This story thoroughly engaged me from the start and really zipped past, as well-paced as any thriller. Unlike most novels that could be described as such though, this is beautifully written with prose poetic in power and imagery. It's been described as a "feminist novel" and though that's accurate enough, it never felt preachy or didactic to me; I think that's because Atwood's world is so well-imagined, so detailed, I felt both well-grounded in its reality and fascinated by its working out.
Offred makes for an intriguing narrator and protagonist as we see her both resisting and being subsumed by the society around her. This novel is a must-read of dystopian fiction worthy of being shelved with Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Brave New World.
