The Testaments - now with spoilers

[aurora]

I remembered it's coming out this fall, but didn't remember when: 9/10. NPR has a 23-min reading by Atwood and a little bit about the story:

www.npr.org/2019/09/04/754859270/first-read-hear-margaret-atwood-tell-the-tale-of-the-testaments

Guess it's time to order it!

ETA spoiler tag so we can discuss.

[Vespasia]

I was #250+ on the library hold but somehow received it today, which I'm pretty sure was a mistake. Unfortunately, I am not at all prepared because I want to reread Handmaid's Tale first. I read that back in middle school and only vaguely remember the story and haven't watched the show. 

I downloaded it to my rarely used Kindle Fire and then disabled the internet so hopefully it will still be there when I am ready!

[aurora]

I'm 60% through my Handmaid's re-read and The Testaments should arrive today. Must read faster!

[rainbowchip]

Should we do a discussion in this thread? I just finished it last night!

[aurora]

Sept 19, 2019 14:46:22 GMT -5 rainbowchip said:

Should we do a discussion in this thread? I just finished it last night!

I'm game! I also just finished. Let me see if I can edit the title...

[rainbowchip]

I thought that Aunt Lydia parts were kind of boring. I get that they were good background and filling in details but they dragged for me.

It's been a while since I read the book and maybe I'm just using the show reference incorrectly, but wasn't Hannah like 6 or 7 when she was taken away from June? Wouldn't she at least have a little bit of memory of that or did Gilead brainwash her to forget?

Also, I totally saw that Daisy/Jade was Nicole almost from the beginning of the book. The foreshadowing was a little heavy for my taste.

[Vespasia]

I really enjoyed this until "Nicole" got to Gilead. They spent time training her and then she acted like a petulant brat. I don't know if it was to show that she was a normal teenager or to contrast her with Agnes but it was annoying.

I just reread Handmaid's Tale and I don't understand how they knew Offred was pregnant. Why did her daughter become a figurehead when there were probably lots of babies taken out? Lydia needing Nicole to get the story out didn't make a lot of sense either, aside from making a good plot.

Still, I thought it was a good resolution to the story and I'm not disappointed.

[rainbowchip]

Sept 23, 2019 20:55:25 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

I really enjoyed this until "Nicole" got to Gilead. They spent time training her and then she acted like a petulant brat. I don't know if it was to show that she was a normal teenager or to contrast her with Agnes but it was annoying.

I honestly didn't understand why they sent her in at all. Couldn't they smuggle out the thing they put under her skin with anyone? It didn't seem to be anything that specifically had to be done by her.

[aurora]

So... I got distracted after changing the thread title and never came back. Sorry!

I actually just mentioned this in the CEP board thread but I'm a little sad again that the whole story wasn't left hanging, i.e., the original HMT. In other words, I always thought a lot of the power in that book was the uncertainty. Who was Offred? Did she get out alive?

But, having now watched all three seasons of the Hulu show, I can never go back to that uncertainty. So in the end, I appreciate Atwood putting her version out there.

Obviously the Aunt Lydia in the book is much more sympathetic than the one in the show. I think I can get the book version. She's not a good person, but not everything she does is evil. I can both dislike her and also respect her role in the fall of Gilead.

I had a harder time with Nicole. I didn't find it believable that she got in and out of Gilead so easily. This might be tempered by 3 seasons of watching June try to escape on Hulu.

The whole thing about how to recruit new aunts (Agnes!) was definitely interesting. Also the parts about Commander Judd since he was mentioned at the end of the original book but not much in the show.

[aurora]

Sept 20, 2019 22:23:47 GMT -5 rainbowchip said:

I thought that Aunt Lydia parts were kind of boring. I get that they were good background and filling in details but they dragged for me.

It's been a while since I read the book and maybe I'm just using the show reference incorrectly, but wasn't Hannah like 6 or 7 when she was taken away from June? Wouldn't she at least have a little bit of memory of that or did Gilead brainwash her to forget?

Also, I totally saw that Daisy/Jade was Nicole almost from the beginning of the book. The foreshadowing was a little heavy for my taste.

I thought Hannah was more like 3-4, but that could be my memory of the Hulu show impacting my memory of the book. When I re-read the book, it was clear that June was trying not to think too much about Hannah in order to hold herself together, so there weren't many clues.

I agree that Nicole was pretty obvious.

[aurora]

Sept 23, 2019 20:55:25 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

I really enjoyed this until "Nicole" got to Gilead. They spent time training her and then she acted like a petulant brat. I don't know if it was to show that she was a normal teenager or to contrast her with Agnes but it was annoying.

I just reread Handmaid's Tale and I don't understand how they knew Offred was pregnant. Why did her daughter become a figurehead when there were probably lots of babies taken out? Lydia needing Nicole to get the story out didn't make a lot of sense either, aside from making a good plot.

Still, I thought it was a good resolution to the story and I'm not disappointed.

Were there a lot of babies successfully smuggled out? I'm not convinced.

But even if there were, Commander Waterford was still pretty powerful when June was taken away, so I could see how his story of his lost "daughter" (unrelated to him) could have been broadcast more widely.

[aurora]

Sept 24, 2019 7:08:08 GMT -5 rainbowchip said:

Sept 23, 2019 20:55:25 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

I really enjoyed this until "Nicole" got to Gilead. They spent time training her and then she acted like a petulant brat. I don't know if it was to show that she was a normal teenager or to contrast her with Agnes but it was annoying.

I honestly didn't understand why they sent her in at all. Couldn't they smuggle out the thing they put under her skin with anyone? It didn't seem to be anything that specifically had to be done by her.

I agree that this was a plot weakness.

[ufcasey]

Just remembered to come back to this spoiler thread now that I am finished with the book!

I absolutely agree with the above comments by rainbowchip /aurora /Vespasia, about why Daisy/Jade/Nicole was just kind of a terrible character and also did not logically make sense for her to have been the one to carry the data thing in her skin. I mean, couldn't ANYONE else in Gilead have done that? Specifically why was it not the Pearl Girl that was murdered in Canada for trying to protect Nicole's identity in the first place during the same time period that Nicole's fake parents were murdered? She obviously was way better at subterfuge and had access to the May Day people and to Aunt Lydia (or whatever they were called in Canada - I listened to the audiobook so I can't look up easily). That whole Nicole storyline screamed 'YA dystopian novel' to me and I was not enjoying it. I mean, Nicole saw the whole 'death by Hand Maidens' spectacle and that made zero impression on her in regards to the need to go along more with the new rules. But sure, pick her to have such an important role.

Also, can we talk about poor Becka?! She may have been way too much of a 'true believer' but she didn't deserve to die that way.