"The Testaments (2019), written by Margaret Atwood, is a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale (1985). The novel's events occur fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale. The novel is narrated by: Aunt Lydia, a character from the previous novel; Agnes, a young woman living in Gilead; and Daisy, a young woman living in Canada. "

https://naomeapeteceestudar.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-testaments.html

Here it goes in a BookRing!

1. kizmiaz
2. irus
3. conto
4. Maria-Nunes

got the book this week and I'm already 100 pages in.
Looking good.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This was a very good read.
Atwood writes in such a way that one cannot help but being drawn into the story.
The plot is tight and the characters are very well built, which helps the reader dive into the mad world of Gilhead.
The Handmaid's Tale is one of the best books by this author and it would be very hard for her to top it, the expectations were high. The TV series didn't do much for me, I liked the first season, thought the second was all stuffing and the third just could not end fast enough.
So starting this book I was a bit fearful of what I might find, hoping for the best and expecting the worse.
After two thirds of the story it became very obvious what was coming next and that bothered me a little as it took all the possible twists and turns out of the equation.
I did like the Pearl Girls Idea and enjoyed the development the Aunt Lydia character gets, not so much the other two main characters.
A good follow up to a great book and that is what it felt like for me.
There's plenty of food for thought here and some very good quotes from most of the characters, this was one of my favourites:"Nobody is any authority on the fucks other people give"

With me now. Can't wait to get started!!! ;)
And what a wonderful front and back covers!
Try and find the two girls in both. Easy in the front but no so much in the back.

As usual, Atwood doesn't disappoint because she writes brilliantly and The Testaments is a page-turner. Given.
Still, I cannot say that she delivers as much as promised by my own expectations (which she created. Therefore, not entirely my fault).
I know it was impossible to repeat what was done with The Handmaid's Tale, and that feeling of wonderment when finding out that it was not an historical novel but on the contrary, a contemporary one, even if slightly into the future. But still, I was expecting to feel that it was a very possible past, present and/or future, as much as I felt with The Handmaid's Tale. And I didn't really.
Mostly, I didn't relate to what Gilead meant for so many any more (as it was so obvious in The Handmaid's Tale) as I didn't relate to the whole history of Aunt Lydia, because it just doesn't ring as true... And finally I couldn't quite buy the reason for the final blow on the system, because there was nothing really new on the revelations made.
Where The Handmaid's Tale is very realistic, The Testaments is not. Where The Handmaid's Tale's characters were very plausible ones, The Testament's aren't or at lest no as much. Where in The Handmaid's Tale I'd ask myself what I would have done in Offred's place, I never did with The Testaments because I just couldn't picture me in the place of any of the characters. Where in The Handmaid's Tale less is said except for what Offred knows and experiences, in The Testaments everything is explained and every doubt you might have is answered. There was no need for that, I think.
I believe Atwood deserves a Nobel Prize but I'm sorry to say that I don't think this book deserved the Booker Prize.
In spite of everything I did love reading it and I was more that anxious to do so! Thanks for it!!

It has just arrived here!
Thank you!

I am not a fan of sequels or Series.
For me The Handmaid's Tale was complete in itself and no need for a sequel.
But I did like The Testaments very much.
It brings new insights into the world of Gilead.
It is a very good book.

Enviado hoje para a irus :-)

Uau! Its huge!
Feel like starting it right now, but I'm in the middle of another huge book, so it will have to wait a little bit...

As conto says above, the book is a page-turner and I read it in few days.
However, that's also one of its flaws. Instead of detaining itself in the depth of some characters it just goes on and on, everything explained, nothing left for the imagination.
Being Atwood of of the consultants of the most recent TV series (the 3rd season I watched recently) is seemed also strange to me that this book has no relation - or only very few - to previous events that took place in the series. For instance, Aunt Lydia's past working in a kindergarten seemed more real in the TV than her being a lawyer. Its also strange that the Agnes girl doesn't have any memory of her mother.
I also would like that the past of Daisy wasn't so obvious since almost the first pages. Mentions to other places from the Handmaid's Tale (the book) - like the Colonies and the brothel - also disappeared completely on this one, like they didn't exist anymore or weren't a possible punishment to women.
Anyway, on the overall it was a pleasant reading, provided that we don't expect the same as Handmaid's Tale.

28 january: sent to a non-BC address, according to ladylouve instructions.