BELLETRIST’S AUGUST 2020 BOOK PICK“[Mackintosh’s] writing is clear and sharp, with piercing moments of wisdom and insight that drive toward a pitch-perfect ending…Blue Ticket adds something new to the dystopian tradition set by Orwell’s 1984 or Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.” –New York Times Book ReviewFrom the author of the Man Booker Prize longlisted novel The Water Cure (“ingenious and … Man Booker Prize longlisted novel The Water Cure (“ingenious and incendiary”–The New Yorker) comes another mesmerizing, refracted vision of our society: What if the life you’re given is the wrong one?
Calla knows how the lottery works. Everyone does. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you marriage and children. A blue ticket grants you a career and freedom. You are relieved of the terrible burden of 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?
When Calla, a blue ticket woman, begins to question her fate, she must go on the run. But her survival will be dependent on the very qualities the lottery has taught her to question in herself and on the other women the system has pitted against her. Pregnant and desperate, Calla must contend with whether or not the lottery knows her better than she knows herself and what that might mean for her child.
An urgent inquiry into free will, social expectation, and the fraught space of motherhood, Blue Ticket is electrifying in its raw evocation of desire and riveting in its undeniable familiarity.
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Completely unique! So intense! Absolutely riveting! Dark and complex! Deep and emotional! Taut with suspense! Twist after surprising twist! SO SO GOOD!!!
This book belongs at the TOP of your TBR pile!
#BlueTicket #NetGalley
*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.
I absolutely loved The Water Cure, so I had the highest of hopes for this novel. But while I loved the premise of the novel, it just didn’t give me the experience I’d hoped for.
The premise was interesting: a story about expectations, free will, the definition of freedom, and the value of women. As noted in the blurb, as soon as she has her first cycle, girls report to the station to receive one of two kinds of tickets. A white ticket brings with it marriage and children. A blue ticket gives you relative freedom and a career. Those are the only pathways, and girls have no choice as to which path will be followed. As I said, an interesting premise.
But there were several things that undermined what were likely good bones.
1. the lack of world-building: The story puts us into a world with little to no explanation about much of anything, including the motivating force behind the story… getting the tickets. There’s no explanation as to why this is. There’s no explanation as to why blue ticket girls are pushed off into the world, told to find their own way to a city. And there’s a very noticeable lack of law enforcement to go after those that break the rules that seems at odds in a world in which free will is rather limited. Instead, other blue tickets acted in that way against each other.
2. the definition of freedom: It had no logical basis for me.
Blue tickets were equated to freedom, as these women can work, contribute to society, have free relationships. But they were also required to see doctors regularly, who worked for the government.
White tickets were not free because they would be mothers and wives. But they were revered by men, and often by blue tickets.
3. the lack of sympathy for the MC: Callie was so flat, so unhinged, that I felt nothing for her. She was just there.
4. the lack of dialogue: It was a bizarre choice that made it read like a diary, which just didn’t work with this story.
All in all, as a dystopian novel, it lacked a lot for me.
Wow. I hated pretty much every second of that. I TOLD myself I wouldn’t like it based on the Kindle sample, but the premise sounded so good, and I thought it might get better.
It did not.
The clinical prose is disengaging and pretentious. There’s not a single quotation mark in the entire book, and Calla, the main character, is a straight-up sociopath. She claims to want to have a baby so badly, then proceeds to make stupid decision after stupid decision, putting herself and the life of her baby in constant danger. I don’t know if the author was trying to make her sound deep and complex, but for me, she ended up coming off as childish and obtuse just for the sake of being obtuse.
The premise could have been amazing, but the author chose not to let the reader in on ANYTHING. We don’t even know what country they’re in (though I strongly suspect the UK). The blue and white tickets are never explained, nor is the reason for throwing teenage boys and girls into the woods ala ‘The Hunger Games’ and forcing them to get to the nearest city in one piece. If they achieve that, it sounds like they’re then coddled for awhile in group homes then given jobs and homes and cars. At least, I THINK that’s what happens. Everything in this story is a chore to decipher.
But WHHHHHHHYYYYY????
Why is society like this? When did it happen? Was there overpopulation? I thought maybe the white ticket women were only allowed to have one child, but then the random guy who picked Calla up said he had sisters, so who knows!
It’s like the author had this wonderful idea but was then too lazy or too afraid to expand on it for fear of her explanations not making sense, so she tried to cover up the lack of world-building with a heavy internal prose that’s purposefully vague and mysterious. Well, it wasn’t mysterious…it was annoying and frustrating, and I hated it.
I usually give a least two stars to a book I didn’t like but managed to read in its entirety. One stars are mostly reserved for DNF’s, but I just can’t do that here. I disliked this book so much that I forced myself to read the whole thing just so I could feel justified in the one-star review I knew I would give it.
And I do. I feel totally, 100% justified. This book was awful.
My Review of the
BLUE TICKET
By Sophie Mackintosh
Published by Doubleday Books
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This dystopian and feminist novel was one that really intrigues, perplexes and makes you think while you read. It is a page turner that can’t be left for another day because you must know how everything plays out as you have already bonded with your protagonist. I felt connected because I actually cared and was conflicted personally for her. This is a wonderful book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and it is a must read for anyone.
Calla was born into this dystopian world and like all other females; they must go and receive a ticket upon maturity of menstruation to discover what lies in their fate for their future self.
A white ticket determines they are deemed worthy of marriage and children and a blue ticket means they are fated to a life of a career and total independence. Once you receive your ticket there is no going back and measures are put into place to ensure that if you ever yearn for the other life, that it will not happen.
This system of choosing for the women has released them of having to choose between the two for themselves. Believing they have somehow provided relief and burden to women and that they know better than the women themselves.
But what if free will and social expectations collide and the system is flawed? That women like Calla believe they were given the wrong ticket and the life that has been chosen for them is not at all what they would choose on their own. What if some women are willing to defy the Government no matter the cost, to live the life they believe they were truly born to live, even if it means dying for it?
Blue Ticket tests the extremes of the imagination of how far power and control can intervene if it is allowed to rise over people’s own desires.
After her first bleed, Calla’s father drops her off in a nondescript building to receive her ticket. She doesn’t know what to expect other than she will receive a ticket as they keep people woefully ignorant. Calla’s is blue, and they send her out into the world after an unknown procedure with little more than what is on her back. We learn through time, as Calla does, that women who receive a blue ticket lose their right to give birth. In the group of girls on the day Calla receives her ticket, 1 in 4 of them receive a white ticket. A ticket to a more prosperous life that includes having a family.
Mackintosh has purposefully not given us Calla’s location, nor how far into the future this takes place, but we know that there are border countries that do not practice this ticket system. We see women shape their lives based on their ticket and women who want a life other than what their ticket dictates. We see how the ticket system has created a divide, and that a woman with a blue ticket is fair game for others.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, but it wasn’t what the reader was given. That’s not to say that the prose isn’t beautiful because it is stunning. It’s often hard to judge a book by the blurb. This one is accurate, but there is a depth of story, told in abridged sentences, that comes about only after reading it. Mackintosh focuses on the heartbreak of women caught in a situation where free will is stolen from them. It’s unsettling, and in that, the author has achieved her goal. Thank you Doubleday Books for sending this along.