Sophie Mackintosh's THE WATER CURE was a total unexpected hit for me last year, so I was super disappointed when BLUE TICKET just didn't have the same effect on me. Mackintosh once again goes for a scary, seemingly alternate universe where women are treated differently than men due to extremely mysterious circumstances. In BLUE TICKET, once a girl gets her period, she is taken to a "lottery" where it is decided if she will be a mother and wife, or instead of a career. In this fictional world, women cannot "have it all." Our protagonist Calla is given a blue ticket, which means she will live in the city and have a career, but she desperately wants to have a baby. She ends up getting illegally pregnant, and that is where the plot takes off.

Unfortunately, instead of a straightforward story which this book could maybe have benefited from, it is much more lyrical and often hard to understand. There is not a lot of character dialogue, and I could have used a lot more world building. There are lot of questions unanswered, and while I was totally hooked in the first quarter of the book, it sort of lost me by the height of the action towards the end. A classic case of just wanting more from a book and an author that I know has so much to give!

Fans of Vox and The Handmaids Tale will definitely want to read Blue Ticket. A dystopian tale of woman being submissive and not in control of their own bodies in some sort of way. Basically you’ll spend the whole book being worked up and thinking about women’s rights, but so addicted to the story line that you can’t put it down. These types of books always get me thinking about the future, and could these sorts of things actually happen? I sure hope not, but I do enjoy reading about them!
Calla grew up hearing rumors about how the lottery works, but no one ever comes back to set the facts straight. All the girls know is that once you get you become a woman and get your first cycle your turn to go pull a ticket will begin. Calla watches girls disappear one by one, until the day finally comes that it’s her turn. A blue ticket means a life with a career and the respect of being successful. A white ticket means you’ll marry and have a family. A blue ticket cannot have children, and a white ticket cannot have a career. The powers that be have the task of deciding who is more maternal and who lacks the gene therefore should go out into the workforce. Each girl has a doctor assigned to them that evaluates their mental, physical, and emotional state. Anything changes and there will be consequences. Even though Calla has pulled a blue ticket, she knows her body craves the touch of a man and her heart wants nothing more than to be a mother. Is she will to go against the rules and get what she wants or will she put one foot in front of the other each day and live the life that’s been chosen for her?

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh is an amazing novel! Great plot and characters overall and amazing stakes.

I wasn't crazy about The Water Cure, so I wasn't sure what to think about this novel. However, I really enjoyed it. It is reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, and I think it really lends itself to the my body, my choice discussion. The book flies by, and I did really enjoy the main character. I think the novel would be great for women's book clubs, because there are a lot of great discussion questions to go with the topic.

When a young lady has her first period, she puts on a fancy new dress, goes to a center, and gets a ticket. Blue tickets will not have children, ever, a white ticket will. Then they are turned loose into the woods, to find their way to a city and begin their lives.

But what if you receive a white ticket, and don't want children? What if you have a blue ticket, and really want children? How do people view white and blue ticketed women differently?

This is a good book!

Blue Ticket is a unique book. It is set in a dystopian near-future where women are given either a blue or white ticket on the day their periods first start. A blue ticket means a future of ultimate freedom to do or be anything, with the exception of becoming a mother. A white ticket means domesticity and children.

The protagonist, Calla, is a blue ticket.

The prose of the novel vaguely reminded me of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. It took several pages to get into the rhythm but once I fell into the flow, I couldn’t put it down.

I greatly enjoyed this novel and recommend it for fans of The Road and The Handmaid’s Tale.

This book was really good because of the storyline. This is a really unique storyline that I have never read about before. That alone I think would intrigued people to want to read the story. The characters really really interesting as well. But what really got me was the situation happening in the book.

“Blue Ticket” available June 30, 2020.

In this dystopian world, when girls start their cycle, of they must choose a ticket. Blue ticket women are allowed to work but not allowed to get married or have children. White ticket women are not allowed to be free or work but must marry and have children.

