The Short Version
The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s 2019 sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, suits a book club because it is told in three very different voices and asks how ordinary people end up working for a cruel system. It is set in Gilead roughly fifteen years after the first book, and the narrators are Aunt Lydia, the most powerful woman in Gilead; Agnes, a Commander’s daughter; and Daisy, a teenager in Toronto.
Below are twenty questions: ten you can use before everyone has finished the book, and ten that spoil the ending. A short section on the Booker Prize and the Hulu series gives the group something to compare. The book scores four out of five in our review, with Aunt Lydia as its strongest voice.
Before You Start: Content Notes For Your Group
Tell your group first. There are no explicit sex scenes, but the book includes the sexual abuse of a child, described briefly but clearly, forced marriage of young girls, suicide attempts, public executions, torture and imprisonment, and a mob killing described in some detail. Daisy uses strong language throughout.
Spoiler-Free Questions
- The book opens with Aunt Lydia telling us she has been given a statue while still alive and hates how it makes her look. What does that first page tell you about her?
- Lydia says she keeps secrets and that knowing things is her real power. Did you trust her, and did you want to?
- Agnes is a sheltered Commander’s daughter who stays in the dark for a long time. Did her slow awakening work for you, or did you find her too passive?
- Daisy is a blunt, modern teenager in Toronto who believes she has an ordinary life. Did her voice feel believable, or did the slang feel forced, as our review found?
- Agnes and Daisy give witness testimonies, while Lydia writes a hidden manuscript she calls her holograph. How does the form of each narration change how you read it?
- Atwood shows ordinary life in Gilead: the schools, the Marthas in the kitchen, the games children play. Is that more frightening than any execution?
- The Handmaid’s Tale is a locked room, and The Testaments opens the door onto the schools and the offices. Is the gain in plot worth the loss in dread?
- How do ordinary people end up working for a cruel system, and what do they tell themselves to sleep? Where did you see that in the book?
- What does it cost a woman to hold power in a place built to keep women small?
- Our review says the middle leans on coincidence, with people helping at exactly the right moment. Did that spoil it for you?
Spoiler Questions (Finish The Book First)
- Before Gilead, Lydia was a judge. She was held in a stadium, beaten in the Thank Tank, and forced by Commander Judd to shoot blindfolded women, one of them her colleague Anita. Does her history explain her choices, excuse them, or neither?
- For years Lydia photographs secret crime files and sends them to Mayday on microdots. Is she a hero, a villain, or both?
- Daisy is Baby Nicole, the infant smuggled out of Gilead whose face is on propaganda posters. How did the reveal change how you read her chapters?
- Lydia frames Dr. Grove, Becka’s abuser, to be torn apart by Handmaids, and admits she wanted the girls hardened, grateful and loyal. Where does protecting someone shade into manipulating them?
- Lydia slides a microdot into the letter O of God in the tattoo on Daisy’s arm. Why is a girl’s body the right container for the evidence?
- Becka hides in the roof cistern so nobody realizes three girls are missing, and is later found dead with her clothes folded on the ladder. The book never says exactly how she died. How did you read it?
- Lydia leaves Aunt Vidala alone with Aunt Elizabeth with a hint about the pillow. Is she still acting as a protector at this point?
- Daisy and Agnes row ashore through fog and tide in Nova Scotia, and their mother finally holds them. Did the escape earn its tension?
- Lydia’s last entry has footsteps approaching and the knock about to come. Why does the book never show her death?
- The epilogue is set in the year 2197, where Professor Pieixoto debates whether the manuscript is authentic. What does that ending add, and what does the statue in Boston say?
About The Book, The Prize And The Series
The Testaments shared the 2019 Booker Prize with Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. Margaret Atwood was seventy-nine and became the oldest person ever to win. A Hulu series based on it premiered on April 8, 2026, with ten episodes, and it is a loose adaptation: it begins about four years after the Handmaid’s Tale finale, so the characters are close in age. Ann Dowd returns as Aunt Lydia, and Elisabeth Moss appears as June in a guest role. In the series Daisy is not Baby Nicole, and Becka’s father is dealt with differently. Hulu renewed it for a second season in May 2026.
What To Read Next
If your club enjoyed it, read The Handmaid’s Tale first if you have not, since Aunt Lydia lands harder if you remember her there. For a spoiler-free start, read our review first, and use the ending explained after the discussion. Our characters guide and book versus Hulu comparison are also on the site.
