Very intriguing read. It was hard to follow at times, but the plot was unique.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

For the most part I really enjoyed this debut novel, and while I am not quite so sure it is 'Booker material' (although I wouldn't be incensed if it DID make the shortlist), it at least managed to avoid most of the flaws of a 'first-timer'. Sure there are a few languid patches, and sometimes it seemed in need of an additional edit, but I really liked that the author didn't feel the need to cross every T or dot every I, so that one could ponder exactly was going on here without it all neatly wrapped up in a bow.

While reading, I was often reminded of other works, such as 'The Handmaid's Tale' cited in the précis, as well as former Booker nominee 'The Chimes. and Edmund White's first (largely forgotten) novel 'Forgetting Elena', and even at times of Mervyn Peake! But Mackintosh, I felt, has her own unique voice and style, and this is certainly promising enough that I am eager to see where she goes next.

My sincere thanks to both Netgalley and Doubleday for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this, in exchange for my honest review.

**Note - The blog post for this review is scheduled for 12/19, closer to the actual publication date. I would be happy to schedule sooner at the request of the publisher.**

I finished Sophie Mackintosh's The Water Cure a few days ago and instead of reviewing it straight away I had to let it sit for a bit.  I still don't fully know what to think or feel about it, so I'm going to try and muddle through my mixed feelings here to do some sort of a review.

Mackintosh's writing is to be envied.  It's lyrical and lush without being verbose.  As a matter of fact, it's somehow stark. The whole novel reads like a fever dream, with bizarre rituals and "exercises" that made my stomach turn at the level of abuse they meted out.  Behind that horror, there's the feeling on Lia's constant, claustrophobic need for love and affection--and rightfully so.  That's all a hard balance to achieve, and I can totally see why it's on the Man Booker Longlist for 2018 even ahead of its US publication date.

Ultimately, The Water Cure is a beautifully written book with terrifying subject matter, though it does leave the reader with more questions than answers.  I highly recommend--even though I still don't know how I feel about it.

The Water Cure was nothing like I expected, but I ended up enjoying it all the more for that. This is a vaguely unsettling, eerie tale of three sisters who were raised by their parents on a remote island to fear all men other than their father. They believe the outside world is dangerous and toxic, and they regularly perform painful rituals and ‘therapies’ to cleanse themselves. But then their father vanishes without a trace and three strange men wash up on their shore, and the novel takes place over the span of the week that follows.

The biggest surprise for me was that I was expecting a Handmaid’s Tale-esque feminist dystopia, but in reality I wouldn’t actually describe this book as a dystopia at all. I think a certain amount of ambiguity in this regard is intentional, especially at first, and I think there is going to be some healthy debate about how you can read this book, as a lot of questions deliberately go unanswered. But if the appeal of dystopias to you is the worldbuilding and big picture stuff, The Water Cure will undoubtedly disappoint. To me this felt more like an allegorical contemporary (or if not contemporary, at least set in the very near-future) whose strength lies more in its exploration of complex interpersonal dynamics than in its merit as a dystopic text. I’d compare it to King Lear or The Beguiled (and I would not be surprised if Sofia Coppola directed an eventual film adaptation) over The Handmaid’s Tale or The Power.

But for me, its inability to fit neatly into the ‘feminist dystopia’ genre is only an asset. Sophie Mackintosh has created something strong and uniquely unsettling. Her prose is remarkably lyrical, and the insular setting she crafts is at once immersive and claustrophobic. This is a novel whose themes exist slightly below the surface, and though it has a lot to say about gender roles and social dynamics and what it means to exist in modern society as a woman, none of this leaps off the page at a quick glance. There’s an incredible amount of depth and subtlety here, especially for such a short novel.

The biggest problem – really, the only problem – I had with this novel was that I was occasionally unconvinced by the fact that these sisters had lived their entire lives so removed from society. Not only were their vocabularies littered with colloquial phrases in a way that seemed at odds from how their parents spoke, at times they drew generalizations about human nature in a way that didn’t ring true for someone with such a limited world view. But this is something I found myself forgiving more and more as the novel went on, as it ultimately had the air of a fable, and I didn’t find myself too hung up on the details.

Basically, don’t expect another Handmaid’s Tale, but don’t think it isn’t worth your time because of that. I actually liked The Water Cure better.

In looking through the reviews of The Water Cure, I can understand why many reviewers loved this book. The prose is very hypnotic. I wasn't one of those who enjoyed it, however. The type of writing and the book style is just not really my cup of tea.

I was really intrigued by the synopsis of this book where three sisters are kept apart from the world. I assumed that it was because of some kind of apocalypse as the girls were told the world and the men were toxic and the island they were on was quarantined. But, the more I read, and the bizarreness of the story and the "cures", I now think it was the parents who were toxic.

