Growing up in Canada I had to read The Handmaid's Tale in high school, way back when - and it's not an easy read when you're 16 or so. We had an assignment afterwards to write an additional chapter of the book about what happened next. I wish I could remember what I wrote -- but The Testaments is the author's answer to that same assignment.

Offred of the first book is no longer the narrator, no longer even directly present in the story, which is instead told through the writings of Aunt Lydia and the recorded testimony of two teenage girls, one from Gilead and one from Canada. This gives the book a much different feeling from The Handmaid's Tale, in which we have a much more limited, claustrophobic view as we see everything only from Offred's eyes. In The Testaments we have a much broader view of Gilead now mainly seem from the perspective of the Aunts, which is quite different. Through Aunt Lydia's writing we learn how she came to be in her current position, and we get a much broader view of the workings of Gilead leadership because of her visibility into the Commanders' lives and politics.

Therefore, this isn't as creepy and as terrifying a book as The Handmaid's Tale; it also has a clearly resolved ending, unlike Offred's ambiguous close. It wraps up the bigger story of Gilead in a satisfactory manner, but that also means it will not haunt you as long as its predecessor since there aren't really any unanswered questions left to ponder. So if you're looking for another haunting, thought-provoking narrative with a cliffhanger ending, this isn't the book you're looking for.

However, if you're very attached to Offred, either from the original book or from the Hulu TV series, and want to know more about Gilead society and need a Gilead story with a happy ending (or at least as happy as possible, in Gilead) the you'll enjoy this book a lot. If you enjoy Atwood's writing and were amused by the little jokes in The Handmaid's Tale like "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" then you'll enjoy a lot more in The Testaments also - such as the Aunts' official motto, "Per Ardua Cum Estrus" (likely a play on the Air Force motto "per ardua ad astra"), and the Aunts' admonition against reading and writing, "Pen Is Envy". Also a lot of Canada jokes which made me snicker, being Canadian.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot. With the current political climate down south, I don't think I really felt up to reading another harrowing Handmaid's Tale style novel of despair, and this was a book I enjoyed reading a lot more, while I can acknowledge it doesn't have the individual impact that its predecessor did. It was a satisfactory wrap up and a little bit of hope in a time that really could use a bit more.