The Handmaid's Tale has ruined me...

[IsItMeOr]

I didn't read it until a couple of years ago, and I loved it. I also read and loved Alias Grace, but found it hard to get into another one of hers I tried (Blind Assassin possibly?).

I also loved Never Let Me Go.

Are there other books that I can read which won't sorely disappoint?

I read The Handmaid's Tale for the first time this year and loved it too. Two others set in an imagined future that you might like are Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and The Passage by Justin Cronin.

I also prefer Prodigal summer to the Poisonwood Bible.

LOVE The Robber Bride.

Also love the Idea of Perfection.... devastating book.

Oh blimey not The Passage - 600 pages and he still hasn't got to the fucking point!
It's not all that feminist-friendly either. But if you want dystopia/apocalypse I would also recommend World War Z (though the fact that it's all fragments with no real story arc might get on your tits after a while) or Birdbox (really unsettling). Or Station Eleven: I found it disappointing at the end but enjoyable most of the way through.

thanks guys, I'll get it wishlisted!

The Penelopiad by Margaret Attwood is good.

Angela Carter is fab, I loved the magic toyshop, still have my copy from school.

Does anyone know who wrote the following short story (poss angela carter) : a woman breaks up with her married lover after she has had an operation which to remove some sort of cyst. I think either the man breaks up with her or his behaviour is so rubbish and uncaring she dumps him. Anyway she knows it either the wife's big birthday or a special anniversary, so she takes out teh cyst from teh jar she brought it home from the hospital in, dries it, covers it is cocoa powder and sends it to the wife for the party as she knows she likes truffles.... !!!

I think that story is by Fay weldon, but I can't remember the name, although puffball rings a bell, but I'm not sure

You might also like State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, or Bel Canto by the same author.
I also entirely loved Marilynne Robinson's books Gilead, Housekeeping and Home.

Chilling sci-fi centering women? Try some Octavia Butler!

The Robber Bride is probably my favourite Margaret Atwood; Alias Grace terrified me.

The Tenderness of Wolves was another book set in Canada I really enjoyed. Haven't read much other sci-fi/alternative future style books I'm afraid.

What about John Wyndham - none of his have disappointed me yet, and I am a big fan of Margaret Atwood.

Am feeling like I need to download all the MA ones to my Kindle. Have read most of thise mentioned, I know I enjoyed them but can't remember specifics so feel like I should read again!

I was going to suggest John Wyndham too - perhaps 'The Chrysalids'. I read them all years and years ago and enjoyed them then, so I don't mind that they are dated in some respects.

In a similar vein there is John Christopher: 'The Death Of Grass'.

You might also enjoy 'Shades Of Grey' (no! not that one!) by Jasper Fforde, which is a dystopian tale set in a world where status is determined by the colours that people can see. It's dark but also humorous. There is a planned sequel which is disappointingly slow in coming.