How come? I mean, I don't regard it as particularly good, but I did at least get all the way through it. (On the other hand, I was much younger then.)
It's basically Newbury-level dreck. It reminded me far too much of The Giver - wildly implausible dystopian societies bent on the authors childish ideological sympathies.
That's a...really weird condemnation. I certainly haven't read all of them, but every Newbery Medal nominee I have read has been excellent.
If I wasn't already reading Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum and Tolkien by that point, that kind of horseshit might have turned me off reading altogether at around 11-12.
(ditto for Fahrenheit 451)
Also known as high-concept sf - though probably not in this case, unless Atwood has stopped swearing at people who refer to her work in such terms.
On the other hand, postapocalyptic totalitarian religious dystopia isn't really what you'd call breaking new ground, even in 1985.