Three sisters are isolated from the dystopian world, living with their parents. Occasional women show up who go through a ritual called the water cure. The story picks up when three men appear and how the sisters interact with them. Love and cruelty are examined through the various therapies and relationships. I would have like to have known more of the place the men came from.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

"The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Virgin Suicides in this dystopic feminist revenge fantasy about three sisters on an isolated island, raised to fear men"


This was a very accurate pitch for this book as I believe "The Water Cure" emobodies elements from the above two titles. "The Water Cure" is an interesting story as it takes on rape culture told through a dystopic lens. I would recommend this title to any fans of dystopian literature.

Forget everything the publishing world has put out about The Water Cure. Chances are it is nowhere close to being an accurate picture of the novel. For one thing, it is not similar to The Handmaid's Tale in any way. For another thing, there is nothing feminist nor vengeful about the story or the characters. If I have to compare it to another book, it is most similar to Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed, but even that is doing Sophie Mackintosh's debut novel a disservice because it sets up expectations that the story does not meet.

In talking to a friend about The Water Cure, I said it was beautiful and haunting but confusing and weird, and that is how I still feel about the story. There are no explanations about the outside world that satisfies readers. We learn nothing about the family's backstory that would help make sense of the refuge offered to women, the cures used, and why. What little we do learn is disturbing, especially when you remember that the publisher is marketing it as a feminist revenge fantasy.

The only reason I opted to finish the book is due to the writing. It is beautiful and evocative. Capable of hiding the most brutal behavior behind poetic descriptions, Ms. Mackintosh's prose holds your attention. Unfortunately, it also camouflages the flaws in the story until the end, when you are left to wonder what exactly you read and why you finished it.

I am sure there are going to be those readers who will think The Water Cure is one of the best new releases of 2019, and that's great for them. For me, the cult-like aspect of the family with its cruel lessons about love is not something that impresses me. There are better books out there that also explore family and love and gender relations and do so in a way that does not frustrate you with gaps in the story or nebulous clues requiring you to fill in those gaps. The writing may be excellent, but it is not enough to overcome the story's paltry plot and weak characters.

Three sisters live on an island, isolated from the violent horrors of the wider world, protected by their father, known only as King. However, when King disappears (and shortly thereafter, their mother too) the girls are left to contend with the truth- that horrifying levels of misogyny and violence exist not only in the unknown, but within their own family.

Billed as a feminist dystopian novel, I was immediately interested in The Water Cure and was excited to receive an eARC from @goodreads and @penguinbooks (thank you!) (also explains the cover, which is not the much prettier version of the print copies) The Water Cure is lyrical and evocative, which provides sharp contrast to the to the veiled horrors of the outside world as well as the cruelty within the girls and their family. I’m not sure I can say I enjoyed it - it was a difficult read, even if it was pretty. Much is left vague, paralleling the unknowns the sisters face, and creating spaces for the reader to insert their own projections. I think I would have liked a little more context/exposition, but others will enjoy the experience of the novel just as it is.

Recommended for those who love dark, evocative, dreamy prose, coming of age stories, and dystopian nightmares. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Everyone is born into their own unique circumstances. Good. Bad. Indifferent. From infancy we are completely dependent on our caretakers. We learn their cues, their language, their ideologies. What is there to argue when this is the only way of life you know.

Grace, Lia, and Sky. Three sisters raised in their secluded home by Mother and King. Purposefully segregated away from the toxic world. While growing up they were subjected to rigorous therapies to keep their bodies in tip top shape to fight off any wayward toxin.

King has taken every precaution he can think of to keep the world away from his property and family. Barbed wire lines the forest, along with hidden traps. He’s a man that takes care of his family. Creating new therapies as the girls grow. King makes trip to the mainland to restock on provisions, using a boat and the sea channel at the port just below the property.

This port is what used to bring women to the house. Battered and bruised, reeking with toxin from the world and carrying distrust toward any man. Mother would apply the therapies and King would be a presence in the corner of the room, while the girls spied on progress from the top of the stairs. Always present, never involved.

For the unsuspecting, this life is perfectly normal. What happens when there is a bump in the road? How do you deal with a feeling you have been forced to push away before your first steps? What happens when the last thing to come to the shore is a threat no one could have prepared for?

Note: While I may not look upon some of the things I say as a spoiler, others might. It is never my intention to spoil a book for anyone. Please proceed at your own risk. Also note, this book contains quite a few triggers.



