Rebecca Scott

It has a good plot, I’ll give it that, but it’s the writing style that makes it hard to read for me. As well as that, the grammar, too. Sentences dwell on for an age and it is over descriptive. I’ve noticed that Atwood likes to over-describe things that aren’t even relevant to the plot which makes it a tiring read, in addition to not breaking up sentences and letting them go on for way too long. I’m sure there is a literary reasoning to that, but for me it just made it hard to get through each chapter. It was dull and I found it hard to find the motivation to continue reading. I don’t really like the lack of quotation marks, too. I found that I’ve read full sentences before realising that it’s something that a character is saying, and there have been times where it’s hard to distinguish which bit was description and which bit was dialogue. Also, I found myself feeling confused on some occasions. Some of the things talked about were worded as if readers should already know what she’s talking about when it’s the first time it’s mentioned. Furthermore, it doesn’t always make it clear when it’s talking about the past or the present. I know Atwood writes it in those ways to encourage the readers to figure it out on their own or as time goes on, but sometimes it’s just plain confusing. When I figure out that the situation talked about is the past not the present, I’ve had to go back and re-read with the fact that it’s actually the past in mind as I initially read it as if it was the present and overall read it in a different way than I should’ve. Other things are just left unexplained on a whole and isn’t something readers can just figure out. “What the f— are you on about?!” I’ve even said out loud. That being said, I can see why people would like the book, but it’s just not for me due to writing style. It was just a bit of a disappointment since I was excited to read it but could not find it enjoyable. It bored me almost to sleep.