A review by tchristman
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

2.0

I always feel a little discombobulated when I don’t like a book that so many do. I have no idea how this could have a 4.22 star rating! Did I miss something?? This story barely held my interest and the writing was cliched and immature. The only reason I even finished it was because my library loan was expiring and I felt pressured. I am not sure how someone who wrote such a profound story as the Handmaid’s Tale could have produced this barely adequate piece of completely predictable, teen dystopian fluff. The “what happened after” story, really? The focus was all wrong. Atwood breezed over the interesting bits, while focusing in on completely uninteresting details, like how a wedding dress looked. Who cares? Where is the big picture? Aunt Lydia’s story was by far the most interesting. Without this, the book was a complete goner. You got a bit of the Handmaid flavor. I found her story compelling and her character briefly bloomed to life. Although, again, too much minutia of detail and not enough digging into the engaging story line of her conversion. Agnes’s story was just boring. I had no interest in what was happening with her. At all. And Daisy was actively unlikable. What made the Handmaids Tale interesting was the how and why, which was completely glossed over. The transcript ending, which summarizes the most interesting aspects in a few badly written paragraphs was so infuriating to me (Laughter). It went round and round in circles, as if even it could not believe how badly it was going. What I wanted to know about Agnes was her reaction to and her process of integrating into a less repressed society. What I wanted to know about Daisy was nothing. Daisy’s role was completely irrelevant. I am not understanding why so much was made of who she was (big surprise!), when it just completely fizzled out. She had no impact on the story line whatsoever. She literally could not have existed and the story would have been the same. And the most intriguing part should have been the fall of Gilead, which was completely ignored. It fell. Ok. That was a whole lot of build up to a tiny, tiny climax. I’m assuming there was some kind of pressure on Atwood to write this due to the Hulu series, but she should have left well enough alone. I am now questioning if maybe the Handmaid’s Tale wasn’t actually as good as I remember.