For me, this was a very uncomfortable read. The girls were constantly being subjected to cures which I just saw as torture.

I'm sure that I experienced what the author was trying to portray, but like I said earlier, this book, the writing, the characters, the world... None of it was my cup of tea.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the advance copy.*

Atmospheric and deep, this book is not to be missed. The characters are well drawn and sympathetic and I just loved it!

This book kept me interested enough to read to the end, but it was quite odd and the ending was slightly unsatisfying.

Weird, wacky, beautiful, frustrating, hypnotizing and wholly original! I am still turning these characters and their lives over in my mind, in a good way.

This book was different. I thought I would give it a try for something new. It had an interesting premise and reminded me somewhat of "The Handmaid's Tale". It was good and an enjoyable read. I would recommend it to fans of Margaret Atwood.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

As I write this review, I am somewhat unsure of how I feel about the book. It was absolutely interesting, but I’m not positive that I fully comprehend it. The book is about a family of 3 girls, a mom and a dad, living on an island, separated from the toxic world beyond. In that world, men are hurtful towards woman, but the father, King, is a different man who has professed to love woman and wants to take care of them and heal them. Women come to their island, completely in ruins... hair falling out, blessing from the nose and gums, with bruises and throubles of all sorts. They are healed in their home... given the “water cure” until they are well and they leave again. The girls watch these women and occasionally talk with them. Meanwhile, they undergo their own therapies. Some of them require that they hurt each other. Some of them require them to be weighted down in the pool, so they are prepared for their own water cure if they one day need it. They girls never leave the island. King however, goes to the mainland every so often to get the things they need... food, medicine, etc. on one of the trips something happens and things are never the same for this family. I can’t say more without spoiling things, but as I said in the beginning of the review, it was certainly an interesting story. It felt a little like a book I might have read years ago for AP English or for a college lit class where there are underlying meanings that I needed to grasp, but may have struggled to fully uncover. I felt like I was missing something, even after the big reveal near the end. None the less, this book was different and I appreciated the creativity of the story and the relationships which were explored and whatever I may have missed, did not take away from the parts of the book I found interesting. If you read it and get all the underlying meaning... let me know. I’d love to discuss with you!

I can’t even put into words about how I feel about this book. It was bizarre and haunting, and strange and confusing... I want someone else to read this so I can talk about it with them. I think for that reason, it would make a good book club book. Not my usual type of read, I like more directness, but this was a good one that kept me thinking long after the book was over.

Let's start with the obvious...this cover is gorgeous. Also this book has an enticing promotional blurb (although, after reading I'm not sure it's totally on point, but it sure did make me to want to read this book.)

The book itself is a bit of a mystery. I think my beef with the promo copy is that things are not so very specific as "HANDMAID'S TALE meets THE VIRGIN SUICIDES". Ultimately few questions about the (dystopian?) world these sisters live in are answered. Instead everything is far more dreamy and vague. Who are the women who came before? Who are the (flashback?) interludes written by? Are men really dangerous? Are the ghosts real? Who knows? Maybe the answers to these questions won't matter to some readers, but I personally wanted to know more.

This book reminded me a lot of another book I recently reviewed, "Still Life"--it's dystopian fiction that is far less interested in building that dystopian world than in describing the relationships of the women who live within it. If you're interested in the former, this book will frustrate you. But if the later sounds up your alley, you'll likely dig this.

Ultimately this is a story about (dysfunctional, co-dependent) sisters, the world they THINK they live in, and how their worldview changes when some strangers are introduced into their ecosystem. The three sections are very different in structure, but do a nice job of fleshing out the basic details, and the writing is lush and vivid. However, for me though, I was left wanting a bit more.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

A mystical debut of somber love and lethal control.

Three sisters live on an island with their Mother. Their father has just disappeared and is assumed dead. They know this because he left their island to gather supplies from the toxic world that surrounds their haven. But it is not so simple. There is a certain relief in his departure due to his harshly devised and ever present "cures" to keep his family safe. But in his wake, their Mother takes the lead and follows his example. The pain repeats in his image.

Everything changes when two men and a boy wash ashore. Quickly, their household traditions fall wayside. What was once clean becomes a mess. Their Mother leaves for supplies and presumably, help. The sisters are left with three strangers, weeds overgrowing their carefully cultivated landscape. As they test the boundaries, so do the sisters. Although their father taught them to fear other men because they made women sick, one sister is particularly interested.

