also,in both the movie, which Atwood helped write, and the series, which she influenced considerably, the heroine is a lot more rebellious and active than she is in the book)

The book I really liked for how it expressed something I thought was a (bleak) useful and important point about dystopian societies - most people aren't going to turn out to be heroes of the resistance, and will often do little or nothing heroic, because when it gets that bad, just surviving and looking after a few people who are close to you takes so much, and resisting is so dangerous with such horrible consequences, and there are so few opportunities to do it successfully, that it rarely happens. A lot of dystopian fiction is the backdrop for the story of being an awesome heroic revolutionary, and can make it almost appealing to have things get that bad, or invite people to be really judgmental about all of the ordinary people who don't become revolutionary heroes, and I liked the story being about a woman who said what she was supposed to, mostly did what she was supposed to, and didn't become a rebel hero, and it making total sense why she reacted that way.