Hyatt
[Reading/Handmaid's Tale] [cw: sexual assault, slavery, torture, theocracy, all that Gilead stuff] finished The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. took me about a day, was a v. engaging read. spoilers below!
Hyatt
I'm not sure if it was technically as good as HT, but it's definitely a lot more cathartic?
Hyatt
because two of the POVs are clearly by people who lived through Gilead and are talking about it in the past tense, so you know it'll fall
Hyatt
and the third is a really fucking high placed official talking about her resolve to take her enemies down with her, and all of the Gilead leadership is her enemy
Hyatt
I did have problems with it. like the original, it is very white. and it didn't have to be, there could've been a non-white Martha POV. a ground-level operative to contrast with the Important Women
Hyatt
it also feels somewhat... contrived? that the two surviving POVs turned out to be related AND are strongly implied to be Offred's two daughters
Hyatt
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
you wanted to hear my thoughts right?
Hyatt
to continue the previous thought, it also feels like it relies too much on Great (Wo)Men in bringing down Gilead
Hyatt
we didn't see much of the rest of the world, but I did accept the explanation of "Gilead sucks, but it has All The Firepower of the former US so nobody wants to be at war with them"
Hyatt
gonna reread Handmaid's Tale (not even a waiting list for an ebook copy) to put pieces together
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
Hyatt
: Oh, it's definetly her daughters.
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
Agnes is Hannah, and Daisy or whatever her name was in Canada is Nicole
Hyatt
but the book's coy about admitting it to the point that it gets annoying
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
The whole thing with the Pearl Girls was freaky af
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
I mean, it outright admits it when June shows up, n?
Hyatt
but it carefully never names her or her old family. just drops a shitload of indicators while never coming out and saying it
Hyatt
and the supposedly serious scholars don't seem to connect the dots or make a big deal about it?
Hyatt
and the Pearl Girls sounds like classic cult recruiting
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
something confirmed for me positively that they were her kids. Maybe the author said in an interview?
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
I mean, they do outright say that Daisy is Baby Nicole, and Baby Nicole is June's daughter
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
Hyatt
: they do, y
Hyatt
it might be Nicole; I'd honestly forgotten about her second kid, much less her name
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
I was REAL glad they gave Lydia an actual backstory, and...showed that she was in mayday
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
y, the wiki confirms it also.
Hyatt
and considering the torture she went through, what she did to the Handmaids was kind
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
Yeah
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
And what she did FOR the daughters was a damn miracle
Hyatt
she was a pragmatic bastard and probably more motivated by personal spite than principle, but she did have principles and did engineer it
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
the daughters meaning all the kids of gilead
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
yy
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
and sometimes what you need is someone with personal spite
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
tv lydia is...less interesting a character, tbh
Hyatt
and I am pretty sure she was deliberately grooming Hannah/Agnes to be disillusioned with Gilead so she'd be ready once Baby Nicole was old enough to be an agent
Hyatt
I really liked the different perspective on the Aunts. in the original book they seemed like female collaborators, but in Testaments they're shown as more of a refuge for the girls who can't be good model Wives
Hyatt
maybe it's because of my previous reading material, but I keep comparing them to nuns, to the point that I think of their title as "Sister" and have to mentally correct to "Aunt"
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
yeah, you're def right about the grooming Agnes, I think.
Hyatt
also I have not seen the series. uncertain whether I want to
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
I also find it interesting that a lot of the names of Aunts are brand names assosicated with women
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
and the series is...frustrating. occasionally great. mostly frustrating
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
Aunt Gabbana, Aunt Dove, Aunt Sillhouette, Aunt Estée
Hyatt
almost Aunt Maybelline
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
yes!
𝔖𝔫𝔦𝔥𝔲𝔯ó𝔫𝔨𝔞
Aunt Sara is I assume named for Sara Lee