Margaret Atwood has an uncanny ability to transport readers into a world that parallels ours. She can place a funhouse mirror in front of human patterns and behavior, reflecting possibilities that seem impossible but don't seem as farfetched based on our reality. This book is a great example of her skills. The characters are dealing with the state of the world when the middle class collapses (pretty relevant). This creates a lot of challenges and trust put into the wrong people.

Great premise! Lousy story!

I normally enjoy Margaret Atwood's work, and I was looking forward to reading yet another thought-provoking dystopian novel by the accomplished author, but The Heart Goes Last was a letdown. I recently discovered that the book was first published as a collection of short stories before being converted into a single novel. This explains why I became so invested in the first quarter of the book but rapidly lost interest in the tangled mess that followed.

The story opens with Stan and Charmaine, a couple who have been forced to live in their car and sign up for a new program that will provide them with a clean home and unlimited food. The catch, because there is always a catch, is that they must spend every other month in Positron, a volunteer prison. What begins as a fresh, bright future quickly becomes their personal nightmare, and they must figure out how to survive and escape.

Atwood has written so many excellent stories that I would skip this one entirely and pick up another book instead.

Thanks to NetGalley and DoubleDay Books for this ARC in exchange for a (brutally!) honest review.

The economy has collapsed, leaving Stan and Charmaine living in their car once both their jobs disappear. Roving gangs of thugs are always an issue, ready to use violence to get any money or food they can find. Stan is despondent while Charmaine tries to make the best of things which is also irritating to Stan.

The couple can't believe it when they are asked to come and test for a new living community named Consilience. If they are accepted, they will be given a house inside a walled community and provided with food and safety. There is a prison in the community and the scheme works this way. Every house is shared by two families. One month the first couple is on the outside working a job provided by the community while the other couple spends the month in prison doing work that benefits the prison. The next month the two couples trade places. Once you are in, you cannot leave. Stan and Charmaine eagerly accept.

At first, it's like a dream come true. Then doubts start to set in, especially when Stan finds out that Charmaine has been meeting the other couple's man on switchover days for an affair. The longer they are there, the more they start to see things going on in the prison that aren't right. Things like people who disappear. Things like Charmaine's job which is to administer a final shot to those whose time is up. Soon they realize that they have signed up for a nightmare but how to escape when every move and word they speak is monitored?

This is a lesser known Atwood novel but it fits in the dystopian genre and as a message against governmental authority. Everything is exaggerated but sometimes that is what it takes to make a point. There are sexbots, knitting circles, men and women who dress up like either Elvis or Marilyn Monroe and whose time can be rented, organ transplants for sale and lots of other plot points that demonstrate what happens when one trades freedom for security. This book is recommended for readers of science fiction and dystopian fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
I requested this book because it is Margaret Atwood so maybe my expectations were too high. I just found it full of lots of ideas and didn’t really enjoy it. I would recommend lots of other Atwood books instead of this one.

Margaret Atwood is a master of fiction and dystopia but this one didn't quite do it for me. It was fine, but definitely not as captivating as some of her prior works like The Handmaid's Tale.

I've long loved Atwood's writing, since first picking up Handmaid's Tale as a college freshman. This one was weird and out there, but in true Atwood fashion, made me pause and think about my day-to-day in new ways. Not sure I loved it, but not sure I was supposed to, either.

I'm typically a huge Margaret Atwood fan, but really struggled through this book. It just wasn't my favorite Atwood book to date by any means.

Like all of Atwood’s books, this was definitely an interesting read! I was not as absorbed in the story and dystopian world as I have been in most of her other works.

A few years ago, I finally read Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and it scared the bejeezus out of me. I think I’d find it even scarier now. I was fairly well convinced Atwood was a genius based on that book alone. This book, though, is not helping that impression.

Yes, the initial premise of the book is intriguing. The economy has gone to hell, there are millions of people without work, many are homeless and living out of their cars. Many others are roaming the streets looking to steal whatever they can or assault whomever they can. Into that situation comes the promise of a job, a place to live, and three meals a day. The catch? Every other month you’re “job” is to act as a prisoner so that other people can have jobs operating the prison or working in the adjacent town. Desperate people are willing to make that bargain. So desperate that they don’t really stop to think exactly how the company that is operating this scheme is making money to pay them or to make a profit. Ok, I’m in, even though I really, really don’t like the main characters.

Jump ahead one year. Our main characters have settled into their new lives, but there are starting to be cracks in the façade. Oh, did I mention, they cannot leave the town/prison? That constraint is starting to take its toll as well. Still along for the ride, especially considering some of the things I’m learning along the way about the prison.

