Ranking Margaret Atwood’s Novels: From Worst to Best
Margaret Atwood has been called many things: prophet, provocateur, master of the speculative, defender of the literary, and one of Canada’s greatest living writers. She’s also written so many novels across so many decades that trying to rank them feels a bit like being asked to choose your favorite element on the periodic table. (Sorry, fluorine, you didn’t make the cut.)
Still, if you’ve ever stared at her intimidating bibliography and wondered, Where do I start? or Which ones are worth revisiting?, a ranking can help. What follows is my personal countdown of Atwood’s novels — not her poetry, essays, or short fiction — from the weakest entries to the ones I believe define her career.
Spoiler: her most famous book really does earn the top spot. But there are plenty of surprises along the way.
17. Hag-Seed (2016)
A modern retelling of The Tempest set in a Canadian prison sounds like peak Atwood mischief. Instead, it reads like a clever class assignment that’s smart in concept, but oddly lifeless. A fun footnote, but nowhere near her best work.
16. The Heart Goes Last (2015)
A dystopia where couples live part-time in a prison system, with Elvis impersonators and sex robots tossed in for good measure. Wild ideas, yes, but the satire is more zany than sharp. It’s Atwood, but not the Atwood that sticks.
15. Bodily Harm (1981)
A Canadian journalist tries to escape her personal troubles on a Caribbean island, only to stumble into political unrest. It’s thoughtful but sluggish, more like a warm-up for her bigger, bolder books.
14. The Testaments (2019)
The blockbuster sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale sold millions and scooped up the Booker. This one just didn’t quite work for me, I found it cliched and boring mostly. It’s definitely missing the suffocating dread that made Gilead terrifying in the first place.
13. Lady Oracle (1976)
Part satire, part rom-com, part identity crisis, this story of a romance novelist leading a double life is playful but scattershot. Atwood has better comic novels, this one reads like an overstuffed trunk of ideas.
12. The Year of the Flood (2009)
The eco-religious Gardeners take center stage in the second MaddAddam book. The world-building is ambitious, and the sermons are pure Atwood wit, but the pacing drags. It works better as part of the trilogy than on its own.
11. Life Before Man (1979)
A very 1970s love triangle in Toronto, with sharp observations on relationships and decay. Precise writing and a chilly atmosphere, but it doesn’t leave a lasting emotional mark.
10. The Edible Woman (1969)
Her debut novel announces Atwood’s themes early: gender roles, consumerism, the absurdity of modern life. The plot — a woman losing her appetite as she loses patience with patriarchy — is both funny and unsettling. Rough around the edges, but you can already see the genius forming.
9. MaddAddam (2013)
The trilogy’s finale leans heavy on backstory but lands with humor and heart. The invented folklore, like twisted fairy tales for the post-apocalypse, is particularly delightful. A solid conclusion, though not her most powerful work.
8. The Penelopiad (2005)
Atwood’s retelling of The Odyssey from Penelope’s side is slim, sly, and deliciously sarcastic. She gives a voice to the silenced women of myth, and does it with humor that still stings.
7. Surfacing (1972)
Haunting, dreamlike, and a little feral. A woman returns to rural Quebec and unravels into the wilderness. It’s less about plot than atmosphere, and it lingers like a half-remembered nightmare. One of her early gems.
6. Oryx and Crake (2003)
Post-apocalyptic Atwood at her most biting. Snowman’s memories of genetic tinkering, corporate greed, and doomed love make for a story that feels uncomfortably close to our present.
The science in Oryx and Crake is chillingly plausible, which is why this book has only grown in relevance. Snowman is a tragic figure, equal parts unreliable narrator and accidental prophet. As the opening to the MaddAddam trilogy, it’s a tough act to follow.
5. The Blind Assassin (2000)
A novel inside a novel inside a novel. Atwood goes full puzzle-box here, weaving a gothic family saga with pulp science fiction tales, all tied together by a mystery narrator.
It won the Booker Prize in 2000, cementing Atwood’s reputation as a writer who could balance intellectual ambition with narrative drive. Critics praised its complexity; some readers found it frustrating. But the sheer audacity of the form makes it stand out in her catalog.
What makes The Blind Assassin special isn’t just the clever structure but how it sneaks up emotionally. Beneath the layers, it’s about betrayal, survival, and the ways women narrate their own lives. That duality — brainy and gut-punching — is why it remains one of her greatest.
4. The Robber Bride (1993)
Zenia is one of Atwood’s best creations: a frenemy so toxic she feels mythic. She keeps returning from the dead to wreck lives, a trickster figure in shoulder pads.
The novel was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and became one of Atwood’s most popular books in the 1990s. Some critics thought it was too long, too exaggerated. Others loved its gothic flair and satire.
It’s also a rare book that takes female friendship and rivalry seriously as an epic subject. Where Cat’s Eye is inward and haunted, The Robber Bride is outward, funny, and explosive.
3. Cat’s Eye (1988)
This is Atwood at her most quietly devastating. Elaine Risley, a painter, reflects on her childhood in Toronto, where bullying among girls leaves scars that never fade.
The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and many critics consider it her most psychologically penetrating work. Readers who come to Atwood for dystopia sometimes overlook it, but those who’ve read it often call it her masterpiece. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree.
It’s not flashy, but it’s unforgettable. If you’ve ever had a friend who hurt you worse than any enemy could, Cat’s Eye will feel uncomfortably true.
2. Alias Grace (1996)
Part true crime, part historical fiction, part psychological game. Atwood retells the 19th-century case of Grace Marks, a servant accused of murder.
It won the Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker. Critics marveled at the meticulous research, the textured prose, and the way Atwood refuses to solve Grace’s mystery. Is she guilty? Innocent? Both? The ambiguity is the point.
Grace tells her story, but we can never quite trust her. It’s a novel about women’s voices, the stories that get believed, and the ones that don’t.
1. The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)
Offred’s nightmare in Gilead is the book that made Atwood a household name. Published in 1985, it was shortlisted for the Booker and won the Governor General’s Award. But its afterlife has been even more remarkable: a Hulu series, stage and opera adaptations, and protest signs around the world quoting its lines.
Its brilliance lies in its simplicity. The prose is stripped back, the imagery unforgettable, the dread suffocating. It’s not just dystopia for shock value — it’s about memory, survival, and the fragility of rights.
Atwood famously insisted that everything in the novel had historical precedent. That’s what makes it chilling: it’s not imagining the impossible, just rearranging what humans have already done.
The Handmaid’s Tale is the book people will still be reading 100 years from now. It’s not just Atwood’s best novel; it’s one of the defining works of modern literature.
Final Thoughts
Margaret Atwood has never been one to sit still. From gothic parody to dystopian prophecy, realist portraits to mythic retellings, her novels refuse to be pinned down. Ranking them is partly an exercise in futility — they’re too varied to line up neatly — but it’s also a reminder of just how much ground she’s covered.
Whether you’re revisiting old favorites or diving in for the first time, Atwood’s novels offer something few writers can: the sense that literature can still be urgent, unsettling, and fiercely alive.
Check out some of our other Author Rankings:
Haruki Murakami Ranked
Kurt Vonnegut Ranked
Agatha Christie Ranked
