Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: The Testaments: WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019

Top positive review

Finally....

11 September 2019

I read it in a few hours. Who could put it down, after waiting all this time? It was incredibly tense, of course, and at the start it’s jolting to realise whose thoughts you’re hearing. I have always desperately needed to know more about Aunt Lydia, for reasons that say more about me than the book or the author, and it answered that need entirely, on so many levels. The other characters felt less sharply drawn but I assume that is by design. You’re in their minds, experiencing the world inside and outside Gilead, so you’re sharing their level of maturity and understanding, which is terrifying in it’s own way. (Of all the women and girls in Gilead, we’d heard the least from/about the girls being raised in it; the ones with no memory of before.) And as for that world...well, Atwood’s great skill is letting a little detail (the right details) go a very long way in your head, which is where the true horror of Gilead lives. This book gives you a resolution, yes, but it’s chilling how tenuous it seemed, right to the end. I put it down when I was done, but I don’t feel “safe” yet.

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Top critical review

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Kindle Customer

Read it for the story, not for the characters

4 October 2019

It felt like it was written by multiple ghostwriters, mostly 15 year Olds. I couldn't wait for this to end. It just wasn't enough and the characters were weak and not well rounded. It just feel.alike Atwood didn't want to write this (and perhaps didnt?).

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Andie

Finally....

11 September 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

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Still terrific

27 September 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Atwood is as sure-footed as ever in this sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. The conservative theocracy of Gilead is as harsh as ever, but like all totalitarian regimes, is starting to come apart at the seams. It’s helped on its way by the Machiavellian tactics of Aunt Lydia, one of the Founders (and a judge who came from a trailer trash background in her pre-Gilead days) who sardonically relates a good part of the book. Other sections are narrated by a Canadian girl who discovers that she is Baby Nicole, the iconic posterbaby who serves Gilead as a symbol of its fight to survive. She was smuggled out of Gilead and Gilead wants her back. Other sections are narrated by well-brought up Gilead girls destined for early marriage and attempted baby-making. Through them we learn what life is like for women in a theocratic patriarchy where girls cover up lest they inflame male lust (remind you of anything?) and are not taught to read and write because what’s the point? Their poor little female minds couldn’t cope. In preparation for marriage school it’s more fitting that they learn flower arranging. Divorce is illegal, so when a high ranking man feels like a change, wives tend to have accidents and strange fatal illnesses. No, all is not well in God’s chosen country. There’s the odd spot of paedophilia and incest too. Combined with the injunction to be purer than pure it’s no wonder that some girls discover a vocation to become an Aunt. Sadly, they’ll have no children, but mercifully, they won’t have sex. And they’ll get to read and write, and have more power and autonomy than a Wife. Handmaids, of course, are simply necessary sluts in a society with a pathologically low birth rate.

So Lydia gets to work to bring Gilead down. She enjoys subtle jousting with Commander Judd, who is also her ally. She risks her life in working with the Mayday underground resistance (or terrorists, depending on your point of view). Circumstances lead Nicole to voluntarily re-enter Gilead as a plant. It’s dangerous stuff and makes for compelling reading. Lydia’s sections are the most fun to read because she has an Atwoodian sense of humour, prompting the odd laugh out loud chuckle, and is under no illusions about herself. She has done some horrible things to survive but she’s a tough nut. The novel ends with a post-Gilead conference where historians debate the merits and interpretation of historical materials. As they do. This is Atwood at her best and will no doubt grace our screens in due course.

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‘Who are you, my reader? And when are you?'

26 October 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

'Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps fifty years from now, perhaps never.’

The events of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ are some fifteen or so years in the past. The first generation of females born under the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead are entering womanhood. Three very different voices will bring us the story of a regime which is beginning to fail. Two of the voices belong to teenagers, the third is that of Aunt Lydia.

‘I record, I record; though to no end, I often fear.’

Present and past are presented. Aunt Lydia writes of her own experiences as the Republic of Gilead was formed:

‘They were reducing us to animals—to penned-up animals—to our animal nature. They were rubbing our noses in that nature. We were to consider ourselves subhuman .’

And of her path to power. Her voice is the clearest.

The two teenagers have different roles to play: one will give us a clear picture of relatively privileged life within the restrictions of the regime; the other will alert us to other possibilities outside. How will Gilead fail?

I have mixed feelings about this novel. I don’t know exactly what I expected, but the more I was drawn into this world and into Aunt Lydia’s machinations the less comfortable I became. Sure, I want the repressive misogynistic world of Gilead to fail. But there is no comfort here. I’m looking for enlightenment. I want an assurance that Ms Atwood can’t give me: that Gilead cannot return. And yes, I realise that my view is coloured by the fact that there are repressive regimes around the world, where the treatment of women is uncomfortably close to Gilead.

It’s worth reading, it just might not take you on the journey you expect.

‘Once a story you’ve regarded as true has turned false, you begin suspecting all stories.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

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Kindle Customer

Read it for the story, not for the characters

4 October 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

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JL nash

Excellent sequel, very surprising

15 September 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Omg I can’t put it down. Who would have thought I might be able to relate to the aunts as well as the handmaidens? Wonderful sequel including 3 different main characters, very surprising.

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crashtestwoman

Excellent

21 September 2019

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For lovers of the Handmaids Tale, this will not disappoint. The only problem I have is it really didn’t explain the fall of Gilead. But excellent writing and throughly enjoyable premise, highly recommend.

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Hannah Grace

Testaments is satisfying

11 September 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The Testaments describes the events that led to the beginning of the end for Gilead and as such is very satisfying. This is a wonderful sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.

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K E Ward

Margaret Attwood The Testaments

30 September 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I couldn’t put it down and read it in 24 hours. Set in the future, well beyond what we’ve been shown in the tv collaboration. This is the intertwined tale of Aunt Lydia, Nicole and Agnes... it’s perfection. Revenge is truly a dish best served cold. Is it dark? Yes, but it’s written so well, it avoids the blatant horror of the TV series and shows us a back story that leaves you wondering what you would do in the same circumstances.

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Sharon

Margaret Atwood never disappoints.

28 September 2019

Format: Audible AudiobookVerified Purchase

This was a wonderful read. It is thought provoking and is both horrifying and exhilarating as Margaret describes three very different views of a Gilead that is rotten to the core and fleshes out the character of the sinister Aunt Lydia that makes her even more complex than I thought was possible.

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Jwalk

Such a satisfying sequel!

15 September 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Answers so many questions and poses more - compelling reading. I could not put it down. As a fan of the original novel and the tv series, The Testaments is a worthy addition to the story of Gilead.

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