This book just resounds in me; it's absolutely terrifying, but at the same time, a wonderful confirmation of the power of literature. It always seems to attract really ugly covers, though.
Adolescence
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Part of me absolutely hates this book. I certainly don't admire it as much as the ones I have placed in this list either side of it. However, I remember quite vividly reading an extract from it when I was younger, and knowing that I had to get my hands on it and read it as quickly as possible.
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I used to skip over the long section with the extract from The Book. Doesn't everyone?
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I remember being very shocked when my English teacher told me that she disliked this book. It was the first Atwood novel I read, and I was impressed by it. I'm glad that I've read more of her work now, and most of it seems to me to be better than this novel. I think often that this book is first and only Atwood book that people come across, which is a shame given the breadth of her style. A feminist dystopian work like this is bound to resonate with a fifteen year old girl.
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I later read Cancer Ward by Denisovich, and would really recommend that-- along with AE Ellis's The Rack, if you can get hold of it, both for their otherworldly treatment of being ill.
This, however, must have been one of the first Russian novels that I ever read, and I'm sure it impressed me with a sense of greater things happening in the world than I had ever been aware of.
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