The Blue Ticket is a novel that explores the idea of reproductive choice in an unnamed dystopian society. Calla, a “blue ticket”, is told upon reaching puberty that she will not be allowed to have children, and is encouraged to enjoy her freedom after successfully surviving a harrowing journey to “the city”. What follows is her desire to change that prescribed fate.

I enjoyed the dreamlike strangeness of the story, and found this to be a thrilling page turner. The fragmented story telling helped the plot move quickly, while still maintaining a literary style that had me underlining passages.

This would make a great book club book, especially for fans of the Handmaid’s Tale.

(Many thanks to Doubleday and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review)

Sophie Mackintosh secured herself as a must-read with THE WATER CURE and this time she's back with a HANDMAID's TALE-esque novel. In a world where women can't have it all, don't underestimate the relief of a decision being taken away from you. This book was thought-provoking and reminded me of an episode of "Black Mirror." Be sure to pre-order this book, because it's going to be the talk of the summer!

I loved Sophie Mackintosh's first book, The Water Cure, and her second book is just as riveting. Written in short prose blocks, almost in a prose poetry style, her writing is highly imagistic, lyric, and moving. The use of white space imposes a distance between sections that feels cinematic, giving the impression of sparseness between scenes and increasing atmospheric tension in the pacing of the story. Both of her books occupy an interesting hybrid genre that is somewhere between literary realism and dystopian speculative fiction. Such a lush outpouring of language would itself hold my attention, but what I love most about her writing is the emotional complexity of her characters. The women she writes are vivid and flawed, and she excels at depicting their interior lives, flashes of memory and arguments they have with themselves. Reading Blue Ticket, I felt completely immersed in the mind of the narrator, involved as I was in following the process of her thinking. This was another favorite read of the year for me.

Thank you to Doubleday & Netgalley for the ARC.

This book is seriously disturbing.

This book is feminism nightmare fuel.

I finished this book at 4 in the morning because I needed it to be over and there was no possible way of DNFing it because I just needed it to be cleansed from my headspace, out of my soul.

The only way out was through.

If "The Road" and "Handmaid's Tale" got together and had a baby, this is what it looks like. Both stories, in comparison, feel a million times more uplifting then this dark, twisted, traumatizing brood.

You know how people always have that one episode of Black Mirror that hits just too close to home? It's not even entertaining, it just twists you up inside. This was one of those episodes for me. A dystopian hellscape that's not farfetched enough - it has the potential to be seen in our lifetimes.

What if women didn't have a choice between a career and a family? What if that choice was made when you were a child? If the government had autonomy over a woman's body completely, telling them who can and cannot get pregnant? What if a woman decided she wanted more for herself and rebelled, sending her out on the lam with little understanding of what was about to happen to her?

I was desperate for a glint of humanity in this dark void, pit of despair story. Something to give me hope that if this tyrannical form of existence came to fruition, there was a shred of decency that would somehow live on. Alas, there was very little. Reading this felt like watching a puppy get kicked. Just really upsetting, lingering bad feelings.

If I had a physical copy of this book I would bury it in my yard and dance on its grave. Then I would go inside and drink a cup of tea, hands shaking, telling myself it's going to be ok, it can't hurt you anymore.

Obviously, 5 stars. Because not everyday a book rocks you to your core enough to make you want to seek revenge on an inanimate object.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Spring finally feels like it's here and I'm planning my garden (zone 4 gang rise up!), so I kept visualizing chili peppers while reading this. The kind that deeply burn your mouth but keep you coming back for more. This book wrecked me - but I had to keep going.

Calla's fate is decided by lottery once she hits puberty. If she chooses a blue ticket, she is "free" from having children and is forced to receive a copper implant. If she chooses a white ticket she is allowed to have children eventually. Calla is initially happy with her blue ticket. Within the hour of receiving it, she is released with a few supplies to make her way alone to the nearest city. As an adult, Calla enjoys her lifestyle, but she begins to feel something new. She decides to remove her implant and try to get pregnant. Once she is discovered to be pregnant, she is again released into the wild - but this time with the hope of crossing the border where she can safely keep her child.

Mackintosh is strategic in what she shares with us. Details are revealed sparingly and without humor. It's a dark and uncaring landscape. The gaps I filled in were equally cheerless, but carried a pathos that can be applied to our own contemporary failures. Calla has little choice, but also little understanding of what physically awaits her, for she was never taught. What she lacks in knowledge, she has in sheer determination and anger. It's a haunting journey, one that culminates in an equally haunting ending. One that I won't soon forget. It's a provoking rumination that had my heart racing with every chapter.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Calla lives in a world where, upon puberty, girls are issued either a blue or white ticket. The white ticket means that you are to get pregnant and start a family; the blue means that you are given a device that will keep you from ever getting pregnant. Calla is happy with her blue ticket at first, but the book follows what happens when she decides she is not satisfied with not being a mother.

I enjoyed the premise of this book and found it intriguing. It was also a fast read that was cut up into bite-sized chunks. The writing was lyrical, a little bit annoyingly so, if I’m honest. It felt like the book wanted to be more than it actually was. Overall, though, I liked it and would recommend it to someone who liked the authors previous work or The Handmaids Tale.