I was intrigued by the description of the book but it just didn’t work for me. The structure was difficult to follow and lacked dialogue or any other world development. I could not understand the purpose of the tickets or reason for the restrictions. I struggled to get invested in the character and her intentions didn’t make sense. It took me half the book to even understand what was going on. Sadly, I didn’t like this one.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

Girls in an unnamed country must register and receive a ticket when they begin their periods. A blue ticket ensures a life of free will, work, love, happiness - everything but the ability to have children. A blue ticket sets the destiny of motherhood for girls who receive this random ticket. Men eventually married these "white ticket" women and had families.

Calla is given a blue ticket. She immediately leaves her father for her solo journey to "the city" (shades of Hunger Games here as the girls are sent out on their own to start their new lives). The books skips ahead to adult Calla, who is a professional with a great job, and an abundant amount of money, but she is unhappy. She wants a child. Calla takes matters into her own hands and becomes pregnant, which is illegal. Society turns on her and she is cast from her home. She runs from the authorities and finds others like her, all hoping to make it to the border where they can be free to make their own choices and become mothers.

There were areas in the book where I would have liked more detail. Why were fathers given small gifts when seen out in public? Where were the mothers in this book? Where was Calla's mother?

This book was really hard to put down. It was disturbing. Even though the subject matter seems so foreign, it's really not when you consider how much governments attempt to control women's bodies. The similarity to reality was almost more chilling than the story being told.

Apart from wanting more details, this was an interesting and chilling book. The ending felt like a set-up for a sequel which wouldn't be a bad thing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for providing an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It had been a while since my last dystopian read, and Blue Ticket was just the fix that I needed. This story is told from the point of view of the protagonist Calla who lives in a world where there's a lottery that determines whether or not a woman will be allowed to have children. Those who receive a white ticket are expected to have children while those who receive a blue ticket are forbidden from doing so. When Calla decides to choose her own destiny rather than abide by the rules of the lottery, she's banished from her home and finds herself fighting for her survival.

I recently watched a video in which Margaret Atwood said that when she wrote The Handmaid's Tale "nothing went into it that had not happened in real life, somewhere, at some time." Although the synopsis of this novel may be unimaginable for some, it is no secret that some countries around the world have had laws prohibiting the number of children that a couple can have. I think stories like Blue Ticket and The Handmaid's Tale are important because they lead us to reflect on certain freedoms and rights that we might take for granted.

However, one drawback for me was the lack of explanation as to why the lottery even existed. Perhaps the absence of a detailed backstory was intentional, but this ambiguity made it a little difficult for me to be fully immersed in the storyline. Additionally, the author's unique writing style in this book was something I had to adjust to, but after a few chapters I found the story very easy to follow. As it progressed I became increasingly curious about how Calla's journey would end and found myself rooting for her along the way. Blue Ticket won't be for everyone, but I'd recommend it to anyone in the mood for what I'd call a feminist dystopian/What Happened to Monday/Black Mirror Mashup.

Thank you ReadItForward and NetGalley for the ARC! It took some time to get used to the writing, it was short paragraphs. It seemed like a diary. It reminded me of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Giver, which I loved those books. I liked this book but also disliked it because it was confusing at times. I wish there was more of a background to the story. But the ending did make me want it to keep going.

I requested _Blue Ticket_ because a student in my spring-semester young adult literature class told me that it was a forthcoming YA book. Wow, she could not have been more wrong! I suppose some YA readers might enjoy it...but it's very definitely *not* young adult.

What it *is*, however, is a fascinating piece of dystopian fiction about a future world where, as soon as they start menstruating, girls are assigned either a white ticket (which means they're destined for marriage and motherhood) or a blue ticket (which means they're fitted with an IUD-like device and are forbidden to get pregnant). "Blue Tickets" are given a survival kit and sent out to find their own way to a city, and the novel hints at the traumas they endure along the way, namely rape by roving bands of boys and men. If they make it to their destination, though, Blue Tickets live lives of tremendous independence and freedom, and far from being judged, their sexual liberation is expected and encouraged, just as "White Tickets" are expected to marry and have children.

