#FirstImpressionFriday: The Handmaid's Tale

I started this week's First Impression Friday while in line at Time Warner Cable - my life is so glamorous - and it's one I've been wanting to read for a while. Unfortunately, between The Chew shouting at me from the television and trying to keep an eye on if my number was coming up, it was a bit difficult to get into. But when I finally did sit down and read, I was hooked! The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood was published in 1985, but with it's dystopian setting it fits in easily with more contemporary works of fiction, especially given the boom in dystopian novels that's happened in recent years. 

I actually googled the book to see if I could find out whether it was classified as dystopian since it was written before/during the evolution of that genre (it is), and discovered that rather than referring to the text as science fiction, the author prefers to call it speculative fiction, which I think is a fantastic way of describing this book.

The novel takes place in a near-contemporary world, transformed into a theocracy built on the principles of the New Testament, where women have little freedom or power, which raises questions like: what will women do to gain agency in such a world?

I'm captivated by both versions of the world that the author presents: this militaristic future world, as well as the glimpses of the world as it was before, which I feel heighten the tension, as they remind readers how close we are to both this past/present world and to Atwood's speculations about the future. If you can't tell, I'm really loving this book so far, and I can't wait to see it through! 

What book(s) will you be reading this weekend? Let me know down below! Happy Friday :)

UPDATE: DNF, yet I'm hoping to. I got 2/3 of the way through when I felt myself dragging, and since I had just picked up some exciting new books from the library, I didn't force it. I always find myself (temporarily) dropping the books I own to read library books with a deadline - is it just me? Still, I've heard so many amazing things about this book that I'm going to try and pick it up again soon.