The criticisms: Atwood's new book is incredibly exciting

The book, which is the continuation of Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Story from 1985, has so far received overwhelmingly positive reviews.

The popularity of the TV series A Handmaid's tales has attracted a lot of interest in the sequel, and today Gilead's daughters (The Testaments) were released simultaneously in several countries and reviews started ticking on cultural sites around the world.

Many critics emphasize that there is a resounding drive in the story. The New York Times is similar to the action of some sort of Dickensian spy thriller, with a mole in Gillead that has to be revealed.

The Guardian calls the book dazzling and that it is an Atwood in top form. The magazine also writes that the author is not interested in depicting how people are deprived of their human value and sacrifice, but how and why other people compromise with their morals and let it happen.

Canadian The Globe and Mail thinks the book is an exciting continuation of A handmaid's tale, albeit a little more light-weight than the first book.

The Telegraph's critics give the book four out of five stars and call it a blockbuster of the goth novels that is so exciting to hold your breath.

On the Swedish cultural sites you are not as impressed. In the Express, for example, Victor Malm thinks that Atwood has been too keen on making fans happy and that Gilead's daughters are "written to be swallowed as a candy bag" and far worse than the Handmaid's story.

In Dagens Nyheter, Malin Ullgren is on the same track. She thinks the book is extremely exciting but writes that Gilead's daughters are a novel in a different genre than the first book and that she is disappointed.