I adored this striking and mesmerising book from the first page to the last. Beautifully written, this dark tale gives us a possible look at our future, one that is harsh, brutal and unforgiving.

Blue Ticket took me a while to get into, it's a dark and jarring novel where Calla (the main character) has her choice of becoming a mother is taken away from her.

The title relates to a lottery ticket a female is given when she begins menstruating - blue - no child - white - the female can bear children.
The story tells of how Calla begins to take back control of her choices - initially by removing her IUD.

This story is rather dystopian, its richly written but does leave many of your questions unanswered.

Full of atmosphere and luminous, stripped back prose, this is highly imagined and a really immersive experience. I love the central premise here: what if women didn't get to choose between motherhood and a freer life, focused on career. It was topical and explored this whole question in a fresh way. Full of pace and intrigue, would definitely recommend.

Another feminist dystopian novel? Yes, and a very good one this is.

Calla lives in a society where, when girls start menstruating, they get a blue or white ticket in a lottery. Blue means no kids, freedom and a career, while white means marriage and kids. Calla gets a blue ticket, but what other people decided what is good for her, she can't and won't accept. A beautiful novel about choice and freedom, and about women who transcend society's expectations and outlines..

It took me some time to settle in, but this is a well crafted, beautifully written book about issues that are, unfortunately enough, not outdated.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. #netgalley #SophieMackintosh #BlueTicket

Probably the best book I've read so far this year, and one I've been pressing into people's hands at any opportunity ever since. Maybe even better than The Water Cure. Highlighted in my list of the best novels of the summer on Five Books: https://fivebooks.com/best-books/notable-novels-summer-2020-cal-flyn/
I'll also be reviewing it for the New Humanist magazine.

There are not enough words to describe how much I enjoyed this radical new feminist novel by Sophie Mackintosh. It was on one level so surreal with a whole new societal premise, yet it is written in a way that all these unusual trends, events, life- styles are so obvious and accepted, that the reader should not blink an eye at them. So although there are strange customs, they are presented as norms with which the reader is completely familiar and accepting.
Calla, the main protagonist does not accept the life which has been mapped out for her, and conspires to chose her own (forbidden path).
The people she encounters and travels with, in her metaphorical and physical journey, add depth and normalcy as she manoeuvres this strange Society, where your life is mapped from the day of your first menstrual period.
I will say no more. For fans of ‘Brave New World’ ‘1984’ and They Handmaid’s Tale’ this is a whopper of a story which I devoured in less than a day. It was brilliant and haunting at the same time. This was my first experience reading. the work of Sophie Mackintosh, but it will not be my last. Huge congratulations to Sophie Mackintosh 👏👏👏👏👏

Mackintosh's sophomore album follows her stunning debut, The Water Cure. What's pleasing to see is not only the development of Sophie's writing, making the most of her lyrical, scenic prose but also the development of her imagination. Being such a fan of her first novel, I was slightly hesitant that she would succumb to the pitfall of a sub-par second work. Almost unsurprisingly, Mackintosh has managed to circumvent and exceed expectation. From start to finish this novel was a thrill ride. Calla's story was enthralling, unnerving and a touching look at the trials of motherhood in a society that determines your fate.

This was quite reminiscent of other novels that I have read such a A Handmaid's Tale, I found it quite slow to get into the story it didn't grab me straight away and I didn't really click with the writing. I think that it's a really popular genre and other readers may really enjoy but not for me. Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read it.

In a literary world where The Handmaid's Tale reigns supreme, Sophie Mackintosh has taken on this mammoth genre with aplomb. This novel is literary, intricate and surprising, its narrative constantly twisting under the long shadow of Atwood's Gilead. As a reader, once you know the ticket system, you're set. Mackintosh does not really need to get into the nitty gritty of the circumstances of this world or the consequences of breaking the rules, which frees her up to write in a very descriptive and lyrical way. I was somewhat surprised at the ending, but, as with her first novel, felt that she tied up the loose ends in the best possible way.

“It began with the allocating of luck, our bodies pinballs inside a machine. It was the year of overlapping adolescents, when the girls started to faint and grow tall.”

What an opening line. I read this and I was hooked. I couldn’t put it down for a solid twenty-four hours.

Sophie Mackintosh has a gift for writing these haunting feminist dystopian novels that capture women’s different experiences and desires in an almost spell-binding way. And what a gorgeous, mesmerising novel. Following runaway Calla between hotels and gas stations as she tries to hold on to the life she’s always been denied, we get a glimpse into a dystopian (not too distant) future that is utterly compelling and believable.

“It was coming into dawn and I knew I had to go. Time was spiralling away from me. As I walked down the corridors of the hotel I sensed the leering faces of people behind the doors, people taking a break from their own degradations to peer through the peepholes and watch my steps.”

I found myself fully immersed in the world that Sophie Mackintosh creates, and I loved that I could devour the whole novel in a matter of hours. But I want more! If I had one criticism it would be that I craved to know more about the world Calla was living in. But perhaps this would take away from Sophie Mackintosh’s beautiful story-telling. Or maybe she’s leaving room for a sequel? I would LOVE that (just putting it out there).

Blue Ticket is an eerie, hypnotising, disturbing dystopian story - a breathtaking second novel from Sophie Mackintosh.

