The Handmaid's Tale

I believe I may have been the last person on the planet to familiarize myself with The Handmaid's Tale. I didn't know anything about the book and I haven't watched a second of the insanely popular Hulu series. But, I was always intrigued and it takes a lot less time to read a book than it does to binge watch a TV series.

So, there I was, wondering, WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG?

I actually don't think a lot of people are aware that the show is based on a book; maybe that's because the book came out in the early 1980s. I actually only heard about it when the sequel was released last month. It was time to dive in.

You probably know the basic gist: we're in the future and the world has drastically changed. Fertility rates have dropped, women are now property, and some exist with the sole purpose of procreating. We never even hear the main character's first name as she narrates this unthinkable world. Slowly, she reveals details about her life but also the slow progress of how society ended up this way. She talks about walking through the city she had lived in, trying to remember what was there before. How when things change in that way, the past world slowly melts away.

It's about power, control, sexism, fear... And, it's absolutely riveting. The simple way its written makes the horror of the story feel even more real. 

In the introduction to the book, Margaret Atwood explains that she won't write about anything that hasn't already happened somewhere in the world. Reading that, then reading the book make the reality more chilling.

I'm working on the sequel now...