Let’s break this whole book down, shall we?

The Cover: The cover is what drew me to read this book (I have the one on the left). I thought it was intriguing, very eye-catching. I actually did not notice the Margaret Atwood quote until I was roughly 50% of the way through the book (OOPS!). That old quote “never judge a book by its cover” just doesn’t bode well with me. I have and continue to choose some books solely on their covers.

The characters: This is rather hard to talk about without immediately giving some things away. Remember, this is all my opinion, and this is how I perceived the book. We have three main characters; Grace, Lia, and Sky. Three sisters brought up under our supporting characters; Mother and King. Not much is known about King up front, other than he has died (relax, it’s not a spoiler, it’s essentially spelled out for you as soon as you start the book). I feel that from start to finish we slowly build up each character’s distinct personality. Like coaxing a kitten out from hiding. When first starting this book it is slightly odd the reactions to King’s death. Mainly, Mother doesn’t know how to deal with grief.

Love isn’t brought up regularly. In fact, after King passes away Mother leaves “No more love” notes all around the house. From birth, Mother and King would subject the girls to therapies to ward off toxins of the dying world. In the early years women from … let’s just call it beyond … would come to the house wanting therapies to get over the horror in the world. The women would rarely stay more than a month, and their stay always ended with “The Water Cure” (yes, it’s one of those books where the title of the book actually makes sense).

The therapies- Here’s where we get into some triggers. There are several different therapies mentioned (I’m sure there were more not mentioned). We have:

The drowning game
Fainting sack therapy
Scream therapy
Love therapy
water cure
I’m not going to go into detail what they’re about- it’s not always an easy read with these- I’ll let the reader get into these on their own. The fact that these girls were brought up with an ever-changing list of therapies to encompass growing up bothered me. It made for an interesting story though.

The underlying tone- I’ve read a few interesting points made by others. One is this book is a feminist book. I don’t really take that point of view. Why? Sure, it’s about the girls, but I truly believe they are acting only on what they’ve been taught. If they had been raised in the “real world” with real ideals (and common sense) half the stuff in this book would not have happened. I’ve also seen this as a #metoo movement piece. Again, I don’t really see this as a movement. Once again, my opinions, I could be DEAD wrong, but neither of those really hit me in the feels that they had a connection to this book.

So what is the tone of the book? I took this as a 100% dystopian. In fact, I really do not see it that far from the truth. I am sure, somewhere out there, right now, are people raising their kids away from the “real world” with their own ideologies, no common sense, no tact for conversing “normally”. As I said in my introduction, how we are raised from the beginning forms an integral part of what is “us” and how we react to the world.

The end-Well obviously I’m not going to tell you the ending. I will tell you that there were a few surprises. Some info I had called from the beginning, but it was nice to get an explanation at the end. I can’t say that I was surprised by the ending, but it also wasn’t what I expected.

The Good: For Sophie Mackintosh’s debut novel, she definitely gave me a lot to think about. I enjoyed the cover, the short chapters, the easy-to-read story.

The Bad: If you’re looking for a lot of explanations, you’re not going to get them. Any explanation given is fragmented, and the story jumps a lot. In some places I thought adequate information was given, in other places I wish I knew more about a backstory, or about surroundings.

The Ugly: Unfortunately for some people, this will be a trigger book. There’s really no way around it. At times it was hard for me to read, I did set the book down every now and then. However, explanations and descriptions are over very quickly, with minimal reminiscing in other scenes.


“The Water Cure“ by Sophie Mackintosh is available now! I was chosen by Netgalley to receive a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Given that fact, it has not altered my opinion on the book at all.

After seeing this listed for the Baileys Prize, and reading the synopsis I was extremely interested in picking this one up.
So after reading it -I regret that at times I was a little put off with the violence of men towards women-also a little too cryptic for my understanding or taste-it is though beautifully written, and the prose is hypnotic. The story in itself to me wasn't fleshed out enough, and the ending seemed a little rushed.

Overall, if you are looking for a feminist fantasy, I would recommend this one-just be warned that this one is written abstractly and unique.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank Sophie Mackintosh and Doubleday Books for the opportunity to read and review this.

