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The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood
1985 · 311 pages · Science fiction
How it reads
The Handmaid’s Tale is science fiction (dystopian feminist fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in an invented world, in the future, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are power and politics, identity and faith. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 311 pages it's a quick read. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something dark
- you want something to chew on
- you like disappearing into an invented world
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy, heartwarming or funny
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- prolific veteran
- Setting: place
- fictional world
- Setting: time
- future
- Mood / feeling
- dark
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- classic
- Popularity
- mega-bestseller
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- power and politics, identity, faith
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
1984George OrwellShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace- WeYevgeny ZamyatinShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
Future Home of the Living GodLouise ErdrichShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace- FledglingOctavia E. ButlerShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
Foundation's EdgeIsaac AsimovShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, ambiguous ending- Lost Ark DreamingSuyi Davies OkungbowaShares: science fiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
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