The world of Gilead and women in red dresses is coming back to book shelves with Margaret Atwood announcing a prequel novel called The Testaments. This novel will take place 15 years before the events of The Handmaid’s Tale and has three different viewpoints. Atwood commented how she wanted to explore the world of Gilead a little bit more and was inspired by the current political/world situation. Despite the Hulu series based off her first book currently running, this prequel novel will have no influence from the show. Fans have been split with Atwood’s prequel announcement, some wanting her to leave the world she created alone.
Margaret Atwood announcing a prequel novel is what I call a pretty decent size newsworthy story. With the news that has been generated from The Handmaid’s Tale, like costuming as handmaids at protests or the sales of the novel skyrocketing upward after the 2016 election, there will more news created from what Atwood writes next. The reason why her writings are newsworthy is that the themes and situations that she writes for audiences can be seen in the real world by many readers. This story is worth writing about now because there will most likely be conflicts over The Testaments when released that a journalist can follow up on, either by sales or shown in protests.
It has a particular audience depending on which part you are reading. The beginning of the article is more directed for the fans of The Handmaid’s Tale by telling the details of what is known about The Testaments. The next part is for the people that are behind on what The Handmaid’s Tale is and what an impact it is making in the world. This part is the bulk of the article with this large backstory and political movement bit. The final part is for the audience that is wants to hear other opinions. This end part is really brief but will most likely become a bigger story when The Testaments release.
There was a line in the article that puzzled me. In the second part of the article, the writer wrote “There’s clearly an enormous appetite for feminist dystopian tales at the moment.” This sentence is followed up with the sales of The Handmaid’s Tale after the election and it returning to the New York Times best-seller list. For me, the sale of one novel is not really a clear appetite for feminist dystopians. The line feels like an assumption to me or relying that the readers are going to click the link to a lengthy article.
Doing a prequel makes a lot of sense. She’s already done sequels (Oryx and Crake) and the TV show has already advanced the plot of The Handmaid’s Tale. And a prequel will allow to comment even more directly on the idiocy of our present situation and politics.
Feminist dystopias could include Hunger Games and Mad Max, but, yeah, sales of one book do not suggest a trend.