PositiveWired... allows Atwood to return to themes of subjugation, sexual crimes and sisterhood without getting boxed in by her original protagonist Offred, the Handmaids and all the protests and parodies stored within those red robes and white bonnets. Nothing Atwood could write could give that image more power than it already has; it’s complete ... With one sickeningly inevitable choice Atwood has made, The Testaments is even darker, but for most of the book these three particular narrators are shielded from the very, very worst of Gilead either through childhood innocence, some limited personal power or the actions of other women. As such none have quite the raw intensity of Offred’s shock journey from regular American woman to Handmaid concubine in a sinister theocracy, though one of the strands does pose juicy questions around survival, complicity and manipulation when all the choices around you are bad ... There is a lot of plot, more than you’ll expect, and TV showrunners will eat this up, especially the sections with serious YA appeal which will undoubtedly turn off some readers. The espionage thriller storyline of The Testaments is more intimate and plausible, within the constraints of Atwood’s original, chilling conception, than where the Hulu show has already found itself ... There are moments of touching solidarity and sacrifice throughout, but Atwood isn’t writing fanfiction of her own dystopian novel. The sequel is able to buoy you as a reader in a way The Handmaid’s Tale had no interest in doing, but sit with it and it’s still slippery and at times satisfyingly unsatisfying. This is an intriguing book from a woman who knows she can do bleak any day of the week.