In a world where men are so toxic that they are literally destroying women, King moved his wife and children to an isolated beach house where he forces them to take part in bizarre rituals and therapies as a way to protect them from the dangers of the outside world. However, when King goes missing, the women are forced to fend for themselves, which is made all the more difficult when 3 men wash ashore on their beach one day.
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While I ultimately enjoyed this book, it is not for everyone. The writing is very poetic and beautiful (Mackintosh is a wonderfully descriptive writer), but a little difficult to connect to. The girls have been raised in a cult-like environment their entire lives, which makes them somewhat unreliable narrators and, as a reader, you’re never quite sure what is going on. That being said, this is another example of a book where the takeaway is do NOT fuck with women. There are great themes here that explore feminism, sexuality and toxic masculinity, and I found myself rooting for these women to find their true selves and take control.

Dreamlike and at times unclear, but enough to keep you reading. Reminiscent of many of the other feminist dystopias popping up, and unfortunately one that sort of blurs together with the others.

This book was really weird. I thought it was a dystopian novel and I suppose it's up for interpretation, but it read more like a cult or one of those memoirs by kids with crazy parents. The writing was actually really compelling, but the story was just too weird for me.

I was instantly pulled into this book, with so many questions, that I needed keep turning the pages to find out what would happen. Mackintosh does an excellent job of building tension through quiet prose, slowly peeling back layers to this story, as each of the girls, both together and separate, give voice to their thoughts about anything from their own relationships with each other to that of their mother, their father, their life on the island.

While the story starts off calm, there are ripples that form with small instances of rebellion or apathetic mentions of abusive behavior that both stun and puzzle the reader as to what is truly going on. With the arrival of the men, their world is thrown into chaos and the girls begin seeing rapid change and their own personal philosophies are thrown out of sync. I love how Mackintosh gives such varied voice to the three sisters, making them stand out in their own way through small, but numerous little glimpses. The other characters take shape through the sisters' eyes, so the reader can only piece together a tattered, perhaps biased view of them, making the reality of their situation questionable.

Overall, it's a stunning book, very thought provoking, and I couldn't have imagined where it would lead me. Though I'm not normally a fan of multiple points of view, here, I think, Mackintosh has utilized this tool to the greatest effect. It really shines. I will definitely be recommending this book.

Grace, Lia and Sky are raised on an island away from a world where men can hurt them. They live with their parents, parents who run them through a daily bunch of tests and actions to make them safe from whatever these men in the world can hurt them with. They are taught that just breathing the air from where the men are can kill them. Other women come to this island to be cured. No one else stays.

One day, King, their father, is gone. Their mother says he is dead and they begin a different kind of life. Their mother still adheres to all the old rules. Our story is told by Grace and Lia. Grace is pregnant. Yes, you read that right. That makes your brain go one hundred miles an hour. Lia is struggling with emotions. They aren’t supposed to feel them. Until the one day, two men and a boy wash up on their little utopia….

This has such a hazy, atmospheric quality to it. I felt the bones of the big old house they lived in. I felt their breaths as they played the drowning game. I felt the cuts Lia inflicted on herself. It is really harsh. Their mother was tough. It was hard to sympathize with her. There were truths that were revealed and I just was shocked. It is hard to put this book in any box . I have not read anything like it. The writing is superb. I think I will think about this one for a long time.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for an advance copy of this book.

King keeps his wife and daughters safe. He's created obstacles around the island so that the women can be protected from the violence of the men of the mainland. One day, King disappears and the women must survive without him. One day, three men wash ashore and everything they know, changes.

There was a bit of The Beguiled in this story for me. It's violent and abusive and hard to read at part, but there's a beauty to the story as well. The story draws you in like a beautiful sunset but then trusts you into the storm.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sophie Mackintosh and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

3.5 stars rounded up. There's no denying that Mackintosh's writing is beautiful. There are some haunting bits of prose here, but it's written in such an accessible, easily digestible way that I found myself flying through the pages and finishing this over the course of two evenings. While there were things I didn't love quite as much (there were some things I wish were explained in more detail/more context given), I liked that the author managed to make a few rather powerful points without being too preachy/over the top.

"Sudden love, when gifted to a habitually unloved person, can induce nausea. It can become a thing you would claw and debase yourself for. It is necessary to wean yourself onto it, small portions."

