Cover Image: The Water Cure

The Water Cure

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Member Reviews

Grace, Lia and Sky are three sisters whose parents have taken them away from civilization to live on an island after a strange plague has hit. The sickness is especially dangerous to women, causing severe symptoms and seems to cause men to become more aggressive towards the opposite sex, while not making them ill at all. Raised by the mother and their father, King, in safety and seclusion, the girls are put through "therapies" to teach them how to survive, and rid them of any toxins from the outside world. When King dies, the girl's survival instincts and training are put to the test, and what follows is a dark and haunting story that leaves you with just the right amount of questions... This may be my favorite read so far this year...

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This book kept me interested enough to read to the end, but it was quite odd and the ending was slightly unsatisfying.

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DNF at about 20% in.

Too abstract for me. After reading some reviews, it seems I am not the only one. Many reviews also said that a lot of questions go unanswered and the reader is left to make their own conclusions, so I don't want to waste time when there are many other books on my TBR.

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The Water Cure
by Sophie Mackintosh

“King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky. He has lain the barbed wire; he has anchored the buoys in the water; he has marked out a clear message: Do not enter. Or, viewed from another angle: Not safe to leave."

I’ve waited weeks to write this review, because when I finished I wasn’t even sure how I felt about the book. I don’t mean that I was unsure if I liked it, but rather the content of the book was so heavy and so muddled that I needed some time to sift through it alone.

“Here women are protected from the chaos and violence of men on the mainland. The cult-like rituals and therapies they endure fortify them against the spreading toxicity of a degrading world.”

So, The Water Cure features a family of five. Two parents—Mother and King, and three girls—Grace, Lia, and Sky. From the moment you start reading this book you know there’s something funny about this family.

I don’t know what year it is or their exact geographical location, but King has taken his women and moved them to a deserted island to protect them. Or so he thought.

As the quote directly from the book states above, some of the rituals Mother and King made their daughters do for protection and healing were cult like. And, truly, most of the rituals bordered on abusive.

Drinking salt water

Being sewn into a sac and put into a sauna

Being held underwater by a dress filled with weights

Anti-depressants

Anti-psychotics

Cutting

Rape.

I had so many questions while reading this book, and most of the time they didn’t get answered. This was kind of a beautiful thing while reading, though, because I was able to share in the confusion that the girls were experiencing.

Then, King dies.

The women are lost, they’re running low on supplies, and then three men wash up on shore.

The girls have never met men other than King, and they’ve been conditioned to believe that the very air that the men release from their lungs will poison them. The girls must learn to cohabitate in the absence of BOTH of their parents when their mother sets off for supplies from the mainland.

This is when the real growth and change began.

The girls are different. They’re unstable.

Pregnancy, lust, and anxiety threaten to tear them apart.

"There is no hiding the damage the outside world can do, if a woman hasn't been taking the right precautions to guard her body."

Sophie Mackintosh made me feel like I was floating in the water watching all of this happen right before my eyes. I was right next to the girls as they made discoveries. The writing was both mystical and harsh.

It wasn’t a book that I tore through at lightning speed, but don’t let that discount it’s content. I was emotionally invested in this book, and the dark corners were meant to be savored not devoured.

To buy: The Water Cure

Thank you Sophie and NetGalley for the Review Copy.

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Weird, wacky, beautiful, frustrating, hypnotizing and wholly original! I am still turning these characters and their lives over in my mind, in a good way.

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From its first ominous lines, THE WATER CURE weaves an eerie, haunting story that is impossible to put down. As the story unfolds, moving steadily towards a conclusion that is both inevitable and surprising – author Sophie Mackintosh proves to be a masterful captain for this meandering, thought-provoking tale.

THE WATER CURE follows a family that has retreated from a civilization where women cannot survive alongside men. They open their home to women who come to seek safety and recovery from the wounds inflicted on them – it is a strange life, but an idyllic one. But the family is seemingly blind to the way their world is crumbling around them: the house is falling apart, the daughters are subject to strange and violent therapies, and the world around them is kept a closely-guarded secret. This is forced into stark relief when three people – men, no less! – arrive from the mainland without warning, tipping the delicate balance that the girls have achieved.

