Read Margaret Atwood's 'Alias Grace' before you watch it on Netflix #book2movies

257 pages in to Margaret Atwood's 467 page work of historical fiction, Alias Grace may be my favorite of Atwood’s books. Written in 1996, Atwood takes convicted murderer/murderess Grace Marks from the 1850’s and uses her to shine a light on a world ruled by men, even today.

Grace Mark’s guards never fail to make crude comments

November 3rd when Alias Grace makes its debut on Netflix, can’t come soon enough, and for those of you who haven’t read the novel, the hefty book flies by surprisingly quickly. I’m loving getting to know this woman who we first meet as a very young girl from an impoverished family in Ireland, forced by financial circumstances to sail across the sea to Canada, in the hold of a ship.

 Edward Holcroft as the handsome Dr. Simon Jordan

Atwood thoroughly and lovingly renders the girl’s story of her life as a servant, who while famously convicted for murder, is judged to be insane and therefore confined to an asylum.

Alias Grace, scripted by Sarah Polley and directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho), stars Sarah Gadon as Grace Marks with Edward Holcroft (Charlie in Kingsman) as Dr. Jordan—the man she tells her story to—Anna Paquin and Paul Gross as the victims, the housekeeper and the master, Nancy Montgomery and Thomas Kinnear, that Grace and James McDermot (Kerr Logan) are convicted of killing. Rebecca Liddiard plays Grace’s beloved friend & protectress Mary Whitney.

Mary Whitney (Rebecca Liddiard) watches out for Grace (Sarah Gadon)