The Testaments: A Novel (The Handmaid's Tale) Paperback – September 1, 2020

I absolutely loved The Testaments. As a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, it exceeded my expectations: richly layered, fast-paced, and deeply satisfying. Atwood masterfully returns to the world of Gilead, not to repeat the past but to expand it, giving us new perspectives and, finally, a sense of possibility.Told through the voices of three women, including the formidable Aunt Lydia, we get an inside look at the regime’s inner workings and its cracks. Each narrative adds depth and urgency, and I found myself racing through the chapters, eager to see how their stories would converge.While The Handmaid’s Tale left us in suspense, The Testaments offers a sense of resolution without losing the sharp critique and moral complexity that made the original so powerful. Atwood doesn’t just revisit Gilead: she reshapes it.This sequel felt both timely and timeless, and I truly couldn’t put it down. For fans of The Handmaid’s Tale, it is not just a worthy follow-up: it’s essential.

Popcorn and candy bars, or filet mignon -- which do you prefer?Of course that’s something of a ridiculous question. If you’re like me, you love both, and they both are excellent treats, not meant for daily consumption. However, sometimes popcorn and candy bars make more sense, and junky food like that is what you want, and at other times filet mignon is what’s needed to make your soul complete.I don’t know exactly what I was expecting from this sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. It was a good read, and I raced through it, but it felt like eating popcorn and candy bars, whereas reading The Handmaid's Tale feels like eating filet mignon. Atwood is undoubtedly in a very different place now (along with the entire world) than when The Handmaid's Tale was written back in the 1980’s, and I have to imagine that has something to do with it, but The Testaments feels very direct and plot-driven, whereas The Handmaid's Tale was more poetic and ambiguous. Some of that may have to do with the story itself -- June’s story in The Handmaid's Tale was created under circumstances that lent themselves to hiding, ambiguity, and even poetry and lyricism, whereas the accounts of the three women in The Testaments are much more direct, having been made either from a place of power, both known and secret (Aunt Lydia) or from a place of relief and retrospectiveness (Agnes and Nicole).Atwood beautifully begins the three stories as independent tales, but slowly begins to intertwine them in sometimes predictable but also surprising ways. Unlike The Handmaid's Tale, there is more of a real conclusion to the story in this book. It’s so definite that I would be tremendously surprised if there was a third book in this series. It also ends with another Gilead research symposium transcript as at the end of The Handmaid's Tale, which serves to flesh out even more of the ending of the story. However, I wonder if Atwood was being a little sneaky here -- did anyone else notice that these Gilead researchers were spending part of their time playing with Gileadean things, such as the Recreational Gilead Period Hymn Sing and the Period Costume Reenactment Day? It struck me as odd, and I have to wonder if this was Atwood’s way of warning us that even seemingly beneficial fascination with, and study of, historical periods can be like playing with fire, risking planting the seeds of repeating history. It just sounded too much like things like Civil War reenactors and all of that worship of the Civil War era, which is still very much with us today.Also, I was glad to see that Aunt Lydia really did have a soul in this book. We have gotten glimpses of that in the TV show, of course, but I always felt that there was more there, and The Testaments gives some pretty satisfying answers to her motivation, although still on the popcorn level and not that of the filet mignon. The passages recounting the way in which Aunt Lydia became one of the founders of Gilead’s version of a convent were some of the most fascinating and satisfying in the whole book.All in all, this book was well worth the read and I enjoyed it immensely.

Great sequel to A Handmaids Tale. It have multiple POVs versus the first book’s single POV. It was an interesting read.

Not in a very great while have I been able to finish a 400+ page book in 24 hours, which is precisely what happened with "The Testaments". I love reading and am a fairly fast-paced with a good book, but with my day job and my second "professional hobby" as a sound engineer it's very difficult for me to get in 20-30 pages of quality reading in any given day/night. It sadly takes me close to 3-4 weeks each to read fantasy novels like the A Song of Ice and Fire or Wheel of Time series.However...I basically put my life on pause for this book, as soon as I started reading it (and listening to it, more on that in a bit). Having binged "The Handmaid's Tale" series on Hulu earlier this summer and subsequently reading the original 1985 novel, the way this book adds to its previous media (including, very heavily I might add, the TV series) is absolutely delightful. This is an example where the author has the readers'/viewers' interest in mind, and is not just some bombastic continuation of the story just to sell copies.That being said, the book is broken up into 3 sections, all being told retrospectively some years after the last season of "The Handmaid's Tale":1) Aunt Lydia, from her stance as basically the matriarch of Gilead;2) Daisy, a teenager in Toronto during the prime days of Gilead;3) Agnes, who, if you've watched the TV series, you already know who this character is.This book finds itself in a very unique position not common in sequels because of the mixed background of any possible reader. It could stand alone okay, but not nearly as well as serving as the direct follow up to just the novel. But for the ultimate experience - it does fan service to those who have read and watched "The Handmaid's Tale". Because the show still has a little bit to go (who knows how long) the time distance and the plot points set in "The Testaments" surprisingly do not write each other into a corner, but provides even more anticipation for how the entire timeline of Gilead will be explored. It's like the tightening of a fishing line in a pond - you know something's at the end and you're excited to have caught it, but reeling it all in is part of the experience - and that will be the job of the last seasons of the show.There are some great twists and turns in this book as there is in the preceding media, however it is best to leave all detail out. I am going to admit - being the harsh critic that I am - some of the ending does seem a bit forced especially on Aunt Lydia's part and I was able to predict a few things quite far in advance - but I've consumed all the previous media. A few predicable details did not deter me from reading any further, particularly during the beginning it even had a paradoxical effect: enhancing the experience as I turned the pages...or the seconds of the audiobook.In another unique twist of my own accord - I actually started 'The Testaments' with Audible when I was at work (and I typically despise audiobooks unless I'm on a solo road trip) and this is one of those rare exceptions (to me) where the audiobook might be even more compelling than just the text on a page. The main reason: Ann Dowd, the phenomenal actress that plays Aunt Lydia in the TV series, reads her sections in that familiar piously strict voice of hers that we all love to hate from the Show. Bryce Dallas Howard and Mae Whitman also NAIL their respective characters' "voice" and I was sucked into the beginning 10 chapters while crunching numbers at work and I'm so glad I did. It felt more like a radio broadcast than anything else and is part of why I sped through this book. Even if you've read this already, play the audiobook if you have some hours to kill. You won't regret it.If you're a fan of the Gilead alternate universe (let's face it, no one is a fan of Gilead itself...but you know what I mean) then this is essential reading, obviously. If you've only read the novel, I highly suggest watching the entire series (and if you are in the middle of it, you should finish it). The whole is MUCH greater than the sum of its parts, a rare feat for a "mixed media" type of experience.