Sophie Mackintosh’s debut novel, The Water Cure, is the story of three sisters living an occult existence on an island off “the mainland” one fateful summer when they have their first experience with men other than their father. (Yep, that pretty much sums this one up.) Grace, Lia and Sky have been raised on an island away from civilization for their entire lives. (view spoiler) Grace is pregnant, though she’s only ever even seen one man her entire life, her father. Lia is in the middle of a summer without love; the summer that the men arrive, she’s been chosen in one of the family’s rituals to be the person who goes without love until names are picked out of the bag again. Sky is childlike and innocent, wholly dependent on their family unit and unwilling to stray from its teachings. So, when King, their father dies, and the mother and three daughters are left alone on the island, anything can happen.

There are two aesthetic items that really stood out to me about this book: the title, which is perfectly harmonious with the content, and the beautiful imagery of the cover, which accurately ties it all together. Both of these are fantastic representations of the bedrock of this book.

Admittedly, The Water Cure started out rough, and I was tempted to put it down. Part one is a series of vignettes—short, broken glimpses into their world that failed to satisfy. There was not enough to fully hold on to. I found the first part of this three-part the novel to be yet another example of a narrative full of frilly words and curlicue phrases that all amounted to nothing—exposition that skirted the truth of their reality, trying to veil it or twirl around it in a way that was annoyingly (and often confusingly) evasive. I wished—no YEARNED—for Mackintosh to write head on instead of in a mass of purple prose nothingness.

Luckily, I was offered some reprieve in Part Two, where the narrative style switches up a bit, though it never wanders too far from its narrative foundation of swirly prose writing.

ENTER JAMES, LLEW AND GWIL.

James and Llew are brothers who wash up on shore with Llew’s young son, Gwil. They seek refuge until rescuers come to bring them home from the island, and they endure extreme measures on the part of the girls’ mother who has not been around men, other than her now-deceased husband, in years. Once she deems them safe enough to inhabit their land until they are rescued, this novel starts to unwind and make a little more sense.

Part two centers around Lia, the middle daughter who cuts her thighs to feel something, the sister who has not been assigned love in one of their ritualistic ceremonies—

"‘Hurt Grace, or Sky will have to…’ You know I have no choice…She showed no reaction at first, but by the end she was biting viciously through the cloth. I knew it was involuntary…She let out a high noise from between her teeth, a constant pitch, like a stinging insect. It was unbearable."

—It is, in part, this lack of love that drives her into the arms of Llew. But Lia has no romantic experience with men. Imagine the playfulness, the flirtation, the mixed signals and the desire that we’ve all experienced in our youths; now imagine that happening in an occult setting where men are the enemy to a girl who is starved of love. You can see how this would be a recipe for insert any number of words here.

"James finds me crying in the garden, where I thought nobody would look. Somehow I am a child again and nobody wants to go near me, nobody can cope with how badly I want to be held, or touched, or listened to, and there is nothing I can ever do about it."

Each chapter in part two starts with an excerpt, presumably from an entry in the Welcome Book left behind by a woman who has sought out their occult home in search of refuge from the destruction of men in the past. The thing is, without context—and with the author still clinging to the evasive narrative techniques of part one—a lot of the excerpts made little sense to me and failed to move the story forward in any meaningful way, not even by adding atmosphere. Also, this novel likely would have been better off written completely in 3rd person. Lia’s chapters bothered me, because she speaks in first person using words like “surreptitiously,” though there’s never a word written about these girls, living isolated from all other civilization aside from their five-person family and the occasional female traveler, ever going to school. They learned to read on their own from books lying around the house that were eventually taken away before the third sister could even learn to read, so that just came off as weird and inaccurate.

The blurb praises The Water Cure as The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Virgin Suicides. Ummmm, The Handmaid’s Tale, not so much. The Virgin Suicides, maybeeeeee. Really, it reminded me of Gather the Daughters , a novel I THOROUGHLY enjoyed, meets Lord of the Flies. If that description appeals to you, you’ll definitely want to pick up Sophie Mackintosh’s The Water Cure. While I was put off by the evasiveness of the first part of the novel, the narrative came together much better as the novel progressed. It was a quick read that I gobbled up in 24 hours, and it managed to put its own spin on a narrative that’s been done before. For that, I thought it fitting to give this book 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. ****

When I try and think of a comparison to this book, I can't. I have simply never read anything like it. I would describe it as a seriously twisted cult fiction dystopian novel... If you have seen the movie "Mother!," you walk away with the same feeling. The feeling of what in the world did I just read, and you're quite sure if that's a good thing or bad. The storyline was a bit slow.. And yet.. the whole book you felt as though you were a part of this world. You lived these poor girls lives, with them and it began to feel so normal that the what should have been climactic moment.. ( in the most messed up way, ) it seemed to make sense. This book was creepy, and yet strangely realistic. It was nearly medieval, and cruel, it was well written, but not necessarily a book ill pick up for a read.

