The Handmaid's Tale Book Club Questions

Ten discussion questions for Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale (1985) - written for groups who have finished the book and want an argument, not a summary. Full spoilers ahead. The first six are anchored to this novel’s specific turns; the last four keep the room talking when the wine runs low.

Print questions

The Handmaid's Tale book club questions · readeasy.app/book-club-questions/the-handmaids-tale/

1. 1. Offred tells her story in fragments and admits she is unreliable. What does the rationed narration do that a full memoir could not?

2. 2. The Commander wants Scrabble, magazines, intimacy — the ban list turned into a dating ritual. Is he the novel's most frightening character precisely because he is lonely?

3. 3. Serena Joy built the world and has to live in it. Does the novel let her be a victim, or only an architect who miscalculated her own floor plan?

4. 4. Offred's relationship with Nick is the one thing she chooses — and she can never verify it wasn't surveillance. What does the book gain from keeping that undecidable?

5. 5. The Historical Notes turn the whole tale into a conference paper joke. Did they change your reading of Offred's voice, or date the book?

6. 6. Gilead's ceremonies quote Genesis. How much of the novel's power depends on the scripture being real, and used this way?

7. 7. Which single decision in The Handmaid's Tale, made differently, changes everything — and would the book be better or worse for it?

8. 8. Where in The Handmaid's Tale did you stop trusting the narrator — or realize you never should have started?

9. 9. What does The Handmaid's Tale assume about its reader? Do you fit the assumption?

10. 10. Casting the adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale: who plays the protagonist, and who steals the film?

How to run the meeting

Don’t go in order. Open with whichever question matches your group’s mood - a quiet room starts with a character question, a lively one starts with an argument about the ending. Let one question run until it genuinely dies, then jump. Two rules keep it alive: every claim gets pointed at the text (someone will have the book on their phone), and “I hated it” counts as an opinion that must be defended like any other.

The Handmaid's Tale runs about 101,000 words - roughly 311 pages - so a month between meetings is comfortable at 30 minutes a day; the full session math is on the reading time page. For a quicker take on who actually finished it, open the meeting with the The Handmaid's Tale quiz - scores settle grudges faster than discussion. The book’s famous quotes make good meeting-openers too, and if the group wants a next pick built like this one, the books like The Handmaid's Tale list is the handout.

Taking the club through the whole author? Our Margaret Atwood books in order guide orders the full shelf.

Ground rules that save meetings

Three habits keep a club alive past the first bottle. First, the person who picked the book opens the discussion - they owe the group one sentence on why they chose it, which is usually the strongest prompt of the night. Second, silence is allowed to sit for a full ten seconds; the second answer is always better than the first. Third, end on the next pick while everyone is still arguing, because momentum is the only renewable fuel a book club has. The questions above are written to survive all three rules.

More book club question sets

1984 questions, Animal Farm questions, Brave New World questions, Lord of the Flies questions - or grab questions for all 133 classics. For the end-of-season meeting, the mixed-classics book quiz settles who read the most.

Frequently asked questions