I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up this book. I was aware it was about a dystopian future, but I had no idea just how dystopian or how it would creep into my mind with its disgusting, frightening, and disturbing imagery. The world Atwood paints in this book is fantastic in its macabre vision. I can seriously see how such a world could someday come to pass and its alarming. 
 The characters in the book are all bizarre, terrible, and honestly not exactly the highlight of the book. From the primary character who is an annoying misogynist whom we're supposed to feel sorry for because he had a terrible mother that led him to think of women as property. To the monotone, passive, and almost robot like Oryx, who the protagonist pines over and berates to satisfy his hang ups (because she won't do everything the way he wants her too in his idealized version of her). You almost like Crate, until you realize his unique vision of the world is a vision he feels he is entitled to create at the cost of everything anyone else could want in the world. Their stories were fascinating as I read them, but what they do and how they act is quite abhorrent. Told out of sequence as they are led to a fascination with what came next and I have to credit Atwood for making that happen to keep me so interested in her story despite these characters. 
 Even with these characters, I found the book incredibly captivating. While it has a murky beginning, everything makes sense by the end. It's certainly an entertaining read that makes you wonder on religion, science, genetics, and just what kind of slippery slope humanity on now and just how much we have no control over where it is going.