I did enjoy this book, despite the fact that it is disturbing in numerous ways.

The novel is well written and intelligently thought out, somewhat vague, open to imagination and interpretation -without the story being made inaccessible or irritatingly lacking.

I'm normally not a fan of being left with more question than I started with, but Sophie Macintosh somehow makes it work in 'The Water Cure. We're treated to a deeply mysterious tale about three girls who have been isolated from the world by their parents (only known as Mother and King). We don't find out anything about the state of the outside world other than what the parents have told the girls - and really the whole background there screams cultish abusive control experiment.

There's also much rumination over feminist issues, such as the inequality of power and (lack of) safety between men and women.....and talk of suppression of women's emotions being key to protecting themselves- one point I did find utterly questionable, even in the context of the way the girls had been manipulated. I suppose not all of the points the author wanted to make fit snuggly into the story she wanted to tell.

Nevertheless, a novel with much to recommend it and much material for discussion. I would certainly recommend this, most particularly to a Young Adult readership with the hope of stimulating thought and conversation.

A very interesting book. This story will have you puzzled and enthralled at the same time, I couldn't put this book down! The child-like innocence of the characters that clash with the harsh realities and ideals of their parents, the ending is wonderful, especially if you've been rooting for the girls all the while.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I almost gave up on it because it's a very uncomfortable read at times. Three sisters being "protected" from the "dangers" of the world beyond the border by their oddball parents. This protection involves participating in various sadistic rituals and keeping themselves isolated from outsiders. None of the characters are particularly likeable and the third sister's role is almost insignificant to the point you wonder why she's in there at all.
On the plus side, the writing has an almost poetic quality and you slip from start to finish in a slightly disturbed haze.
The author leaves so much left unsaid and the reader has to work hard to fill in the blanks. If you like a tightly wound up plot, this is not the book for you.

The thing I liked most about this book is that the author does not feel the need to explain everything to the reader: there are plenty of gaps for your own imagination to work with. The thing I liked least about this book is that the author does not explain enough to the reader.

It’s a tricky balance to hit in a book like this. Normally, I am great fan of book with loose ends and open-ended story lines. I like to be left with something to think about, something I can project forward with my own imagination. But, equally, I don’t like it when there are big gaps that mean the book feels incomplete.

The Water Cure tells the story of Grace, Lia and Sky. They are three sisters who have been removed from the rest of the world by their parents (King and Mother) for their protection. This is both physical protection (the parents are very clear that the outside world is polluted and will damage the girls irreparably) and emotional protection (bad things will happen to them in the outside world, so they need to be kept from it). We never learn the details of what King and Mother believe is wrong with the world. This is fine: I am happy to go with the idea that something has happened and the mystery is greater for not knowing what it is. The book blurb tells us that the three children are <i>”taught the terrible things that every woman must learn about love”</i>. I have to say that I would re-phrase that and say they are taught the things that mentally unbalanced parents would teach them. Then three men appear in the story and, as men seem to do (and perhaps this is part of the point of the story), they disrupt everything. Unfortunately, they disrupt everything in somewhat predictable ways. Once the men were washed up on the beach, I had a horrible feeling I knew where we were going. And we did.

There is some very atmospheric writing in the book. The first and last sections are narrated by Grace and Lia, but the middle (and by far the longest section) is narrated wholly by Lia. There are no great surprises in the plot, but the writing is often effective in telling the story. I was disappointed that Sky might as well have not been there for all she contributed to the story. And one of the men washed up is never developed as a character and could fairly easily have not been there.

The book blurb also tells you this is for <i>fans of Hot Milk</i>, but I am not sure I get that comparison. Unfortunately for this book, Hot Milk is a favourite of mine, so this is a high bar to clear. I was more put in mind of a combination of The Natural Way of Things and The Many.

In summary, I enjoyed some of the writing here, but found the plot rather too obvious and the lack of develop of some of the characters disappointing.

This is the story of sisters, Grace, Lia and Sky. They live on an island with their parents, away from the rest of the population in a world which they believe is dangerous and polluted. They practice a variety of meditations and actions designed to protect them. Sometimes other women come to the island to recover. And then, one day, men arrive and everything changes.

Each if the chapters in this book are narrated by one of the girls, with Lia being the main character in that respect. Not everything is explained, lots of gaps are left which are sometimes filled later in the book and sometimes just in your imagination. I liked that. However I didn't like the undertone of possible abuse and the violence at the end. The book kept my attention, it's written well and I read it all, but it's not really a genre I enjoy.

Thankyou to Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Water Cure tells the strange and compelling story of Lia and her sisters Grace and Sky, who live with their parents in a remote haven far from the dangers of the ‘mainland’. Quite what these dangers are is unclear - references are made to toxicity and illnesses, but it becomes clear that the greatest source of danger is men, who (with the exception of their father, known only as King, are considered evil and deadly). The girls have lived a strange, secluded life punctuated by the rituals, treatments and ceremonies their parents make them perform. When King disappears after a trip to the mainland, the girls and their mother are left vulnerable. When strangers arrive, their way of life and safety comes under threat.

