Book 19: The Testaments

The Testaments is Margaret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. It is incredible; I loved it.

Three women narrate the book: Aunt Lydia from The Handmaid's Tale and two young girls, Agnes and Daisy. Agnes and Daisy appear in The Handmaid's Tale, but we know nothing of their thoughts in that book. Both girls are daughters of June (or Offred) the original handmaid.

I was most interested in Aunt Lydia's story. She had been a judge in the United States before Gilead. She describes her transition to becoming an aunt and her efforts to consolidate power. Her story was much better than what was shown in the television show.

Agnes has spent most of her life in Gilead. She loves her adoptive mother Tabitha, but her world is upended when Tabitha dies. Daisy's adoptive parents are killed in an explosion, and she learns that she is the famous baby Nicole, spirited away from Gilead.

I love how the three women come together and joined forces.

Atwood does a great job of world-building beyond what we learned about Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale: the Rubies school to train commanders' wives, how the aunts were established, and how new aunts were trained.

I've already returned the book to the library; fourteen people are still on the waiting list. But I want to read it again.

Edited to add: I just found this post by Rhiannon. Good reading.