I read this book a few year ago, and for the book club I was going to re-read it. However, January did not go very smoothly and so I didn’t re-read it. So…

As I remember it is a book set in a dystopian future in what part of the USA becomes. It is a society in which only some women are able to give birth to children. These women are used like and treated as less than human – a sort of slavery. This book is the story of one woman’s attempt to escape the oppression and gain freedom.

What I liked about this book…
Is its penetrating and imaginative insights on the human condition, especially the place of women in society and the many ways that women have been (and are) oppressed in the world. Even in many small details, important points are being made.

What I didn’t like so much…
This book is definitely set in the future, and has something of a sci-fi feel to it. Yet despite that the world that is created doesn’t quite come into focus for me. On one hand this could be seen as intriguing – we don’t fully get to see everything. But at the same time it feels almost as if the story could have been set anywhere, and the setting is just incidental. For fans of dystopias/sci-fi/fantasy and the art of world-building (such as myself) this is a bit disappointing. It would have been good to see the hinted at first hand collapse of the Republic of Gilead rather than suggested in an epilogue.

What is it really about?
It is really about what it is actually about – feminism!

Overall verdict: Hard-hitting speculative fiction 8/10