The Water Cure explores female sexuality, guilt and fear, and the lyrical prose adds another layer of mystery to it. There were times when I wished I could just be told what exactly had happened to make the world this way - a war? A plague? - but perhaps a very direct explanation would have taken away the unsettling nature of the story, which takes much from the things that remain unknown, both by the characters and the reader.

The Water Cure is fascinating, oddly soothing, like an otherworldly call to female arms. Quite unlike anything I’ve ever read, in a great way.

A 3.5 star review (but I can't give a half)

A book that should not be entered lightly, The Water Cure isn't one that you storm through in one day, it's a book that takes thought, insight, an open mind, and the ability to go with the author, even if you're not sure where she's taking you.

Sophie Mackintosh does not spoon feed her readers, we are expected to do some of the work ourselves, but that's a wonderful thing, a chance for your imagination to interpret the story in whatever way you would like.

On the surface, this book is seemingly a story to mirror the modern world, to highlight the fight for equality women still face, and the power that men wield over us. However, when you scratch the surface and delve into the story within, you'll find something so intuitive, so wonderfully insightful and brave that you'll want to tell your friends about this book.

It took me slightly longer than usual to read this, but I think books of this kind should be savoured so that they can really be enjoyed. Much of the book reads like a poem or a free following passage of words, rather than a typical 'book', but one that I think you'll find yourself falling in love with.

I want to talk about this. I want to tell my friends and buy people a copy and discuss what bits really struck a chord, and I think by any measure, that's a sign of a good book.

I will say, if you're looking for a book with a closed ending and all of the answers, then this isn't for you.

I had such high hopes for this book and for me I felt it was lacking.

I was so conflicted with this book as when I think about it now I can't say I disliked it but I also didn't love it so to be fair it is more of a 2.5 star rating.

First of all I will say that there were parts of this book that I thought were brilliant and the whole book was incredibly well written but the plot itself was a bit...meh. When I got to the end of the book I was left with so many questions which I will appreciate for some people is ok but for me I wanted to know more, I wanted a better conclusion. I was questioning myself saying "did I miss something somewhere?"

I really liked the idea and the way the story began as it seemed right up my street. It's about three sisters who live in a completely isolated environment with their parents when their father "King" dies and then later their mother disappears and the relationship the three girls have with each other, their parents and the three men that show up after their father's death.

A great book if you like descriptive characterisation with an almost cryptic way of writing with not a lot going on a lot of the time.

Such a shame as this book could have potentially been great.

I received this book free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Wow. I absolutely adored this book. I ADORED it. At times, potently political, at other times haunting, even gothic, The Water Cure is a radical exploration of female insecurity and power that follows three daughters brought up in an isolated compound away from men. But then men arrive…

Grace, Lia and Sky are three sisters in their late teens and early twenties who, it quickly transpires, have been raised on an unidentified island by their mother and father, King. It seems the parents had decided that the mainland, the real world, was toxic, and that the men could not be trusted to not harm or exploit women, hence why the parents fled to the island and raised their daughters segregated from the wider world.

As a result, the three daughters have never left the island, and other than their father, they have no experience or memory of men. However, when King dies in a fishing accident, their lives are thrown into turmoil; their protection against the mainland and its men gone.

But unsettling details start to emerge about this supposed sanctuary – the mother is obsessed with sadistic rituals, often forcing her three daughters to inflict pain on themselves and their sisters to ‘cleanse’ themselves, to choke out any toxins that may be within them.

It also seems the island was once a refuge for abused women fleeing from the mainland – but those women no longer come and it’s not clear why. Plus, one of the daughters, Grace, is hiding a secret…

It’s a disquieting set-up – one filled with shadows and secrets – and the author’s prose only accentuates this with snatched glimpses of the extraordinary amongst the ordinary, offering up only partly explained scenes and memories. There’s a touch of the Shirley Jackson’s to the writing, of a dark romanticism, that I adored. (“I go down to the forest whenever I can shake my sisters off. The only place I can find a degree of calm is among the sightless trees, their shadow.”)

But then three men are washed up on the shores of the island, their boat apparently sunk in a thunderstorm, changing the lives of these four women forever. The questions is, will the parents be proven right in their reason to be wary of men?

This book is just glorious. For what could have been a straightforward account of female awakening and gender politics has been infused with plot and characters rich in detail and mystery. I can’t believe Penguin are sitting on this until next May as I just want to shout about it right now, tell my friends about it, get them this for Christmas…

This feels such a desperately relevant book – awakenings, power dynamics, gender politics… And all wrapped up in an almost dreamscape prose. This book deserves to find its audience. I really hope it does.

The cover was what originally drew me to this book, and then I read it and it was terrific. The writing is exquisite, these kind of slow burn stories are quite often let down by boring writing but this is excellent. The story I think would appeal to readers who have enjoyed books like The Handmaids Tale and When She Woke. I really enjoyed it.

Closer to a prose-poem than a conventional novel, this offers a hallucinogenic meditation on gender and violence. The setting is opaque and the various voices all really one as three young women confront what the book proposes is their biological fate: 'the violence came for all women, border or no border. It was already in our blood, in our collective memory.'

So not the most subtle of feminist polemics but there's some lovely writing drawing on influences from traditional fairy-tales to contemporary writers like Atwood.