REVIEW: The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel (graphic novel) by Margaret Atwood, art & adaptation by Renee Nault

The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel is an adaptation of the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood. I bought my copy new.

Review:

It's been a while since I read The Handmaid's Tale, but this seemed to be a pretty faithful adaptation of the book. The only part I could recall truly being left out was the bit from the book about the cat being abandoned. Oh, and I don't recall the graphic novel portion with the Japanese tourists walking around through Gilead society being in the book, but it's quite possible that happened and it just didn't stick with me in the midst of everything else.

The artwork worked well for the story (although not really for me personally) and made effective use of color. A couple parts were a little hard to follow, but for the most part flashbacks vs. scenes set in the present were made clear by differences in clothing.

All in all, I thought this was a good adaptation. 

REVIEW: The Handmaid's Tale (book) by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale is dystopian speculative fiction. I bought my copy used.

Review:

Content warnings for rape, homophobia, the killing of a pet cat (off-page), victim blaming, and probably other things I'm forgetting.

The protagonist of this story is referred to as "Offred," but this is only an indicator that she belongs to a man named Fred. Her real name in the time before, which was only about three or so years ago, was something else and is never mentioned.

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, one of the women assigned the task of attempting to bear a particular Commander's child. As we learn what her daily life is like, and how she came to be the narrator of this story, we also learn what her life used to be like in the time before, when she had a job, a husband, and a young daughter and was like any other contemporary woman.