A review by clovetra
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

wow does atwood come back with a BANG. holy shit.
this book was like straight up crack to me. i couldn’t get enough. if i didn’t have a test to study for, i easily could’ve finished this in a day or two.
the shining star of this book is EASILY aunt lydia. she is by far the most fascinating character in this story. i’ve never watched past the show’s first season other than a few tiktok clips hear & there, but wow is she intriguing. i love to hate her, as it were. she is so complex and so full of character, and her chapters following the inception of gilead were by far the most gripping.
the other two protagonists…Meh. i’ll say by far daisy was my least favourite. she seemed bland and generic. agnes felt like this at times as well, making their chapters seem incredibly juvenile. which duh yeah they’re children that’s the point. but also with atwood, i expect the cream of the crop. and having aunt lydia, the perfect picture of why atwood is so good, next to agnes and daisy? it was a bit.. disheartening. i enjoyed agnes’ chapters a bit more simply because she had eventful plot points going on around her, but even though daisy’s plot did have some significant events, they felt boring and shoe-horned in for me. idk i also found daisy quite unlikeable so maybe i just wanted to dislike her 🤷 idk sue me.
the plot was great! like i said at times this book felt a bit juvenile, especially those last 20 chapters, but overall i was gripped and dying to know what was going on.
i really had fun with this book. for me, the only thing holding it back is that it feels a bit too unrealistic at times. gilead is hinged on possibilities that seem so fantastical to us in the real world but also could realistically happen to society, yet with plot points surrounding the connection between gilead & the rest of the world it felt flat, and took me out of the story. not to mention the entire climax felt almost like a waste of time? idk i wish there was an additional epilogue. i do like the current epilogue as is, but i don’t think it was strong enough to exist on its own without a final chapter fully concluding the story. but hey that’s just me.
all that is to say, margaret atwood i am telepathically kissing you for creating one of the best, most fleshed-out and realistic dystopian worlds. queen shit. 
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