Sophie Mackintosh

We Know Your Best Life

Throughout history societies have deemed it important to control women, as if left on their own they would wreak havoc on themselves and everybody around them. (Blame Aristotle, Robert Filmer, et al., not your reviewer.)

In Sophie Mackintosh’s dystopian novel Blue Ticket, set in some vague time and country, society solves the problem of female free choice by dictating what sort of life a woman will live. A select few receive a white ticket upon reaching puberty, show more entitling them to have children, homes, and husbands. Most draw a blue ticket (why most isn’t explained), which denies them childbearing but allows them to hold jobs and generally live somewhat independent lives.

Somewhat, because in this world, society keeps an eye on its women, especially the blue ticket variety, providing them with doctors that appear to be psychologists who quell whatever angst these women might be suffering. You might view all this as a metaphor for how real society once treated women who thought they might enjoy a life other than married with children, odd, needing watching, and prone to hysteria.

You might regard Blue Ticket as a cautionary, that if we aren’t careful we might find ourselves smacked back a couple of decades. And you know there are whole groups who not only would like this but who are actively working toward that.

In Mackintosh’s dystopia conjuring, Calla draws a blue ticket and proceeds to lead her life as an apparently unfettered woman. She studies. She gets a good, meaningful job. She drinks. She smokes. She hangs in bars. She picks up men. She has sex. She does this for years, but as the years pass, she grows dissatisfied. Within her grows a desire to know what it would be like to have a child, to give and receive unconditional love. Her doctor labors to keep her on the straight and narrow, but without success. One day, Calla removes her IUD and shortly afterwards she discovers herself pregnant by a man she thinks she might love and she hopes might love her. Wrong. She’s on her own, and then, after her doctor discovers her pregnancy, she’s on the run.

On the road, she meets several women in the same situation as she is. Their objective, as is hers, is to reach the border and in another country live the lives of their choice. They form a nomadic community and Calla even finds love with one of the women, Marisol. At this point, the novel takes some turns that demonstrate the authoritarian society in which these women exist does not easily relinquish control of its women.

Whether you enjoy this novel probably will depend on a number of things. Do you have to love your characters? Do you need your dystopia fully fleshed out? Are you okay with antiseptic writing that can seem rather cool? Yes to any of these questions could mean you’re in for a slog. Otherwise, you will find the whole exercise intriguing, even if it does leave you a bit emotionally unfulfilled, like life in Mackintosh’s world. However, many readers will find better choices featuring dystopian worlds designed to repress women. show less

I finished this book and I just don't quite know how I feel about it - on many levels, I found it deeply disturbing in the way that a lot of good literature is disturbing. The novel features three sisters who have grown up with their parents on an island separate from the world, which they believe to be toxic, especially to weak female bodies. Their world is up-ended when a group of men are stranded on the shore of their home. The interactions that result bring the sisters' long-held beliefs show more into questions and they each struggle to come to terms with how their world has changed. I can't say I liked this book, but I will say that it was interesting and I'll certainly be mulling it over in my mind for some time. show less

This book sure sparked lots of discussion at our book club meeting. It is the story of Elodie, who lives a monotonous life in a small town, largely ignored by her husband. And the story of Violet, the wife of an ambassador who arrives in town. Violet is a master of manipulation -- approaching and withdrawing from Elodie; being somehow both helpless and powerful. No wonder Elodie becomes obsessed with her.

As Elodie tells us what happened in their small town where many people went mad or died show more one summer, her reality begins to blur and her imagination comes increasingly into her account. So what actually happened? I certainly don't know. But it was a good read. It felt like neither the characters nor the reader could get away from impending disaster. There is a sinister tone to the writing. The book explores desire and obsession from a female perspective, and that was very interesting and left lots to think about.

The ending is ambiguous, as is the "ending" of the true story the book is somewhat based on. show less

This story is a metaphor for... something. The inherent violence we all harbor inside us? The idea that relations between men and women can never be peaceful? I honestly don't know. The writing is lovely, lyrical and haunting but too veiled for me. Are men really a threat to women in the outside world, or is the sickness a metaphor? Or is it just that Grace, Lia, and Sky's parents are incredibly manipulative and abusive (physicallyand psychologically)? Although some things become clear(er) show more by the end of the book, much is left in obscurity. show less