Reviews tagging 'Deportation'

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

17 reviews

jneverland's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexism, Body horror, Blood, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Abandonment, Ableism, Infertility, Violence, War, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Deportation, Death, Racism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Genocide, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Gore, Medical content, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Trafficking, and Suicide

thedevilnextdoor13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Deportation, Infertility, Confinement, Pregnancy, Grief, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcohol, Murder, Infidelity, Self harm, and Abortion

margaret_s_library's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Infidelity, Slavery, Misogyny, Classism, Physical abuse, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Deportation, Ableism, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Infertility, Homophobia, War, Xenophobia, Transphobia, and Physical abuse

emfass's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I have no idea why the heck I felt inspired to re-read The Handmaid's Tale at a time with lots of other hard things going on in my life, but there you go. 

Loved Claire Danes' narration, as well as the expanded materials at the end that Atwood wrote. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Death, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Classism, Rape, Sexism, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Violence, and Infertility

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Torture, Deportation, Police brutality, Trafficking, Body horror, Sexual content, and Homophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Vomit, Antisemitism, Gun violence, Medical content, and War

lauren_e_d's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Although I had to read this book for school, it was one that I was looking forward to reading. I had heard so much about it and it lived up to my expectations. I really enjoyed drawing the parallels between the novel, written back in the 1980s, and the modern day. It is  concerning, terrifying, and fascinating that this novel is still so powerful and poignant today.

I will admit, it took me until the very end of the book to realize that the structure of the novel is that the narrator is telling it like a story after the fact, so for almost of the book, the switches between past and current tense really confused me which made it slightly more difficult to understand. I did really enjoy the historical notes section though because I think it’s a great commentary on how we think of history and how it’s such a reality for so many people, but in the future, it is trivialized, made into jokes, and studied, but the reality and impact on real people is not always fully understood. The trauma is not understood. However, I really liked the ending and the ambiguity that it gives. It’s a fascinating way to have the reader hopefully for the entire novel just to be left guessing at the very end, something I think Atwood has a mastery of. Overall, AMAZING. I fully understand the hype now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Rape, Trafficking, Violence, Classism, Death, Gore, Infertility, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

eni_iilorak's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexism, Misogyny, Child abuse, Violence, Trafficking, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Torture, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Bullying, Body shaming, Deportation, Mental illness, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: War, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Racism, and Antisemitism

chalkletters's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

 Despite not having got on particularly well with any of the Margaret Atwood books I'd previously encountered, I read The Handmaid's Tale when the TV series came out. (Hard to say why; I hadn't watched the TV series before, nor have I since.) 'Enjoy' seems the wrong word, but it absorbed me much more than Cat's Eye or The Penelopiad. Rereading was a very different experience, because I already knew how the society was structured, which allowed me more space to appreciate the nuances and details. 

For many people, the first read of The Handmaid's Tale will be all about the society of Gilead, working out what is different from our world, at what point in history it diverged and how all the different roles function. Margaret Atwood reveals this slowly, piece by piece, keeping the reader hungry for more knowledge, a better understanding. It creates a connection between the reader and Offred, who is also constantly seeking knowledge that she's not supposed to have. 

 
Once you've understood the society that Margaret Atwood has created, the rest of the story focuses primarily on Offred and her emotional reaction to what's being done to her. Margaret Atwood really takes the reader into Offred's thoughts, and this creates just enough distance from Offred's horrifying treatment that reading The Handmaid's Tale is uncomfortable without being agonising. That said, Offred's narrative involves metafictional elements of her questioning or outright contradicting her own version of events, so the reader can never be one hundred per cent sure what's true and what isn't. The academic conference which ends the novel doubles down on this, and yet, Offred's story always feels as though it's substantially honest.

 
While Offred suffers what seems to be primarily the 'normal' fate of a Handmaid, the characters around her face harsher or more dramatic conclusions to their stories. Hearing about Ofglen, Ofwarren and Moira shows just how rare it is that Offred seems to end the novel by escaping from her situation, giving the reader a glimpse of hope which is reinforced by the academic conference confirming that Gilead is a society firmly in the past.
 
While I expected my second read of The Handmaid's Tale to feel different from the first, I was surprised by how compelling Margaret Atwood's writing still was. I don't know if I feel the need to keep it to read again, but I won't rule it or the sequel out as future projects.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Death, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, and Body shaming