The Testaments

July 30, 2023

I finally finished reading the Testaments on Wednesday (July 26, 2023). I don’t always get the chance to read – sometimes I’m just too tired to pick up the book and read.

It was a really god book – much better than The Handmaid’s Tale.

The story follows two girls – Agnes and Baby Nicole – on their journey to destroy Gilead. Agnes is June’s oldest daughter, and Baby Nicole is the baby June had in Gilead. There is a big age difference between the two in the book (about 10 years or so; in the tv series there’s only a few years difference). Baby Nicole doesn’t find out that she’s Baby Nicole until she’s 16 years old, which is when the story picks up, her identity being hidden and having been placed with foster parents after being smuggled out of Gilead. She only knew them as her real parents, although she eventually had suspicions because there were no photos of her, and her adoptive parents wouldn’t let her go anywhere. Her adoptive parents were killed in an explosion, that’s when she found out she was/is Baby Nicole.

It wasn’t until about half way through the book that Agnes realizes that something wasn’t right with her situation, but she couldn’t put everything together until she went into training to become an Aunt. She had spent most of her remembered life in Gilead.

The story also follows Aunt Lydia and her plot to bring Gilead down. At first I thought June had become an Aunt, taking a few chapters to figure out that the Aunt that was speaking was Aunt Lydia, not June. (June has gone into hiding, having had multiple attempts on her life, but the book doesn’t follow her- only mentioning her a few times.)

It’s a really good book, fast paced. It makes the reader wonder what’s going to happen in the tv series…these are transcripts that have been found about 150 years after Gilead’s downfall. But it reads like it’s happening now, with each chapter having the headline “transcript of (so and so – usually a number or Ardua Hall recording; Ardua Hall is where the Aunts lived)”.

The next book will be…

Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand

“Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. It was her longest novel, the fourth and final one published during her lifetime, and the one she considered her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing. Atlas Shrugged includes elements of science fiction, mystery, and romance, and it contains Rand’s most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction.” Wikipedia

“Ayn Rand’s first novel, We the Living, was published in 1936, followed by Anthem. With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943, she achieved spectacular and enduring success. Rand’s unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience and maintains a lasting influence on popular thought. The fundamentals of her philosophy are set forth in such books as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, The Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal, and The Romantic Manifesto. Ayn Rand died in 1982.” (Amazon write up)

Genre: philosophical fiction, libertarian science fiction, mystery fiction, romance novel,
Published: October 10, 1957
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 1,168 (first edition)
Prometheus Award – Hall of Fame, 1983

*all photos were made by me and made on my property unless otherwise stated

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