The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
Published in 1985 (I finished it on February 05, 2020)

I'd already seen nearly three full seasons, but I was very curious what the book was like. I purchased an audiobook for long commutes. It made a great companion.

The series is a bit different, though the same foundation. If anything, the book gives more of the inception of how society changed into the dystopia featured in the series. One can see how society reached such a hellish point, and perhaps how it could still happen today.

It's interesting to head back in time and revisit the 80s. Granted, the timeline is "the future," but since it was published in 1985, the author's knowledge is limited there in fact, but can speculate in fiction.

So is the series better, worse, the same? I would say just different. Getting to know more of the backstory was fun. If anything, the series is extremely well done and feels very authentic to the origin story, and yet delivers much more. I found the book to be over way too soon, which is a great compliment to the series in that they continued telling great tales. One change is the casting of several characters. Not that it's bad or good, but Serena is nowhere near as beautiful as Strahovski. Maybe as conniving, sure, but it's not cast as the author wrote (which is "fine by me").

Should you read it? I would say yes, provided you really like the series and want more flashbacks. You do get to know the characters more and what goes on in their heads. I enjoyed it a lot, though I believe that's mainly due to having watched the series. I don't know if I'd feel the same had I not been glued to all the television episodes and found them highly entertaining.

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