The Handmaid's Tale was my first Margaret Atwood and I found it highly fascinating. While it kept shooing my mind to Orwell's 1984, it was much more enjoyable than the latter. This might be due to the fact that I'm 10 years older than the version of me who read 1984, but it might also be the much more subtle way of storytelling.
I very much liked the twist at the end with the "Historical Notes", as it at once added so much more depth that the tale as such. That ending earned it the fifth star, since without this "revelation" I would have been left dangling in thin air (or dangling even more than I am now, anyway).