Mackintosh has done some truly spectacular writing: her prose is lush, her grasp of her characters unyielding, her sense of tone pitch-perfect. It is enough to distract the reader from the plot’s mysteries until it is too late, leaving many questions unanswered. This is forgivable, because the characters themselves do not know the truth. Our narrators, the three daughters, have been rendered unreliable by the therapies and tales presented to them by their parents. Even as they struggle to find their own truths, their stories clash and contradict one another.

At only 247 pages, THE WATER CURE has left a lot of story on the table. Although much of the book is tightly paced, the book loses itself a bit in the middle, as we meander through Lia’s exploration of love – and the lack thereof. In the end, this results in many unanswered questions. The reader is left to fill in the details and interpret the story, rendering the book somewhat unsatisfying.

There is very little “truth” within this book, but at the same time, it creates a powerful mirror to the lives of women today. It discusses the weaponization of love, and how delicate a balance our society truly hinges on. In leaving so many holes in the plot and ongoing stories, the reader is forced to confront their own thoughts on what sort of intangible poisons exist in our society, and the impact the patriarchy has on women.

In the end, THE WATER CURE was a wonderful, atmospheric read. It was unexpectedly gripping, and kept the pages turning toward a result that is inevitable but still manages to be surprising.

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This book was different. I thought I would give it a try for something new. It had an interesting premise and reminded me somewhat of "The Handmaid's Tale". It was good and an enjoyable read. I would recommend it to fans of Margaret Atwood.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

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As I write this review, I am somewhat unsure of how I feel about the book. It was absolutely interesting, but I’m not positive that I fully comprehend it. The book is about a family of 3 girls, a mom and a dad, living on an island, separated from the toxic world beyond. In that world, men are hurtful towards woman, but the father, King, is a different man who has professed to love woman and wants to take care of them and heal them. Women come to their island, completely in ruins... hair falling out, blessing from the nose and gums, with bruises and throubles of all sorts. They are healed in their home... given the “water cure” until they are well and they leave again. The girls watch these women and occasionally talk with them. Meanwhile, they undergo their own therapies. Some of them require that they hurt each other. Some of them require them to be weighted down in the pool, so they are prepared for their own water cure if they one day need it. They girls never leave the island. King however, goes to the mainland every so often to get the things they need... food, medicine, etc. on one of the trips something happens and things are never the same for this family. I can’t say more without spoiling things, but as I said in the beginning of the review, it was certainly an interesting story. It felt a little like a book I might have read years ago for AP English or for a college lit class where there are underlying meanings that I needed to grasp, but may have struggled to fully uncover. I felt like I was missing something, even after the big reveal near the end. None the less, this book was different and I appreciated the creativity of the story and the relationships which were explored and whatever I may have missed, did not take away from the parts of the book I found interesting. If you read it and get all the underlying meaning... let me know. I’d love to discuss with you!

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I can’t even put into words about how I feel about this book. It was bizarre and haunting, and strange and confusing... I want someone else to read this so I can talk about it with them. I think for that reason, it would make a good book club book. Not my usual type of read, I like more directness, but this was a good one that kept me thinking long after the book was over.

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Men weren't present in Grace, Lia, and Sky's lives. Only King, their father. This was for their protection because men were the cause of all the harm and poison in the world. Being hidden away from them was the only way to survive.

But when King disappears during a routine supply run, and Mother also doesn't return from her trip beyond the sea border, the sisters are stuck on their beach with three castaways. Men. And this changes everything.

Sophie Mackintosh's debut novel, "The Water Cure", is a palpably tense look through a dystopian window at a family's search for a unique utopia, and what they end up finding instead.

This is "The First Book of Calamity Leek" meets "The Handmaid's Tale" meets "My Absolute Darling" in all of each of their weird wackiness and horrifyingly resolute honesty about what makes society (and separation) so imperfect.

This is a stunning debut novel with writing that behaves like watercolors, painting each new page with dynamic emotion: angst, elation, peace, dread. It was unusual, confusing, and eerie in all the best ways. I could easily see this playing out on the big screen, although it would take a master director to get it entirely right.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Doubleday, and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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Let's start with the obvious...this cover is gorgeous. Also this book has an enticing promotional blurb (although, after reading I'm not sure it's totally on point, but it sure did make me to want to read this book.)

