Orwell's classic warns us about the dangers of totalitarianism through the story of Winston Smith. Winston lives under constant surveillance by a sinister state figure: Big Brother.
Individual thought is monitored and ruthlessly punished, language is manipulated, and reality is twisted to serve the ruling party. Like The Handmaid's Tale, Orwell's story portrays how deeply oppressive governments erase personal freedom, identity, and truth.
It shows how easily power corrupts, especially when a regime controls every aspect of people's daily lives.
Aldous Huxley's novel paints a different picture of oppression. Here, citizens live comfortably through drugs, entertainment, and enforced happiness rather than violence and fear.
Human reproduction happens in labs, relationships become disposable, and individuality is discouraged. Both Huxley and Atwood explore societies where the state strictly controls reproduction and family life.
Yet, while Gilead uses harsh rules and violence, Huxley shows oppression hidden beneath pleasure, conditioning people to never seek freedom in the first place.
Bradbury imagines a society where books are banned and burned. People become numb and passive, entertained only by shallow pleasures and controlled media. Bradbury's narrative touches heavily on censorship, freedom of thought, and the importance of stories to humanity.
Burning books removes ideas and reduces people’s capacity to question and resist. Like The Handmaid's Tale, this novel emphasizes how easily society can lose its freedom and identity without critical thinking and awareness.
In Naomi Alderman's speculative tale, women across the globe suddenly gain the ability to deliver powerful electric shocks. This newfound strength quickly flips society's gender balance, shifting control into women's hands.
Alderman brilliantly examines the nature of power and gender roles by reversing traditional dynamics.
Just as Atwood created a society of strict patriarchal oppression, Alderman explores dominance from the opposite angle, asking tough questions about power, fear, and societal structure.
Vox places us in a near-future America where women are strictly limited to just 100 words per day, wearing devices that shock if the limit is exceeded. Christina Dalcher creates a reality where women's voices—and therefore their identities—are systematically silenced.
Just as Gilead controls women's language and lives, the society in Vox enforces harsh verbal repression. Both novels highlight the importance of voice, language, and personal autonomy as foundation stones against oppression.
P.D. James takes readers to an unsettling future where infertility threatens human extinction. With no children born for over two decades, society has descended into despair, paranoia, and authoritarian rule. James vividly captures a world drained of hope.
Themes like reproductive freedom and the loss of humanity strongly parallel Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Both novels examine how societies might react when humanity loses control over something fundamental—fertility.
Octavia Butler presents a near-future America devastated by climate change, economic collapse, and widespread violence. Amid the chaos arises Lauren Olamina, a young visionary determined to survive and build a compassionate community.
Butler's portrayal of societal breakdown and environmental catastrophe brings to mind Atwood's similar concerns about environmental disaster. Both novels offer compelling views of resistance, resilience, and hope in harsh dystopian environments.
In her MaddAddam trilogy's first installment, Atwood introduces Snowman, struggling to survive after an ecological and biological catastrophe. Genetic engineering and corporate greed led society toward collapse and devastation.
Like The Handmaid's Tale, this novel addresses the dangers of unchecked scientific ambition, excessive capitalism, and the oppression that follows. Atwood vividly illustrates how easily humanity's pursuit of power and wealth can spiral into ruin.
Kazuo Ishiguro subtly portrays a dystopian world focusing on young clones raised solely for organ harvesting. Told from Kathy's gentle perspective, this novel quietly reveals darker truths bit by painful bit.
Ishiguro explores human identity, freedom, and exploitation with remarkable tenderness and care. Although quieter in tone than The Handmaid's Tale, Ishiguro's thematic exploration of control and autonomy over one's body resonates strongly with Atwood's work.
Margaret Atwood herself revisits Gilead in The Testaments, set 15 years after The Handmaid's Tale. Told through multiple perspectives, including one of Gilead's powerful aunts, it offers a more expansive view of life within and resistance against the oppressive regime.
Atwood deepens her portrayal of political and religious manipulation, misogyny, and resistance efforts. This engaging sequel expands readers' understanding of Gilead's inner workings and provides deeper exploration of resilience and hope.
Emily St. John Mandel presents life after civilization collapses due to an influenza pandemic. A small group of artists travels between scattered communities performing Shakespeare, serving as guardians of culture, art, and memory.
Mandel's focus on artistic and collective survival complements Atwood's portrayal of survival through oppressive times. Each novel offers powerful insights into societal collapse, shifting humanity toward hope through connections to art, culture, and shared stories.
Set in a chilling possible future America, Leni Zumas creates a society where abortion and IVF are illegal. Women face severe restrictions as the government asserts control over sexuality and reproduction.
Zumas closely examines the experiences of five women impacted differently by these strict laws.
Her themes of bodily autonomy and reproductive rights echo strongly with readers of The Handmaid's Tale, highlighting how quickly women's freedom can erode through political power and surveillance tactics.
Jennie Melamed takes readers to an isolated island society where a disturbing patriarchal system rules. Girls grow up subjected to rigid and abusive customs justified by twisted religious doctrine.
Melamed carefully explores themes of control, consent, and community complicity in abuse.
Much as Atwood lays bare patriarchal oppression in Gilead, Melamed offers a chilling portrayal of extreme patriarchal rule, emphasizing how easily oppression becomes normalized when isolated from the outside world.
Cormac McCarthy offers a bleak, relentless journey through a burned and devastated America. A father and his young son navigate a barren wasteland, struggling against hunger, violence, and despair on their path south.
With minimal dialogue and stark realism, McCarthy highlights survival and humanity's persistence to survive against impossible odds.
Although sparer and less specifically political than The Handmaid's Tale, this haunting portrayal equally conveys themes like survival, despair, and the unbreakable bonds between people.
This horror-infused dystopia explores a society where, after an animal-borne virus makes meat unsafe, humans farming humans becomes horrifyingly normative.
Agustina Bazterrica takes the reader through a dark descent into morality's disturbing depths, sharply critiquing consumerism, ethics, and desensitization.
Bazterrica's graphic style brutally reminds readers about humanity's capacity for cruelty and exploitation, much as Atwood highlights oppression and objectification of others.
Though incredibly unsettling, this novel makes compelling statements about the moral decay following normalized oppression.