Sophie Mackintosh never underestimates her readers, peppering quiet and alarming glimpses into the pasts of the three sisters. There is perfect room to fill in gaps, which suits the fierce intelligence and horror of The Water Cure. The fight and release of control between the memory of their father, the three men, and the sisters, is what unites them again. It's a beautiful and deft awakening that feels far from dystopia.

While reading The Water Cure I was reminded of the Turkish film Mustang, which similarly follows a family of sisters under the control of men. But instead of an island, they're trapped in their own home. Next to this debut, it serves as a reminder that the harsh truths of both stories aren't too far from contemporary reality.

This book tells the story of three sisters; Grace, Lia, and Sky. They have been raised by their parents, King and Mother, apart from the rest of society, which their parents have told them is damaged and damaging. Their parents force them to do all sorts of self-destructive rituals, which they say are good for them and they also drug them. The story is unclear about what really is happening in the rest of the world. Their father, King, has died, three men wash up on the shore, and soon afterwards their mother disappears and the three girls are left to deal with the men on their own. Part dystopian novel and part psychological thriller, this novel tells a unique story.

This book is about three little girls who are basically kept alone from the rest of the world, and sheltered with their mother and father. The book was a little weird getting into, and hard for me to understand as it was a "new world" than what I was used to. I would give this book 4/5 stars. Thanks for the chance to read it!

Interesting place setting. I would have liked more of the family's history flushed out. I felt I was only reading topical and not getting a true understanding. I did like the crazy feel of the father figure and the interesting way the author had him brainwash the women. Readers of the Handmaid's Tale may find this interesting, but wanting more.

I do my best to write good reviews for every book I read. I understand how hard it is for the writer to pour out part of their soul into the story. How the characters come alive and tell the writer their story and that the author is a conduit for them. Truly, I do understand. Unfortunately I am unable to write a good review for this book. Though the characters were well written and decently defined, I felt that there was more to the story that needed to be told in this book in order for everything to fall into place and make sense.

The description of the book makes you believe that there is gonna be a huge story in the book yet the entire time I was reading it all I was was thinking was, "where is the story, where is the explanation for what has happened". I just felt like the book was going no where and I was just reading a empty plot and story line. The plot and story line was there, but there just wasn't enough back story to fill them. Again this is my opinion and as with all books it depends on the reader and how they read the book.

The Water Cure is a difficult book to review. It is so different from what I usually read, yet I was gripped by the strange story from the start. The writing is elegant and the way the plot unfolds has me eagerly turning the pages, wanting to know what would happen next. It is a truly creative and captivating story, and I certainly recommend it!

Mackintosh writes in absolutely beautiful and unflinching prose about the desolation and destruction of a family.

The book is set in a remote, seaside home of a family of a father (King), a mother (Mother), and three sisters (Lia, Grace, and Sky). The sisters are raised in isolation and are taught by their parents to fear, hate, and avoid men. They're told that interacting with men would make them physically sick, and it is unclear throughout the story whether this is true or not in their world, due to the isolation the reader experiences along with the sisters. Ironically, their father, is the oligarch of the family, and uses physical and emotional abuse to ensure complete control.

The story is in the point of view of either one of the three sisters (mainly Lia or Grace), or in the point of view of all three of them (using the pronoun "we"). Love is a big deal for the family, and (again, ironically) they have questionable therapies that tend to be emotionally and physically abusive that their parents use to "prove" their love for one another and to "cleanse" themselves of the poisonous air that comes from men living in the mainland. However, things change when three men are found washed up on their shore, and the three sisters must decide for themselves to follow their family's teachings (and therefore, their love), or to find out what they want for themselves.

Throughout the novel, the reader is able to experience the crippling and claustrophobic isolation that the sisters undergo on a daily basis. In the beginning I found myself in disbelief over King's teachings that the outside world, full of men, could cause physical and emotional illness in women. However, as events unfurl, I was left wondering if I was wrong, and that (at least in their world), men could really cause all those things King claimed.

Mackintosh does a beautiful job creating a world like ours, but in a more intense scale. Like our world, women live in fear and must be continuously cleansing themselves from the poisons of men, in order to feel safe and whole. This novel explores a world where women have no other choice but to stand up for themselves in the face of annihilation. But then again, is that not the same in our world? This novel is empowering and awakening, and I would urge everyone to read it at least once.

The Water Cure is a story of 3 sisters who have been kept save from men and the "toxins" of the outside world. Their home appears to once have been a spa used for healing women of these toxins and damages brought on by men by using The Water Cure.

Sophie Mackintosh uses the voice of each of the sisters to tell their part of the story, each from their own perspective, building on layers of truths, memory, lies and perceptions.

The book was compelling and made for a fast read. Ultimately, it left the reader with more questions than answers.