The Testaments is a killer sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Margaret Atwood is one of our finest living writers and she continues her brilliance in making an immensely satisfying conclusion to this cautionary tale. Magnificently told by three narrators, the book weaves their stories with rich suspense. From the first line “Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while still alive. Already I am petrified.” You know you are in the hands a masterful language magician. ( )

This book is wonderful, stunningly great. Margaret Atwood is a genius. ( )

Not as earth-shaking as its predecessor, but just as riveting. ( )

I was very wary of picking up The Testaments, if I'm being brutally honest. I had heard for many reviews that flip flopped between the best thing ever and totally awful. Thankfully, I didn't let my fears steer me away because I glued to this book.

For me, it was valuable watching the first couple of seasons of The Handmaid's Tale on CraveTV to catch up, as it's been a few years since I've read The Handmaid's Tale. The beneficial part for me was having some faces to go with the names, but don't you worry reader - this book is solely related to the book and not the television show.

This book follows years after The Handmaids Tale with our young, child Agnes now being a young woman and baby Nicole being a teenager. Aunt Lydia is also one of our leads, which was shocking but also nice to see inside that woman's mind. She's not as evil and wicked as we all feared - she's simply a woman with job who's trying to make sense of the world. She's still a little batty, but I feel like you'd have to be living in Gilead. It's not the safest environment to be in.

This book is going to be hit or miss with some people. The Handmaid's Tale is a classic in so many readers' minds. Why would you continue on the story? Margaret Atwood likely had a story in mind and you know, sales - the television show definitely helped bring more fans to the books (honestly, it brought me to the book after years of being scared of tackling it - those English teachers at my high school never had a nice thing to say about that book). There's definitely some YA dystopian and whiny/obnoxious teenage moments but I did enjoy the plot. My biggest annoyance with this book was that it felt like the story just suddenly ended. It didn't feel like a wind down - it just ended. I wanted to see all the fall out and insanity that was going to come, but we didn't get it. It seemed like a bit of a waste, in my opinion.

My favourite part of this book (aside from the truly addicting writing - Margaret Atwood is a genius), is the comments against Canada. Gilead's view on Canada had me giggling at some points. Yes, Canadians and Canada have faults and aren't perfect, but it felt like what Canada has been accusing the U.S. of for the past four years. It was amusing and made me smile. It's an odd and dumb thing, but you gotta take those moments when you get them.

Overall, this book continues a story told a long time ago and adds some more to it. If you wanted to continue on in this series, do it. If you think The Handmaid's Tale and Offred's story was enough, don't read this. It's not an essential book but it is a good one. It brought me a lot of hope to show that the nastiness and scariness of The Handmaid's Tale isn't necessarily the end all, be all. I personally needed to hear this story in the insane world of COVID, terror attacks and attacks on capitals.

Four out of five stars.

**Yet another book I borrowed from the library! Woo! ( )

Worth reading for the Aunt Lydia chapters and Gilead atmosphere: very Stalinesque in a nuanced way. Try not to worry too much about the heroine's climactic plot point being miserably under-motivated, as Atwood all but admits it is in the epilogue. Flawed, but it held my interest, and that's what a novel is supposed to do. ( )