Calla lives in a society where the right to bear children is something determined by the colour of the ticket that you pull on the day you start to menstruate. Calla's ticket is blue, which means she is sent to the city to live a life without children. Working in a lab and taking regular visits with her doctor, she becomes listless in her life and decides a different path might be the right one for her.

I really loved the premise of Blue Ticket. It had vibes of The Handmaid's Tale and other similar dystopian fiction titles which I've previously enjoyed.

Calla's narrative was quite difficult to settle into and reminded me of Esther in The Bell Jar slightly as it felt rather detached.

I started to enjoy the book a lot more after Calla left the city and other interesting characters were introduced. The threat of danger and capture also really helped.

Sophie Mackintosh has created a really interesting world, though I couldn't be sure what the purpose of such a system was for. Population control? The repression of women?

I enjoyed Blue Ticket overall and look forward to reading more of the author's work.

This was a beautiful drama that I had a great time reading. The book was very well written and the characters were believable. Highly recommended!

When girls start to menstruate, they are made to take a ticket: blue means they focus on their career, white means family. It's a lottery that shapes their lives. But what if they want more? Following Calla, who longs for a child, as she pushes beyond the confines of a blue ticket life, it's an intimate, dark and bleak exploration of the weight of "wanting it all" in a dystopian world that explicitly denies it. Riveting and sorrowful.

A good but frustrating read, I don't think this one worked for me. I loved the premise and found the book interesting. It was slow paced and I didn't feel any connection to Calla. A strong three stars but not one I'd be in a hurry to recommend.

World of blue and white tickets. World with or without children. Women as whores or virgins. Calla, a blue ticket rebel, reaches the age of 30 and she wants to have a child. So she breaks the one rule knowing the consequences. She is on the run, pregnant and in fear. She realises she is not alone and hence questions the system. Does lottery really predicts her life?

Very well written, in kind of raw form.

I read Sophie Mackintosh's novel The Water Cure and enjoyed her writing a lot. It's quite a literary style and the story was other-worldly in a dreamy sense. This book is a little more down to earth but the writing is just as captivating. The story is set in a near future dystopian world where girls are sorted at the menarche and have to leave their homes to find their own way. It's a brutal time for them but strangely well organised and has opportunities for these girls. Calla, the main character, finds herself in a personal crisis and is forced to flee. We read of this journey and also the journey she took to find herself in that place as well. It a very compelling story and is beautifully written. I recommend it highly.

I’m not completely sure why but I just couldn’t get on with this book. I loved the subject matter and was really excited about reading it. That I think is the main strength of the book. Such a relevant and important topic. However the way it was written that I struggled to even finish the proof.

"In a world where women can't have it all, don't underestimate the relief of a decision being taken away from you"

Sophie Mckintosh's feminist dystopian tale has a setting that is sorting hat in Gilead. Every woman enters a lottery on her first period where she is assigned either a blue or white ticket. White ticket means you get a family and blue ticket means you get your complete freedom but you can't have a child.

Calla, a blue ticket rebel, reaches the age of 30 and she gets the 'dark feeling' to have a child. So she breaks the one rule knowing the consequences and the book traces the consequences of the choice. She is on the run, pregnant and in fear, as she battles off the emissaries and the common wolves after her. She realises she is not alone and hence questions the system.

She is joined by other desperate women on the run including a rebel white ticket who doesn't want a baby. All the while she is battling questions of what it means to be a mother and how the lottery can predict if you are worthy. When she gets drunk or smokes while on the run, she tends to doubt if the lottery was right after all. It is not a fight against the system, but against their own choices and decisions. And how the maternal instincts for protecting the baby helps them survive.

The writing is raw and hard hitting. So much so that while reading some parts, I had to pause since I started feeling uncomfortable (and chose to read about the horrors of the concentration camp instead). The evocative prose is bold and undiluted. Pregnancy, cravings, child birth - in it's entire raw form. And it is a thriller.

The book is not without flaws, but I think this will win a few accolades along the way.

Note: Thanks to Penguin books UK and Netgalley for providing the ARC of this book for review. The book releases on 27 Aug.

It took me a little whiloe to settle into this story but I would recommend that anyone reading it does stick with it. The story becomes more and more involved and addictive. You have to read on to the end to discover what happens to the main character. It's a bizarre story line - but an interesting concept.

I feel like I can't stop reading dystopian literature at the moment! Sophie Mackintosh puts a spin on a new America where upon reaching puberty, every woman is assigned a 'ticket' in the so called lottery. If they receive a white ticket they will allowed to be mothers; if they receive a blue ticket they will be placed on birth control and face a childless future. Blue Ticket is the story of one woman deciding she wants to choose, rather than blindly accept a preconceived fate given to her by an invisible hand. However, 'blue ticket' women are not allowed to get pregnant or have children. This is the way the world works. To stay pregnant and keep her maybe she must go on the run...

I did enjoy the central themes of this novel, although they were basic - the ticket system is based upon a reductive categorisation of women either as mothers or as pleasure-seeking sex addicts. The virgin or the whore. The discussions the women have in the novel with each other (and the internal battle the narrator has with herself) are all about choice, free will, and the difficulty of trying to decide whether we want what we want, or whether we want what we are told to want. It's a clever way to make people with opposing views question each other and we are shown the positives and negatives of being with child, and being childless. At times with the narrator on the run I was reminded of The Handmaids's Tale. Until women in the real world in 2020 are allowed to be whatever they want and without judgment, we will continue to see stories such as Mackintosh writes.