The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault

 The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault-240 pages

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Goodreads Synopsis: Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships. She serves in the household of the Commander and his wife, and under the new social order she has only one purpose: once a month, she must lie on her back and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if they are fertile. But Offred remembers the years before Gilead, when she was an independent woman who had a job, a family, and a name of her own. Now, her memories and her will to survive are acts of rebellion.

Provocative, startling, prophetic, The Handmaid's Tale has long been a global phenomenon. With this stunning graphic novel adaptation of Margaret Atwood's modern classic, beautifully realized by artist Renee Nault, the terrifying reality of Gilead has been brought to vivid life like never before.

Thoughts: Provocative, startling, and prophetic are good adjectives for this book. I've heard so much about the series, especially with the HBO series of the same name. I saw this on the shelf at a local book store in New Orleans and was drawn to it. Having now read it (at least the graphic adaptation), I can see what all the talk is about. Honestly, shocking as the story is I don't think it's that outlandish. That's the thing about a lot of dystopian fiction. We may want to think something like it isn't possible, but I think it very well could be if we're not careful. This is a good, if heavy, read. 

Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood 331 pages

The novel that takes place in the future where religion has taken over in a very extreme way and fertility is at an all time low. Women who are fertile are assigned as "handmaids" to a wealthy family where they are given food and shelter in return for making and carrying a baby with the "commander" of the house. If they are successful in having a healthy child, the handmaids will give the baby to the family and be assigned to a different family. There reward is that they will be saved from the "colonies." This is a story about one of the handmaids.

I found the book to be very disturbing but it was extremely creative and well thought out, it was very thought provoking and I would recommend it.