A frightening dystopian novel.  The story is compelling and the characters are well developed.  You don’t have to be a feminist to relate to the themes of women’s rights.  Thankfully we can stop reading and say, I’m glad we don’t live in a world like that today.  Oh, wait, yes we do.  There are lots of places in the world today where women have no rights and are completely controlled in a patriarchal society.  (One example is Iran’s monotheocracy.  The thing that scares me most about women’s rights in Iran is that the state they are in happened AFTER a long period of modernization, prosperity, increased women’s rights, entry to the workforce and education.  In one revolution women lost most of their rights.  It is foolish to think it couldn’t happen again, it couldn’t happen quickly, and it couldn’t happen here.) 

The book uses fear, isolation, and severe restrictions on knowledge and literacy to control the women.  I found it very interesting when the author shows how the women could not be controlled without help from the other women.   While understanding the importance of building this alternate world as a religiously based government, I am glad the author did not paint all religions with the same brush.

I think the author does a fantastic job of describing what it is like to wait.  Only revealing the story from the narrator’s perspective is done very well; it gives the reader a sense of frustration and anticipation that build suspense and remain true to the character’s experience of the situation.  I also like the way the book ends.  It isn’t totally happy and it doesn’t wrap up all the loose ends, but I don’t think it should.  I wouldn’t call the book lighthearted fun, but I would definitely recommend it.

Lots of themes of sex and fertility, but no overly graphic scenes.  Almost no bad language. Some scenes of violence and references to torture.  The author is Canadian and the book was written during the anti-feminist backlash of the 1980s.