Review: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

What can I really say about The Year of the Flood that hasn't been said before?  Margaret Atwood is brilliant.  I love her.  This was my first time reading her and I can promise you it will not be my last.  In fact, it's been really hard not to go out and buy every single book she's ever written.

I'm sure most of you already know what this book is about.  It's set some time in the future (though everything seems so believable that it really could be just years from now), and the whole story is kind of hard to explain.  It's told by two characters, Ren and Toby, and they flipflop between the present (after the "waterless flood" has come and killed most of humanity) and the past, when the two of them met through God's Gardeners, which is sort of like a religious cult but not really a cult.  It's hard to describe, so don't read my description and think "well, this sounds boring".  Because I'm horrible at describing this story.

I didn't realize until after I finished the book that it's part of a series, which is awesome.  I think Oryx and Crake is the first book?  Which is interesting, because they both make a little cameo in The Year of the Flood. So as you can see, even if you haven't started with book one, the book makes sense.  I understood everything that was going on and I think it makes a great stand-alone book.  The world was just so believable.  Which makes a great dystopian.  Because I hate reading dystopian with a good story line but a world that makes you think "yeah, no.  That's not real." 

This is obviously more of a gush that a review.  I loved it.  LOVED it.  Toby was my favorite character because she is so strong, so much stronger than she gives herself credit for.  And I kept thinking, if I'm ever in a similar situation, I hope I can be like Toby.

Have you read this or any of Atwood's other books?  Your thoughts?  Did you adore it like I did?

I don't even have any awesome quotes to share (Atwood's writing is top notch) because I was enjoying the book so much that I didn't even think to stop to underline.