The handmaids take book age?

[creamcheeseandlox]

Hello. My DD is 14 in August and is really into dystopian novels at the moment. She really liked the hunger games, the maze runner etc. She knows what the HMT is as I'm currently watching the TV series at the moment and she is about to be studying bits of it at school but she wants to read the whole book. Obviously from watching the TV show there are some very graphic rape scenes but how graphic are these in the story. Is it suitable for a 14yr old? (yr9) I don't think the whole story was on the reading list till I did a levels. TIA

I read it during my GCSEs, the whole book, not just parts, so I would have thought year 9 would be fine. The book is colder and more factual than the TV series.

I think teenagers aren't as disturbed by dystopic novels as much as adults. They have a sense of their invincibility and most have no idea of the true horror of rape. If she already likes like Hunger Games and Maze Runner then The Handmaid's Tale will see tame in comparison I suspect because from what I remember it's not written in a sensational style. You could always read it yourself to see but by 14 I was reading the horrendous Flowers in the Attic and The Handmaid's Tale has to be preferable to that, particularly since they are studying it at school. I'd absolutely let her.

DS studied it as an A-level text but I had it as a text in English lessons in the second year of secondary school (what would now be called Y8), in a themed topic along with Nineteen Eighty-Four, which I actually found more disturbing.

In terms of content, I would have thought it was better at A-level, and I taught it in conjunction with The Duchess of Malfi, on a general theme of coercive control. But, having said that, it's a well written novel, by one of our most distinguished modern novelists, so let them go for it.

I read it at 16 because I was doing it for A-Level.
I didn't really understand it at 16 to be honest. I re read in my 20s and understood it a bit more.
If she is a good reader at 14 and can understand a complex story then it's probably ok. It's not an enjoyable book though.

It's mostly delivered in quite a matter-of-fact style - which I suppose could be horrifying in itself when pondered - and doesn't dwell on the sexual coercion.

The only bit that's really stuck with me (I left it for far too long, and was distinctly underwhelmed) was the group violence, which again was reported relatively dispassionately.

There was a lot of sororital love in the book, which I think was what I liked most about it.

For a teen I might suggest The Testaments (www.waterstones.com/book/the-testaments/margaret-atwood/9781784708214) as it's told from a teen point of view.
(Although it does have some unsavoury things do happen to those teens)

But the testaments is a sequel (and is also narrated by Aunt Lydia). My daughter read it at that age, pretty awful things happen in the novels you stated above too

I would have said no, less due to "suitabilty" than I don't think she'd be that interested. However, if she's being exposed to it at school, I suppose that horse has left the barn already.
The real question is, why would a class be studying "bits" of it? Either study it, or don't.

Certain I read Atwood from around age 14. I don't think parents had a clue on what I read at that age.

DD has recently read it for A Level, so at 16/17. An awful lot of it went over her head until discussed in class though, so for that reason I would think it would be too much for most 14 year olds - that they wouldn't get the most out of it.

I was about 14 when I read it, I was also reading jackie Collins around then too, which were lots worse.

13 and up.

But I read Anne Frank at 10!