4.0

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bookwitch's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.25

First time ever reading this classic, and without having seen the show beforehand. The way that Atwood explains that she created this story using examples of things that already exist, and have already happened in our (or other's) history, make this even more unnerving than originally thought. It is perfectly fine to point at this dystopian novel and say "we don't want things to ever get to this point." But unlike saying that about books like Divergent or The Hunger Games, The Handmaid's Tale doesn't make up laws or situations that have not existed before, instead, they show you exactly how things can unravel (realistically I might add) to this point, or a point that looks like this. That in turn, makes a story like this much more realistic, and something of true concern, especially looking at the political cesspool of late.

The writing style, while by the end of the book makes more sense, was tough at times to keep up with. It was a bit broken up, and hard to piece together into a cohesive narrative. It was difficult to always be completely immersed in this world and this story, based on the way it was told, although, like I said, it makes more sense at the end.

While books like this are incredibly unnerving and make me want to scream from the rooftops for people look and listen, and heade these warnings; this is not why I rated the book so low. Like I mentioned, the writing style of the story was hard for me to stay fully immersed in throughout the reading experience, and I personally despise open endings, so those are the reasons for my rating.

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