And then…

It all got really gimmicky and farfetched. I don’t want to tell you too much but Elvis impersonators, Marilyn impersonators, and Elvis and Marilyn sex robots are involved. And teddy bears. And teddy bear sex. Yeah, Atwood goes there.

As for the title, believe it or not, after all of that, Atwood has a story to tell her about love and the choices we make for love. Which, despite the title, is not at all what I was expecting as I got into the book. I suppose that's part of the reason I was disappointed. I was expecting to find myself truly frightened by the goings on in this book; but, just when I thought we were getting there, comedy ensued and a love story of sorts evolved. Honestly, and this is unusual for me to say, I wanted something darker out of this one.

Another good, fast-paced, engaging dystopian world from Atwood. It all unravels a bit after the main characters escape the prison complex, but this one is highly recommended.

This was too harsh for me to read. I know that the premise is dystopic, but the extreme amount of cursing bothered me.

As can always be expected of Atwood, she's created yet another stellar dystopian world in which the reality of poverty and desperation lends itself to experimentation, questions of morality in the face of insecurity, and the helplessness that comes when life is no longer in your control.

Atwood remains very relevant as a writer. This woman is amazing. Wonderful dystopian society that still feels very applicable. Her primary characters are well-fitted for her plot and the premise is well executed. Her writing continues to push the boundaries of what is to be expected, delightfully so.

This book I picked up because of recognizing Margaret Atwood. I thought it was really interesting setting. It felt like you were taking back in time, to like the 1950's or something. Honestly, living the way they were I probably would've signed up for the social experiment as well.

Pretty soon they become obsessed with their alternates, (how could you not!) which is a recipe for disaster. From the beginning this one had me hooked with the idea, it just feels "different ". But at the same time it doesn't feel completely fleshed out. It is as if the book is just scratching the surface with a good idea. Interesting, but not enthralling.

It’s possible to be a fan of an author without liking everything they’ve written.  That’s especially true with an author as prolific as Margaret Atwood. I’m a fan of Margaret Atwood’s. Recently she gave a fantastic lecture here in Pittsburgh; afterwards, while holding The Handmaid’s Tale in the book signing line, all I managed to say was a barely-audible “thank you for this.”

The very affordable cost of my lecture ticket included a signed copy of The Heart Goes Last. Unfortunately, Atwood’s newest novel is the sort of book that has a good premise and starts off well, but eventually jumps the shark.

It takes its inspiration from the recent (or current, depending on your circumstances) economic collapse and the uncertainty and desperation faced by people who have lost jobs, homes, and livelihoods.

Such is the plight of Stan and Charmaine who are living in their car and fending off criminals existing in their own stew of desperation. Life is grim for the once middle-class couple when Charmaine learns about Consilience (CON + RESILIENCE = CONSILIENCE, as the reader is reminded way too often)  where participants in this social experiment of sorts receive a house and gainful employment … in exchange for doing time in Positron, a prison.  They’re in prison one month, doing their prison jobs, and then the next month they get to live in what sounds like a typical suburban McMansion. While they’re doing time, another couple (the “Alternates”) is living in the house. Kind of like a time-share.

Who wouldn’t take that deal, right? It’s not like Stan and Charmaine have many alternatives, so they sign up for the Positron project.  All seems to be perfectly fine until Stan finds a note tucked under the fridge … from Jasmine, the other wife who is part of the Alternate couple sharing their their house. He becomes infatuated with this woman and meanwhile, Charmaine starts up an affair with the husband.

As you may have guessed, this doesn’t go well.

And as things became weirder and weirder  — slightly less than halfway into the book — Atwood started losing me as a reader. I admit to skimming a considerable portion of it and not caring much about the characters when I was very sympathetic to them in the beginning.

Oh, and there’s an Elvis impersonator as a sex robot.  Or something. That part I definitely skimmed over because I. CANNOT. STAND. ELVIS.

(The Husband considers this un-American and feels that I should be required to renounce my citizenship. He can’t imagine how he married someone who dislikes Elvis as intensely as I do.)

I get what The Heart Goes Last was trying to be. I think I do, anyway. It’s a testament to love — that even in the most difficult and corrupt and dire circumstances, we still have the capacity to love. And sometimes the heart takes over and gets the better of us, but that’s what makes us human instead of … well, a sex robot. Most of us, anyway.

This one didn’t work for me.  I still love Margaret Atwood, though.  I’m just hoping to love my next Atwood read a little more.