Dystopia is my form of escapism. When life is falling apart, there's nothing like picking up a book about worlds that are worse than ours to ground me in reality and make me count my blessings. Sophie Mackintosh's new book Blue Ticket is one such novel to come forward in the female reproductive rights sub-genre of dystopian fiction.

Blue Ticket takes place in a world that we don't know too much about. What is apparent is that on the first day of a young girl's first menstrual cycle, she takes part in the lottery. At a station, she will either pull a blue ticket or a white ticket. A blue ticket girl gets to live a life of freedom, but she will never experience the one thing that many women crave and feel they were born for - to be a wife and mother. A white ticket girl doesn't get the chance to have a career or a life of her own; instead she is granted the future that is denied those who pull a blue ticket - a life as a wife and mother.

Our narrator, Calla, pulls a blue ticket. She is promptly fitted with an IUD and sent off into a life of childless existence, free to do as she chooses. But what if a women were to decide that the life chosen for her was not the one she was born for? What if she wanted to choose for herself? What if a blue ticket girl were to become pregnant? Such is the case with Calla, and such is the premise of Blue Ticket.

Blue Ticket is a disjointed, hazy narrative chronicling Calla's journey into lawlessness. Pregnant and determined to see her baby's face someday, Calla will do anything to see her pregnancy through to the end. But no one said that things would be easy for a woman who willfully decides to disregard the fate chosen for her. Readers follow Calla on her heart-pounding trek to the border, trying to reach a place of safety where she and her child can live their days in peace.

Blue Ticket is an interesting play on the societal standards that have followed women since the dawn of time. Just how free have women been to choose their own fate throughout history? How many women married because they were afraid to be called spinsters? How many children were born because their mothers felt it was their duty to bear children? Conversely, before Roe vs. Wade, how many pregnancies were carried through because women were left without a choice? Blue Ticket is an example of yet another society where women are denied the right to make the decisions that are best for themselves, and this is where I find that this novel really shines because ultimately, it has been the story of many women throughout history.

Blue Ticket is recommended to lovers of female-focused dystopian fiction, especially those who loved titles such as The Handmaid's Tale and When She Woke.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book gave me chills.. and not necessarily in a good way. Although, I truly loved this book. In Blue Ticket, Mackintosh offers a perspective on what society might look like if women had only two options: marriage and children or a career and freedom. And these options are not even chosen for you. You have to let a lottery system decide your fate the moment you have your first menstrual cycle.

This book truly painted a bleak and restrictive picture of a Dystopian society where women do not have it all and cannot have it all. It was an extremely thought-provoking read and I think it would be an excellent option for book club. It would provide fodder for a riveting discussion. Highly, Highly Recommended!

I started this book as soon as I was approved because the premise was so interesting but I couldn’t get past the first 20 pages as I didn’t like the style of writing.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dystopian novel about a period of time in which women have no choices over whether or not to have children. As soon as one begins to menstruate, she is assigned a status in life and forced to comply by the government. The novel is centered around a group of women who attempt to take control of their rights to reproduce.

The novel is thought-provoking and would make an excellent book club choice.

Could not put this book down. An amazing journey into a near future that is both realistic and horrifying. Absolutely loved every word.

I absolutely hate to give anything a 1-star review because this is someone's baby that they poured their heart and soul into! However, I couldn't even read this one, so I don't know how else to rate it. The premise of this novel sounded interesting and in some ways, I find Sophie Mackintosh's language beautiful. It's as if she can choose the exact perfect word without putting any thought into it. But the format of this novel is one that I can't stand. It's just a series of paragraphs without any clear dialogue and no structure like you would normally see in a novel. It's configured like a book of poetry and it's just too distracting to be able to get into the actual story.

*Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I both like and disliked this book. The storyline and concept intrigued me. But the writing style was confusing to follow. One paragraph at a time, followed by large space, then the next paragraph. It flowed like a long poem rather than a novel. Perhaps it’s just my comprehension style, but I had too hard of a time getting into this one and imaging it as I went along. I appreciate the publisher for an ARC of this book, but it was just not for me. Perhaps final edits will allow it to flow better.

3.5 stars

I really liked the idea of this book. When girls experience their first bleed, they must report to a station where they will receive either a blue or white lottery ticket. A white ticket means they will bear children; a blue ticket gives them freedom. But is it really freedom when the choice is taken away from them? It’s scary to think someone could hold that kind of control over you....and what if they were wrong.

This really was a unique and unsettling story, especially considering the subject matter of female identity and whether or not women should be in control of their bodies. But the style of writing got to me. The entire book was essentially written in the narrative. Though there was “dialogue”, it was not written as such, and I personally didn’t like that. The story itself was well thought out, but the way it was presented bothered me and took away from me enjoying it more.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3260382023

I picked up Sophie Mackintosh's The Water Cure in an airport, while on a trip. It was haunting, and I loved it. So when I saw this I was super happy to get an ARC through Netgalley. This book is not for those who expect clear details and linear stories. It is more like poetry, dancing across the details in a way that kept me totally engaged all the way through. It's not a happy tale - The Blue Ticket takes you to a future (or perhaps just an alternate present) that shows readers a patriarchal society in which women are chosen to either have kids or not by virtue of a ticket they pull when they hit puberty.

