Bookseller Reviews
View all
What happens when we want what is forbidden to us....
Imagine a world where all women must enter the lottery for motherhood. White tickets allow you to have a child, blue tickets given you freedom to lead your... READ MORE
Feels all too possible..
I want to say I enjoyed this book but enjoy is not the right word. It was uncomfortable to read in a way some of the best books are. With echoes of Atwood ... READ MORE
A Gripping Feminist Dystopia
As a feminist dystopia, Blue Ticket echoes themes found in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, but is also very different. Indeed, without giving too mu... READ MORE
Great Dystopian read
Built around the premise, what if they are wrong? This book whilst fictional also highlights current relevant issues about fertility and female choice. ... READ MORE
Damned if you do...
In the tranquil heart at the centre of the storm of this novel, Calla finds herself in hiding with four other women, thrown together in exile but otherwise... READ MORE
Feminist dystopia
This is a chilling dystopian novel, set in a world where women are assigned tickets to the lives they must live - receive a white ticket, and you will be ... READ MORE
Synopsis
From the author longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction and selected as one of the Best Young British Novelists of the Decade:
An unsettling and addictive feminist fable for fans of I Who Have Never Known Men, Hot Milk, Unsettled Ground and Klara and the Sun
Recommended by Stylist, Evening Standard,Esquire, Red, Daily Mail, Oprah Magazine, LitHub, and Belletrist Book Club
'Be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes' Deborah Levy
'Definitely don't miss the return of Sophie Mackintosh' Stylist
Calla knows how the lottery works. Everyone does. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the lottery station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you children. A blue ticket grants you freedom. You are relieved of the terrible burden of choice. Or, to put it another way, you have no choice. And once you've taken your ticket, there is no going back.
But what if the life you're given is the wrong one?
Blue Ticket is a devastating enquiry into free will and the fraught space of motherhood. Bold and chilling, it pushes beneath the skin of female identity and patriarchal violence, to the point where human longing meets our animal bodies.
'Dreamlike, tense, compelling, [with] a pitch-perfect ending' The New York Times
'Gripping, ethereal, atmospheric' Sunday Times
'Thoughtful and haunting' Observer
'Terrifying and enchanting in equal measure' LitHub
'Blue Ticket will worms its way under your skin and haunt your dreams' Red
Publisher information
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
- ISBN: 9780241986691
- Number of pages: 304
- Dimensions: 196 x 129 x 20 mm
- Weight: 214g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allEmotional thriller
If you get hung up on the ubiquitous presence of 'dystopian' in book reviews, particularly the feminist sub-genre, and can't decide if a weird, sci-fi type... READ MORE
Disappointing Second Novel from a Very Talented Writer
Oh, this is a shame; Blue Ticket is a disappointing second novel from Sophie Mackintosh. Her debut, The Water Cure, was utter magnificence; a deftly crafte... READ MORE
Wants to say something profound, but falls flat.
This was an intriguing premise, but the character's motivations were never clear--the worldbuilding was weak and if the book was trying to say something ab... READ MORE
A heartbreaking, original, cinematic masterpiece!
I love Sophie Mackintosh's writing and I adored The Water Cure but this is even better! She has really found her voice in this one and I just can't stop th... READ MORE
More feminist dystopian fiction
A female dystopia which doesnt feel too far from a possible future. When you reach puberty you get a chance at a white ticket, or a blue ticket. White allo... READ MORE
not to my liking
On the day of her first bleed, Calla reports at the lottery station where her life will be determined.
While the white ticket grants you children, the blue... READ MORE
Illuminates the darkness and violence of motherhood
Sophie Mackintosh writes a world in which the madonnas and the whores are split irrevocably. Both tribes are issued tickets deciding their fates immediatel... READ MORE
Immersive read
I was really excited about this book and I knew I wanted to read it as soon as I heard about it.
Much like when reading ‘The Water Cure’ I easily found m... READ MORE
The most disturbing book I've read so far this year
This is probably the most disturbing book I've read so far this year. The colour of a piece of paper allocated to you decides if you become a mother or not... READ MORE
Complex, thoughtful feminist novel
This novel takes place in a very strange nightmarish world. A world , like our own, but the rules have changed. The right for a woman to have a child no lo... READ MORE
Interesting
I liked how this explored the topic of pregnancy and discussions over motherhood and who gets to have a child and the choice over a woman's body. The writi... READ MORE
A stunning meditation on femininity, love, loss and the boundaries of the female body
Following on from her hauntingly beautiful 2018 novel The Water Cure, Blue Ticket is another stunning meditation on femininity, love, loss and the boundari... READ MORE
Hypnotic and disturbing
This is a beautifully sparse read. Mackintosh doesn't feel the need for weighty explanations or worldbuilding - indeed it's never actually stated what coun... READ MORE
A road trip thorugh a dystopian future
The author’s debut novel “Water Cure” was longlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize. The book received mixed reviews from those who follow the prize – a lot of... READ MORE
A very thoughtful meditation on womanhood and motherhood, but it didn’t win my heart.
‘Blue Ticket’ by Sophie Mackintosh tells the story of Calla, a woman who from the day of her ‘first bleed’ is decreed to have her freedom, but no children.... READ MORE
A good read
Blue Ticket is Sophie Mackintosh's second novel, her first one being The Water Cure, and both of them are lazily labelled as feminist dystopia.
I haven't ... READ MORE
Very different
3-4 stars
This is Calla’s story, in an unnamed country, place or time. She lives with her father until her first menstruation and then is taken with other... READ MORE
Friendship and Survival
Calla has been singled out for one sort of life, but yearns for another in Sophie Mackintosh's Blue Ticket. Finding friendship in adversity, she goes on a ... READ MORE
Written in a style that requires absolute attention and experience, Blue Ticket is as haunting as The Water Cure
''We lined up, waiting to pull our tickets from the machine, the way you would take your number at the butcher's counter. The music popular that year playe... READ MORE
A stunning, compelling and beautifully written book
This is such a stunning, compelling and beautifully written book. Sophie Mackintosh's voice and world-building feel so utterly believable and immersive, an... READ MORE
Harsh and sobering, this is an interesting and enjoyable read.
If you enjoyed Sophie Mackintosh's "The Water Cure' or Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale', then you'll enjoy this.
Set in a dystopian but highly reco... READ MORE
A thrilling exploration of femininity, motherhood and freedom
What if women were forbidden from having it all?
In Blue Ticket, the follow up to her booker prize nominated debut, Sophie Mackintosh explores this questi... READ MORE