I am so in the mood of reading dystopian novel right now. After finishing The Handmaid's Tale, I just picked up its sequel, The Testaments, right away.
This story is set 15 years after The Handmaid's Tale. It's narrated in 3 different POVs: Aunt Lydia (those who are familiar with The Handmaid's Tale will know who is the notorious Aunt Lydia), Agnes Jemima (a young woman who lives in Gilead and presumably, Offred and Luke's daughter), and Daisy (also known as, Baby Nicole, who is presumably, Offred and Nick's daughter). I love the fact that Atwood expanded the social class in Gilead. The process in choosing Aunts and their roles were explained in greater detail. We are also introduced to the Pearl Girls, a sub-class of Aunts whereby they act as Gilead's missionaries, going abroad to countries such as Canada to try and recruit more women to Gilead. I also love the fact that Atwood introduced some current issues in this story: the misogyny of the leader of a country, the failure of totalitarianism, refugee crisis, xenophobia and feminism.
As compared to The Handmaid's Tale, this book is more action packed, fast paced and less terrifying. However, the mental state of the characters were not fully flushed out. The most complex character would be Aunt Lydia. The character arc of Aunt Lydia is so deep, complex and dark. She is literally is my favourite character in this book! On the contrary, I think the character arc of Daisy is a little far-fetched and problematic to me. As such, I'll only give a 4.5/5 star rating for this book. Nevertheless, this is still an enjoyable read! Praise be! #margaretatwood #thetestaments #thehandmaidstale #bookstagram #igread #bookreview #bookstagrammer #bookoholic #beautifulbooks #bookcollector #booknerd #booklover #bookaddict #bookgeek #booksofinstagram #chattoandwindus #bookerprize2019 #gillerprize2019
Finally got to read the Queen of dystopian novel's work and i regretted for not picking this up earlier.
In this world created by Margaret Atwood, the infertility rate is very high. To solve this problem, a group of extremists took over the country and created the Republic of Gilead. They aimed to go back to the traditional values in order to increase the fertility rate to save mankind. They blame women as the cause of infertility. Hence, women, are just properties to men. They are not allowed to work, read, own property, speak out, and meddle into the affairs of men/the country. The social system of Gilead consists of the Commanders (men who rule / administer the country) with their Wives (most of them are infertile), the Aunts (who trained Handmaids), the Guardians (who are sort of like drivers or bodyguards to the Commanders), the Angels (who are like armies of Gilead), the Marthas (slaves or maids) and the Handmaids (whose role and destiny, according to God, is to procreate and act as a vessel for the Commander and his Wife's child). This story was narrated by Offred, a Handmaid and she took us through the oppressive state of women in Gilead.
In short, this world is super scary, sick and disgusting. This story is not for the faint-hearted. I am currently watching this TV series, which is really good, but I think the book is even scarier. The power of words and short sentences used by Margaret Atwood with her beautiful writing, makes the whole oppressive situation so descriptive and eery. Offred's state of mind in this disgusting country was perfectly described by Atwood. I can't imagine what Atwood was thinking when she wrote this book with such a scary but relevant concept and published it in 1986. After more than 30 years, i think this book is still relevant. Apart from issues such as feminism, surrogacy and homosexuality, this story serves as a warning to us as it showcases the effects of religion extremism. It depicts what will happen in future if religion extremists or close minded group of people took over the world.
Its scary. And I don't think anyone can live in this world. A definite 5/5 star rating from me. #thehandmaidstale #margaretatwood
"Fahrenheit 451: the temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns"
Dystopian fiction is one of the genres that I love other than fantasy. I picked this book up after constantly seeing it being listed in the Top 3 or Top 4 of the "Best Dystopian Novels" list. And I think it deserves such high praise.
Imagine a world where possession of books is illegal, a world where a fireman's job is to burn books rather than putting out fires, a society which resorts to the shallowness of media over books, a society without individuality, knowledge or freedom of thought and is in a state of complete utter innocent ignorance. Beware, Ray Bradbury has predicted our society to move towards such a state since 1953.
We follow the story of Guy Montag, a fireman whose sole job is to burn books. His life is mundane although he tried very hard to believe the propaganda that without books, men can find happiness. Such belief was shattered after his encounter with Clarisse McClellan who stimulated his curiosity and thought process resulting him to question his role as a fireman. The character arc of Guy Montag was brilliant as we can feel his internal struggles through Bradbury's beautiful writing.
In the world created by Bradbury, books have fallen out of favor as other mediums (in that society, radio and television) have taken over. What makes this dystopian novel great is that it is still relevant to the current society even though it was first published in 1953. In 2019, social media, Internet, technology has prevailed over books rendering us to have shorter attention span. “There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” While we are scrolling over our Instagram or Facebook posts, please do not give up reading books as well. Definitely a strong 4.8/5 star rating for this book
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I love the creativity of this story! We follow an Angel, Aziraphale and a Demon, Crowley whereby they have lived on Earth since the beginning of time. They have also formed a unique friendship and were attached to all the wonderful things in Earth. Eleven years ago, Crowley was given the anti-Christ by the Below to swap for a normal human child in preparation of the events leading to the end of the world. However, there is a bit of a mix-up (between him and the satanic nuns of The Chattering Order) and he loses track of the anti-Christ. Eleven years after, Aziraphale and Crowley realized the mistake made and were trying to locate the anti-Christ to stop the end of the world. There are also a lot of sub-plots with sub-characters such as the Witch who has a book of prophecies written by her ancestor, Witchfinders, the Four Horsemen (loved their sub-plots a lot!), the THEM which comprises of a group of pre-teens (led by Adam, who is apparently, the Anti-Christ). These sub-plots were beautifully linked together leading towards the final piece of the puzzle.
This book started off so strong but then it fell flat from the second half of the book onwards. I understand that Terry Pratchett has a unique writing style with obvious humor element incorporated into his stories. But honestly, sometimes I don't get his joke. And sometimes I think he tried too hard to be funny. After introducing Aziraphale and Crowley's characterization, I wanted to read more on their relationship but unfortunately it was taken over by the other sub-plots. Halfway through the story, the plot suffers from the usual pacing problem and it gets super slow.
I have then watched the TV series and felt that the adaptation is so much better than this book! It focuses a lot on the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley. I also can appreciate the humor element of this story more via the adaptation. All in all, this is only a 3.5/5 star read for me, but the adaptation on the other hand, deserves a 4.5/5 star rating! #bookstagram #bookreview #goodomens
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