As a dystopia this is disturbingly effective. Probably all the more so because this is our dystopia, a reminder (if that needed reminding) that societies of the West are not invulnerable to developments that happened in other places. It's strange how you feel so strongly against the authorities in the particular situations, while at the same time it doesn't feel like too pessimistic when Atwood depicts the events leading to Gilead, describing the little resistance that there was. What I loved about the books was how natural the character developments felt, another aspect of how (frightfully) accurate a picture of humankind Atwood seems to draw here. This is the stuff that should be read in schools.