What I Loved:

The Testaments was everything I hoped it would be! I loved the three perspectives that this story was told through. It propelled the book forward and gave insight into different things that were happening. The three characters that were narrating had different experiences and thoughts, and I enjoyed all three.

How I Felt:

Hyped books come with a lot of expectation. I put off reading this one for quite a while. I was extremely worried I wouldn’t like it and would be utterly disappointed. The beginning of this book was a bit slow as the scene was set and characters were introduced. It picked up a few chapters in though, and didn’t slow back down at all!

The characters were surprising. I didn’t expect Aunt Lydia to make an appearance in this book, but I’m so glad she did. Her portions provided SO much backstory. She gave me all the answers to questions I had after reading The Handmaid’s Tale! She was rigid and strict, but she has another side that was surprising and extremely interesting.

The other two main characters are young girls who have only ever known life as it is today. Young and close in age, these two girls provide extremely different perspectives into this world. Agnes is the daughter of a Commander in Gilead and has only ever known this world. Nicole on the other hand, grew up in Canada looking down on the Gilead society, never interested in getting near them. Between the two girls, I felt like I had a rounded view of the world in and outside of Gilead.

This story was quite different than what I expected, in a great way. 15 years after The Handmaid’s Tale ends, this picks up and you immediately know something has gone wrong. The narrator portions are testimony, making it clear that some sort of court action is being taken. You don’t know what though. The testimony is the telling of the story, so you jump back in time with the narrator. I loved how this happened. At times, we lived the same scene over, but from a different narrator’s perspective, giving a different view and new information. I enjoyed how the story was like a puzzle, piece by piece coming together for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Testaments. I liked the character choices and the way the story unfolds for the reader. I finally feel like I finally have some answers after The Handmaid’s Tale.

To Read or Not To Read:

I would recommend The Testaments to readers that have read The Handmaid’s Tale. I think that without having read this book first, The Testaments might still be a good book, but would not be as impactful to the reader.

If you haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, check out my review!

Where to Find This Book:

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood is available at these sites.

Amazon Kindle | Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org

When the van door slammed on Offred’s future at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her–freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood’s sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

“Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.” –Margaret Atwood 

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood 
Series: The Handmaid’s Tale Book 2
Genre: Dystopian / Science Fiction
Page Count: 381 pages
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Pub Date: September 10, 2019

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