The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

"So peaceful, the streets; so tranquil, so orderly; yet underneath the deceptively placid surfaces, a tremor, like that near a high-voltage power line. We're stretched thin, all of us; we vibrate, we quiver, we're always on the alert. Reign of terror, they used to say, but terror does not exactly reign. Instead it paralyzes" (277).

The second book of the Handmaid’s Tale series offers perspectives unheard of and unseen in the first book by showing three sides of the Gilead regime's demise.

Agnes is the adopted daughter of the upper-class who is to be married off at the age of thirteen. She feels trapped and doesn’t see any way out until she is inspired by her best friend to attempt suicide to become an Aunt (the women who run Gilead and never marry). The second perspective is of Daisy, a teenager that lives in Canada and attends anti-Gilead protests until one day when the people she thought were her parents are killed and she is forced to visit Gilead undercover and embark on a journey to bring down the regime. The third perspective is that of Aunt Lydia, the most influential Aunt, as she navigates how to sabotage Gilead but also manage not to drown along with it.

Beautifully written as ever, Atwood does an excellent job of tying a bow on the dystopian tale, even gifting the readers with closure concerning what happened to Offred, the protagonist from the first novel.