History YMMV / TheTestaments

* BaseBreakingCharacter: [[spoiler:Aunt Lydia]]. To note, this is an example invoked by the production team from the Hulu series, who opted to make ''Testaments'' its own standalone work after initially attempting to set it within the same continuity as the [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale parent series]], noting that the former's portrayal of the character was functionally incompatible with the latter. [[spoiler:Lydia is revealed to be TheChessmaster who was GoodAllAlong, meaning that everything she did in the original book (including plenty of ForTheEvulz moments) were completely faked so she could ingratiate herself within Gileadean society]].

* OvershadowedByControversy: The book's post-publication period was marred by a contentious Booker Prize ceremony -- after Bernardine Evaristo's ''Girl. Woman. Other'' was announced as the 2019 winner, the jury shocked the audience in attendance by announcing that ''The Testaments'' would share the prize, thus throwing out a rule established nearly three decades prior (in 1992) that expressly deterred such a decision due to the controversy it would cause. As such, [[https://bookriot.com/2019-booker-prize/ the decision]] led to allegations of favoritism and racism (that being a Black nominee could not win on their own merits), not helped by promotional materials for ''The Testaments'' making it look like the book was the sole winner of the award.

* EndingAversion: The book has been criticized for wrapping up ''all'' of the overarching plot threads, including the fate of Gilead itself, in its single concluding chapter -- a DistantFinale set at a historical conference that's peppered with extraneous dialogue given by a moderator about the territory and the reaction of historians to the event.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: [[spoiler:Aunt Lydia]]. To note, this is an example invoked by the production team from the Hulu series, who opted to make ''Testaments'' its own standalone work after initially attempting to set it within the same continuity as the [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale parent series]], noting that the former's portrayal of the character was functionally incompatible with the latter. [[spoiler:Lydia is revealed to be TheChessmaster who was GoodAllAlong, meaning that everything she did in the original book (including plenty of ForTheEvulz moments) were completely faked so she could ingratiate herself with Gilead society]].

** The book also inspired a FandomRivalry with Bernardine Evaristo's ''Girl, Woman, Other'' after both books were awarded the 2019 Booker Prize -- a decision made after the deciding jury opted to ignore a rule set in place several decades earlier (that only one book could be awarded the prize) -- and caused no end of complaints that the jury had deliberately caved to pressure to award Atwood for a book that, charitably speaking, did not receive nearly the same kind of glowing response at launch that ''Handmaid'' did.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: For all the novel's attempts to cast [[spoiler:Aunt Lydia]] in a heroic light, this is the same character who [[ForTheEvulz gleefully]] inflicted all manner of atrocities for the Handmaid's over several decades, making it a case of crocodile tears when the plot tries to have the reader sympathize with her after her plan is set in motion.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The whole book provides one for Aunt Lydia from ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale''. In the first novel, Offred assumes Aunt Lydia to be a staunch loyalist to the Gilead regime working out her sadistic tendencies on the women entrusted to her dubious care. [[spoiler:''The Testaments'' reveals she hated Gilead at least as much as Offred did, and spent literally twenty years playing the long game — and doing whatever she had to do to accumulate power and protection for herself in the meantime, including her terrible actions in the first novel — to bring it all down.]]

* BrokenBase: To fans of the first book, is it just as good as the original novel? Or does it suffer from Sequelitis? What doesn't help is the fact the book borrows elements from the television series.

* GeniusBonus: The cafeteria at Ardua Hall is called the Schlafly Caf&eacute, a reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly Phyllis Schlafly]], a noted real-world opponent of feminism, women's rights, and gay rights who campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment in the US during the 1970s. Doubles as a TakeThat since, while Schlafly would presumably have felt right at home in Gilead, it's clear Atwood's views don't tally with hers very much. (She's also believed to have been one of the major real-world inspirations for Serena Joy in the first novel, which means Atwood called her out ''twice''.)

* GeniusBonus: The cafeteria at Ardua Hall is called the Schlafly Café, a reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly Phyllis Schlafly]], a noted real-world opponent of feminism, women's rights, and gay rights who successfully campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment in the US during the 1970s. Doubles as a TakeThat since, while Schlafly would presumably have felt right at home in Gilead, it's clear Atwood's views don't tally with hers very much. (She's also believed to have been one of the major real-world inspirations for Serena Joy in the first novel, which means Atwood called her out ''twice''.)
* TearJerker: Becka's suicide is terrible enough but before drowning herself, Becka takes off her dress and carefully folds it so that it could be used by another girl...
* NightmareFuel: The viciousness of Gilead towards every single person living in it. Nobody is safe, regardless of how high on the social ladder they are.
** Aunt Lydia's horrific ordeal.

* GeniusBonus: The cafeteria at Ardua Hall is called the Schlafly Café, a reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly Phyllis Schlafly]], a noted real-world opponent of feminism, women's rights, and gay rights who successfully campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment in the US during the 1970s. Presumably a bit of a TakeThat since, while Schlafly would presumably have felt right at home in Gilead, it's clear Atwood's views don't tally with hers very much. (She's even believed to have been one of the major real-world inspirations for Serena Joy in the first novel.)

* GeniusBonus: The cafeteria at Ardua Hall is called the Schlafly Café, a reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly Phyllis Schlafly]], a noted real-world opponent of feminism, women's rights, and gay rights who successfully campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment in the US during the 1970s. Presumably a bit of a TakeThat since, while Schlafly would presumably have felt right at home in Gilead, it's clear Atwood's views don't tally with hers very much. (She's even believed to have been one of the two major real-world inspirations for Serena Joy in the original novel.)

* CompleteMonster: [[TheBluebeard Commander Judd]] is one of the architects of [[TheTheocracy Gilead]] and a chief designer of the Aunt and Handmaid system, promoting horrific slavery for countless women. A [[WouldHurtAChild pedophile]] himself, Judd is known for marrying disturbingly young girls to rape them as he wishes, before clandestinely murdering them, covering up the deaths and observing a "mourning period" before choosing his next victim.

* CompleteMonster: Commander Judd, the brain behind the creation of the Aunts, is a corrupt, power-hungry Bluebeard who preys on his very young wives.
** Becka's father is a disgusting pedophile and the reason she is so terrified of marriage.

** Aunt Lydia's horrific ordeal.