Not quite sure how to feel about this one. The writing is beautiful! In so many places, it reads like poetry and I found myself highlighting so much. However, as far as the actual storyline goes, by the end I had so many questions. The story was incredibly vague, which I do think was intentional by the author. But I needed more specificity with what was actually happening and why. This book is just hard to describe and is definitely not for everyone. But again, writing was so beautiful.

I have mixed feelings towards The Water Cure. This book has been hyped up as a feminist dystopia and it really isn't by any means. Three women live on an island with their mother and "King" aka their dad, because according to the vague prose this book is riddled with, there is some kind of toxin that hurts women and men give it off (????). Of course the women only know this because it is what they have been told by their parents, nothing fishy there.... King goes missing and is assumed dead. Two men and a boy end up on their remote island seeking shelter. From the very start of the book the reader can feel something is off on the story the daughters are being told about toxins, which immediately eliminates the feminist dystopia ruse and I can't help but feel it got that label to get the book more attention or try to act like it is a feminist dystopian so the big surprise is a shock, in which case the story immediately falls apart). The vagueness of the prose style writing was a bit annoying as well.

"Once there was a father who thought he could protect us."

King has sequestered his wife and 3 daughters in a large house by the ocean. Their aim is to be kept separate and safe from the rest of any place off their property where men and civization are toxic. The parents have strange ideas about raising Grace, Lia and Sky and they are subjected to all sorts of strange therapies and treatments -- including "the water cure." The notions and fallacies forced upon the girls by their parents shape them into creatures devoid of most female tendencies and bereft of true knowledge about themselves and the world at large. It is the worst kind of dystopia and their formative years spent in this place have warped them. When King goes off to obtain provisions and never returns, the girls and Mother are ill-equipped to continue on. Then, one day, 2 men and a little boy appear on the shore. Nothing has prepared them for this invasion. NO SPOILERS.

This has to be, without a doubt, one of the weirdest books I've ever read. I don't even know if I liked it but only that I was so glad when I finally finished. It was confusing, rambling, and hard to follow as the narrators changed and sometimes I wasn't sure whose voice I was hearing. The girls had some very peculiar thoughts, obviously warped by their upbringing and all so extremely odd. I didn't know whether to pity them or root for them not sure at all where this was all going. The underlying theme seemed to be that women should be very wary of all men who only meant them harm. Also that love was a dangerous feeling and the sisters had no way of understanding themselves without a barometer with which to measure themselves. I don't think this was the book for me but I've no doubt that others will find something profound within the pages that just escaped me. I can't enjoy working this hard to enjoy a book and this was a difficult read because of the subject and the strangeness of the lives the girls led. I don't know who I could recommend this book to. The characters were all messed up and no wonder with what they had endured by their parents in the name of protection and under the guise of love.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Publishers for the e-book ARC to read and review.

This book was very unusual and I spent the first chunk of the book trying to figure out what was going on. Once I did, the story was just ok, but this might be a case of personal preference. The main plot of this novel is male patriarchy over women and this theme just boils my blood! The writing is very fluid and poetic even, which was nice and the story is definitely creative. But overall it just didn’t wotk well for me.

I thought this book was just ok. The story takes place in a time when men are bigger and more ruthless. Women are mistreated and vulnerable. There is also vague talk about toxic air and sickness.

Lia, Sky and Grace live an isolated life on an island with their mother and their father, known as King. It is very vague about what this new world is like (men vs. women) and why their is sickness. I think the author probably did that on purpose for the readers to have a feel of the sisters and how little they know of the world. They only hear about the evils of the world as told by their parents. They are cruel and through numerous "therapies", condition their children to be tough and banish feelings. It really is child abuse and it is no surprise the three become brain washed and disturbed.

When King disappears and 2 men and a young boy wash up on shore...things come to a head. I just found this book difficult to read because the women were beyond hope. The book is described as feminist dystopian, but it really is a psychological look at how abuse and isolation can alter a sense of humanity and kindness. It also reminded me of a cult. I received a complimentary e-book from the publisher at Netgalley.com in exchange for a review.