This is it. August  will be the month.

When I saw Tash’s list of titles from her most recent book haul, my eyes landed on The Handmaid’s Tale and I was sucked into a vortex of nerd gloom. For years now, whenever anyone starts raving this Atwood novel, I just nod along, “Oh yeah, definitely. Sure. Yah-huh. That writing style. What message.”

All the while, this is the hard, cruel truth: Hello, my name is Naiya, and I have never read The Handmaid’s Tale.

But August is the month to change that. This month, I’m doing a buddy read with Tash, 25% of the book each week, starting this week. Now. Today.

Canaries, join our read-along! And keep an eye out for upcoming dystopian post goodness.

To start us off, here are my predictions about what the book is going to be about, based on the cover and the things (I think) I have heard over the years:

A girl named Olfred lives in a totalitarian monastery ruled by angry nuns in bright red robes. She falls in love with a guy, but because she’s a character in a dystopian novel, they can’t be together. There is also a gender-based caste system in which all women (except the nuns) are second-class citizens and all books are banned. She learns to read anyway, and using her newly acquired literacy, is able to break out of her socially constructed prison and run away beyond the monastery. Unfortunately, the guy she loves isn’t as enlightened, and doesn’t want to go with her (and even betrays her at the end) so she has to evade capture on her way to a promised land far, far away where she heard there exists #feminism #books #civilsociety #freedom.

This may or may not be the actual plot.

Want to join us on the read? Comment below and I’ll reel you into our next email chain and chat shenanigans as we dive into the novel.

Don’t forget to head on over and follow Tash at The Bookie Monster for more updates and her guess about what the story will be about.