The book itself is a bit of a mystery. I think my beef with the promo copy is that things are not so very specific as "HANDMAID'S TALE meets THE VIRGIN SUICIDES". Ultimately few questions about the (dystopian?) world these sisters live in are answered. Instead everything is far more dreamy and vague. Who are the women who came before? Who are the (flashback?) interludes written by? Are men really dangerous? Are the ghosts real? Who knows? Maybe the answers to these questions won't matter to some readers, but I personally wanted to know more.

This book reminded me a lot of another book I recently reviewed, "Still Life"--it's dystopian fiction that is far less interested in building that dystopian world than in describing the relationships of the women who live within it. If you're interested in the former, this book will frustrate you. But if the later sounds up your alley, you'll likely dig this.

Ultimately this is a story about (dysfunctional, co-dependent) sisters, the world they THINK they live in, and how their worldview changes when some strangers are introduced into their ecosystem. The three sections are very different in structure, but do a nice job of fleshing out the basic details, and the writing is lush and vivid. However, for me though, I was left wanting a bit more.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

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A mystical debut of somber love and lethal control.

Three sisters live on an island with their Mother. Their father has just disappeared and is assumed dead. They know this because he left their island to gather supplies from the toxic world that surrounds their haven. But it is not so simple. There is a certain relief in his departure due to his harshly devised and ever present "cures" to keep his family safe. But in his wake, their Mother takes the lead and follows his example. The pain repeats in his image.

Everything changes when two men and a boy wash ashore. Quickly, their household traditions fall wayside. What was once clean becomes a mess. Their Mother leaves for supplies and presumably, help. The sisters are left with three strangers, weeds overgrowing their carefully cultivated landscape. As they test the boundaries, so do the sisters. Although their father taught them to fear other men because they made women sick, one sister is particularly interested.

Sophie Mackintosh never underestimates her readers, peppering quiet and alarming glimpses into the pasts of the three sisters. There is perfect room to fill in gaps, which suits the fierce intelligence and horror of The Water Cure. The fight and release of control between the memory of their father, the three men, and the sisters, is what unites them again. It's a beautiful and deft awakening that feels far from dystopia.

While reading The Water Cure I was reminded of the Turkish film Mustang, which similarly follows a family of sisters under the control of men. But instead of an island, they're trapped in their own home. Next to this debut, it serves as a reminder that the harsh truths of both stories aren't too far from contemporary reality.

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This book tells the story of three sisters; Grace, Lia, and Sky. They have been raised by their parents, King and Mother, apart from the rest of society, which their parents have told them is damaged and damaging. Their parents force them to do all sorts of self-destructive rituals, which they say are good for them and they also drug them. The story is unclear about what really is happening in the rest of the world. Their father, King, has died, three men wash up on the shore, and soon afterwards their mother disappears and the three girls are left to deal with the men on their own. Part dystopian novel and part psychological thriller, this novel tells a unique story.

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This book is about three little girls who are basically kept alone from the rest of the world, and sheltered with their mother and father. The book was a little weird getting into, and hard for me to understand as it was a "new world" than what I was used to. I would give this book 4/5 stars. Thanks for the chance to read it!

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Interesting place setting. I would have liked more of the family's history flushed out. I felt I was only reading topical and not getting a true understanding. I did like the crazy feel of the father figure and the interesting way the author had him brainwash the women. Readers of the Handmaid's Tale may find this interesting, but wanting more.

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The Water Cure: "Atmospheric"

Overview: “The Handmaid's Tale meets The Virgin Suicides in this dystopic feminist revenge fantasy about three sisters on an isolated island, raised to fear men.” The rest of the summary on the book sleeve is extremely vague, which is fitting since the book itself raises more questions than answers.

Three sisters whose ages are unknown (to us AND to them) have lived isolated on an island for their entire lives, where their parents run a sort of safe house for women recovering from violence. Ironically, their mother & father have taught them to suppress their feelings through tortuous and violent outlets (including the ‘drowning game’ and the ‘passing out game.’) Their father dies, three men show up on the island, and their mother disappears, making their perfect little mess-up lives go to sh*t. Sibling rivalries flare as the three sisters try to navigate this new and forbidden world, beautifully and lyrically written by Sophie Mackintosh.
​#NovelThoughts: There were some things I liked about this book, others I didn’t, and a few that I have mixed feelings on.

