This book had me reading well into the early hours of the morning – it gave me what The Handmaid’s Tale left me wanting – more details about Gilead in the early days and different characters’ perspectives. The Testaments follows on from The Handmaid’s Tale, though not directly. We leave behind Offred’s story and instead have the testimony of three different women – Aunt Lydia, a Daughter and a free Canadian – several years after the cliffhanger ending of The Handmaid’s Tale. I really like that this story gives us more than one perspective, whilst still presenting the information as found evidence several years later. But, whilst I like this format, I find it puzzling (or grating, I’ve not decided) that there are still some questions left explicitly unanswered – I can’t say more without revealing key plot information, but I think those that have read it will probably understand what I mean. Is this a commercial choice to tease at the possibility of further books, or an alternate commercial choice to leave the HBO tv series room for maneuver as the ending The Handmaid’s Tale did? Or is it a continuation of the dystopia we are presented with – it isn’t like a fairy tale with a happy ending and all loose ends tied together in a neat bow. That would utopian after all.
The Testaments follows on from The Handmaid’s Tale, though not directly. We leave behind Offred’s story and instead have the testimony of three different women – Aunt Lydia, a Daughter and a free Canadian – several years after the cliffhanger ending of The Handmaid’s Tale.
I really like that this story gives us more than one perspective, whilst still presenting the information as found evidence several years later. But, whilst I like this format, I find it puzzling (or grating, I’ve not decided) that there are still some questions left explicitly unanswered – I can’t say more without revealing key plot information, but I think those that have read it will probably understand what I mean. Is this a commercial choice to tease at the possibility of further books, or an alternate commercial choice to leave the HBO tv series room for maneuver as the ending The Handmaid’s Tale did? Or is it a continuation of the dystopia we are presented with – it isn’t like a fairy tale with a happy ending and all loose ends tied together in a neat bow. That would utopian after all.