Since several people have already read it, is there a fantasy element* to
Handmaid's Tale? All of the blurbs and reviews I have read are clear on dystopian (which is normally science fiction, not fantasy) but I don't see "fantasy" in any of them. Just imagining what the future could be like under an extreme fundamentalist "totalitarian theocracy" doesn't make it a fantasy novel. Unless there is something, it seems like this doesn't really meet the topic for this month.
Even Atwood's
comments seem to say they are science fiction (under the speculative fiction umbrella) and not fantasy.
Quote:
I have written two works of science fiction or, if you prefer, speculative fiction: The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake.
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*Magic, supernatural events, elves, fairies, or just the "unexplainable and mysterious".