This is a very strange book. In itself, it's just fine. It's nothing revolutionary, but it's not bad. It's not spectacular, sure, but it's not bad. Certainly entertaining.

I think so many of the mixed feelings come from unmet expectations, though.

The Testaments is a direct sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, set sometime after the novel. It's fairly clearly defined in the book, but I'll leave it at that. Anyway, The Testaments is mostly a dystopian novel, but it feels much more YA-esque than the THT. THT, in contrast, is a literary classic filled with claustrophobic, beautiful prose.

What it really comes down to is the two books in the series are written in vastly, vastly different styles, if not subtly crossing a genre border. Some will be fine with that; others won't.

Ultimately, I enjoyed it for what it is, but reading it back to back with The Handmaid's Tale was jarring at best.

3.5/5