My biggest point of confusion in this novel is that, even at the end, we still have no idea the year (or even decade) it takes place in; it could be anywhere from 1970-20??. In the beginning, we’re led to believe the “mainland” is in a post-apocalyptic state that makes it dangerous for the young women to leave their island. As the novel progresses & the author shares additional hints with us (the hair dye with the “picture of the beautiful woman” on the front; mother’s magazines) it becomes not just possible but feasible this could be going on right now, in a world not quite as “poisonous” as the girls were led to believe. Don’t get me wrong—I love when authors will strategically leave out bits and pieces to force you to explore the possibilities within your own imagination; however, I dislike when I feel as though its so much to the point the book feels incomplete, and you're having to write the story yourself.

Recommendation: A unique story, but ultimately will leave you unsatisfied. The plot holes leave far too much to be desired—especially in the sex scenes, where she goes into absolutely NO details about anything. An (exaggerated) example:

...and he approached me, slowly, tearing off his clothes one by one, sending a shiver down my back. I could hardly believe what we were about to do next.

Wow, that was awesome!

I will say this: in nearly every review I’ve seen, the word atmospheric is included, meaning ‘to create a distinctive mood, typically of romance, mystery, or nostalgia.’ Put that way, this novel absolutely lives up to being atmospheric in every sense of the word. The prose is almost magical, and Ms. Mackintosh is the perfect voice to narrate the awakening of these three young women to the world around them.

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I do my best to write good reviews for every book I read. I understand how hard it is for the writer to pour out part of their soul into the story. How the characters come alive and tell the writer their story and that the author is a conduit for them. Truly, I do understand. Unfortunately I am unable to write a good review for this book. Though the characters were well written and decently defined, I felt that there was more to the story that needed to be told in this book in order for everything to fall into place and make sense.

The description of the book makes you believe that there is gonna be a huge story in the book yet the entire time I was reading it all I was was thinking was, "where is the story, where is the explanation for what has happened". I just felt like the book was going no where and I was just reading a empty plot and story line. The plot and story line was there, but there just wasn't enough back story to fill them. Again this is my opinion and as with all books it depends on the reader and how they read the book.

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The Water Cure is a difficult book to review. It is so different from what I usually read, yet I was gripped by the strange story from the start. The writing is elegant and the way the plot unfolds has me eagerly turning the pages, wanting to know what would happen next. It is a truly creative and captivating story, and I certainly recommend it!

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Mackintosh writes in absolutely beautiful and unflinching prose about the desolation and destruction of a family.

The book is set in a remote, seaside home of a family of a father (King), a mother (Mother), and three sisters (Lia, Grace, and Sky). The sisters are raised in isolation and are taught by their parents to fear, hate, and avoid men. They're told that interacting with men would make them physically sick, and it is unclear throughout the story whether this is true or not in their world, due to the isolation the reader experiences along with the sisters. Ironically, their father, is the oligarch of the family, and uses physical and emotional abuse to ensure complete control.

The story is in the point of view of either one of the three sisters (mainly Lia or Grace), or in the point of view of all three of them (using the pronoun "we"). Love is a big deal for the family, and (again, ironically) they have questionable therapies that tend to be emotionally and physically abusive that their parents use to "prove" their love for one another and to "cleanse" themselves of the poisonous air that comes from men living in the mainland. However, things change when three men are found washed up on their shore, and the three sisters must decide for themselves to follow their family's teachings (and therefore, their love), or to find out what they want for themselves.

Throughout the novel, the reader is able to experience the crippling and claustrophobic isolation that the sisters undergo on a daily basis. In the beginning I found myself in disbelief over King's teachings that the outside world, full of men, could cause physical and emotional illness in women. However, as events unfurl, I was left wondering if I was wrong, and that (at least in their world), men could really cause all those things King claimed.

Mackintosh does a beautiful job creating a world like ours, but in a more intense scale. Like our world, women live in fear and must be continuously cleansing themselves from the poisons of men, in order to feel safe and whole. This novel explores a world where women have no other choice but to stand up for themselves in the face of annihilation. But then again, is that not the same in our world? This novel is empowering and awakening, and I would urge everyone to read it at least once.

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The Water Cure is a story of 3 sisters who have been kept save from men and the "toxins" of the outside world. Their home appears to once have been a spa used for healing women of these toxins and damages brought on by men by using The Water Cure.

Sophie Mackintosh uses the voice of each of the sisters to tell their part of the story, each from their own perspective, building on layers of truths, memory, lies and perceptions.

The book was compelling and made for a fast read. Ultimately, it left the reader with more questions than answers.

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