The Testaments

Entertaining and read quickly, it's a good book. I loved the fleshing out of Gilead, the perspectives of different women, and particularly the centering of Aunt Lydia and learning about her character. But the plot takes a real turn for improbable and dumb about 70% of the way through and that really bugged me. It seemed like the author had a story she wanted to tell from the beginning and it sort of came together cleverly but then it all gets just entirely improbable with all the characters together and events advancing far too quickly. Also in retrospect the original silliness to have Baby Nicole go back into Gilead as an agent of Mayday was absolutely implausible and ridiculous.

It's interesting reading this as an alternative exploration from where the TV show has gone. Both are good and are thematically compatible, but Atwood's vision is a lot more contained and focussed. I wonder if they had the option to use her stories for the TV show?