I didn't find Handmaid's Tale unrealistic. Different realistic, but I didn't think it was something that could never happen. Quite the opposite! I think a lot of people feel we can't err into such extreme bad situations, but it's not something that happens all at once. It's a gradual process, and one day you wake up and can't even imagine how you got there.

As Jade (hilariously) said, it's closer than you may think.

Regarding the "science fiction" tag on this novel: Margaret Atwood doesn't write science fiction. Apparently she writes "speculative fiction" which is entirely different. Because sci-fi has rockets and things........ Just ask her! I've heard good things about her other science fic-.... err, I mean, speculative fiction novel, Oryx and Crake and I think I'll be popping it into my next Amazon order.