The thing that haunted me the most was Calla's desperate need to understand why she was given the ticket she received. Her self doubt, her examination of all her worst and best traits, the constant comparison of herself to others. Am I better than her? Am I faulty, flawed or could I redeem myself somehow? Should I be happy in this life I've been given? Why do I want more? These are questions we all live with, and this author absolutely nails it. I loved it, especially when Calla finds out the truth about how they determine who gets Blue and who gets White.

I read the author's The Water Cure. Hated it but i never judge sn author by a single book.
This one was worse. The style is disjointed and tedious, and the characters are flat and boring.
Mackintosh is trying really hard to be Margaret Atwood. And she is failing, miserably.

I was so intrigued by the description of this book! Unfortunately, it just didnt do it for me. The style of the writing was too difficult. No flow, no timeline. Just not for me.

5 HUGE STARS.

The Water Cure is a highly underrated work, in my humble opinion. I rarely hear people discussing its merits, but it's hard to accomplish the stomach-turning unease and visceral response that Mackintosh was able to do. When I saw Blue Ticket was available, I immediately requested and moved it to the top of my TBR.

In a society where women of age take place in a lottery to determine their futures, Calla feels like there may have been some mistake. She is a blue ticket, a woman of the work force and night life, chosen to be among the ranks of white ticket women, those who don't bear children. She's fine with this until a darkness begins to consume her, and she takes agency into her own hands.

I can see this taking literary ranks with some of the great dystopian classics. Social roles are dictated by a ticket. Emissaries guard borders and check points. There's a pervasive fear of the unknown. What happens to women who disobey? Who break from the norm and make the choice to betray their tickets? No one has a clear answer, and it is this fear that helps maintain the status quo. Punishment, of some sort is assumed, but women who leave their roles are never heard from again.

Blue Ticket is not so much about overcoming the system, but questioning the philosophical construct of choice. Unlike female-led narratives in this genre, Calla doesn't want a revolution. She's not challenging the system to make a point. She's not looking for large-scale justification or even acceptance. She just knows that her body's demand to have a child can no longer be ignored. Even in her quest, she wonders if the system made a mistake, if she is misinterpreting her feelings, or if what she's doing is right. The moral implications are endless, and the internal conflict, while quiet, was emotionally wrought and moving. I couldn't stop reading this. I was less interested in the possible twist and outcome than I was with Calla's journey, her introspection, and her observations about women.

This is probably what I loved most of all about Blue Ticket. Despite the fictional backdrop, the circumstances the female characters face are very much present in today's society. The belief that others can dictate a woman's choices, take away her say in what happens to her body--that's here, that's now. There's also how women treat each other. She judges other blue tickets and her own by their wardrobes and lifestyles, their habits. She judges white tickets for their stereotypical family life and suburban aesthetics. *brief spoilers* In the remote environment, these critical behaviors become even more apparent, pitting the women against each other instead of reinforcing their unity. "All in this together" is both one hundred percent true and one hundred percent false simultaneously.

Mackintosh's writing is elegant and lyrical, but her critiques are resonant. I found myself rereading passages because I had such a WOW reaction. This is the kind of book that will stick to your bones, shake your core, and dig roots in your heart. 11/10 will reread.

Big, big thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration. Blue Ticket is a must-read for 2020 and a re-read forever after that. Its quiet beauty is one you won't want to miss.

This was without doubt the weirdest book I've ever read. Not only because of the subject matter, but because of the book's composition.

There was no dialogue, just the narrator saying things like she said, he said. There was no paragraph structure or time line. It was almost like a free expressive thematic writing.

I'm sure some people will say this is just one more book about female disenfranchisement in a futuristic dystopian society. Some may even hail it at the next Atwood-like tale.

I just simply found it hard and very boring to read the way it was constructed from a grammar and presentation perspective.

Told from the narrator's perspective, Calla, the reader follows her journey from when she begin to menstruate and is taken to a place where she is given either a blue ticket or white one that will determine her future. SHe got a blue ticket so she is immediately taken to a doctor where an IUD is placed within her. I'm guessing she is roughly 13-14 years old. Then, right after, she is set free on her own, to go wherever she wants. She never sees her family again. Since she has been deemed non-motherly, she can have all the sex she wants and behave whatever way she wants.

And the men she encounters call her things like slut and whore and yet still have sex with her. What in the world was this author thinking? In the day of #MeToo to have a female writer display women this way - no matter that she is world building, is just....wrong.

From the blurb I thought this book was really going to be about choice and the ability to change your mind. Unfortunately, is was more about self loathing and nothing like female empowerment.

But that's just my take and I am sure others will disagree heartily.

Thanks to Netgalley for a sneak peek at the book in exchange for an honest opinion.

I tried to read Mackintosh’s “The Water Cure” several times as it was popular in our collection, but never could get through it. Decided to try this in case it was a better fit for me, but didn’t jive with me. I’m sure some will be excited to see it in our collection, though!