The novel centers on Calla, a Blue Ticket who's done the unthinkable: she's removed her IUD-like device and gotten pregnant, succumbing to the "dark feeling" that has been pulling her toward motherhood. Since this is highly illegal, when the authorities, known as the "emissaries," find out, she's ostracized, put out on the road once again with the most basic of survival kits, and told that she'll be hunted down.

Improbably, Calla joins up with a band of other renegade women, one of whom becomes her lover, and together they try to reach the mythical "border" over which they will be able to have, and keep, their babies.

While all of this might make the novel sound like a heavy-handed allegory about women's reproductive rights, it doesn't read that way at all. Rather, it's more of a meditation on what makes someone a "suitable" mother, or if there even is such a thing.

The novel is structured in a strangely segmented sort of way, very stream-of-consciousness. Some might find this affected and difficult to follow; I kind of liked it, and it certainly kept the momentum of the narrative moving forward.

The ending was entirely unexpected and open-ended bordering on vague--I was frustrated by this, but I understand why Mackintosh didn't want to tie everything together with a neat bow. After all, the novel is about the importance of freedom and choices; locking Calla into a single fate would have undermined all of that.

This book is going to get a LOT of buzz when it comes out!

Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.

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.

This is...not fun to read. I DNF'd about halfway through and couldn't force myself to continue.

Imagine picking up a diary written by someone from what I would call a mild dystopia. That's it. That's the book. When you are a teenager, you are given a ticket that will determine whether you are childless or will bare children. The set up to the book and the reason for the dystopia is purposefully vague for what I assume is dramatic affect, but mostly comes off as frustrating. There is almost no dialogue. Most of this story is a woman walking us through her life with minimal details. The book hops time regularly within chapters (which will sometimes be multiple pages of monologues describing the way the character feels about an everyday situation)

Reasons you would enjoy Blue Ticket

- You don't like characters or characters talking
- You are interested in hearing a single character tell you she's sad, but like, for the whole book
- You are bored by things like "world building" or "character interactions".

I just found this ton be a frustrating execution of a concept that I was thrilled to read. If you like poetry or "artsy" books that are extremely limited in character interaction, maybe this will work for you. I don't usually DNF this quickly without a reason, and my reason was I was bored to tears and about as compelled by the characters and universe as I am to go to work every day. It was tedious and somehow, for a dark feminist dystopia, boring. Like listening to your un happy friend repeat her two problems to you for 4 hours straight.

You can read a million good dystopias out there, so why waste your time with this?

Calla lives in a society where one’s life path is chosen for them. A blue ticket or a white ticket. Path A or B. Calla is relieved when she pulls a blue ticket and goes onto live her life accordingly in the city. One day, things change and Calla decides she wants a choice. She wants to choose differently and this choice will force her to flee her life and everything she’s ever known. This book is an interesting take on survival and the pressures of society. It’s primal, dark, and gritty. It made me very sad the entire time I was reading it. My heart broke again and again for Calla. I felt as if I was reading someone’s nightmare.

The story about a girl living in a future time and the consequences of her actions after being categorized by a system into which she eventully revolted. The premise of the book was very good and the main characters were well written. I, personally, did not like the format of the book and found myself going back to re-read paragraphs where I was confused as to who was talking and the lack of quotations in this format left me wondering, at times, wherther the words were spoken or just thoughts. From the first pages of the book, I knew that I would have to revisit them later, because for me they were unclear and confusing.

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh reminds me a great deal of her previous novel, The Water Cure. Dystopian in view. this novel follows Calla, who when she had her first bleed, was taken to a building where she drew a ticket. She drew a blue ticket, which meant she would never have children. She was fitted with an IUD, given a few provisions and sent to the city to make her way on her own. After working and living a promiscuous life, she decided she did want to have a child. She removed the IUD and became pregnant, then left the city and was on the run and the book follows her life on the run.

As with The Water Cure, Blue Ticket is a very disturbing book. It is written with a scarcity of drama, very cut and dried. I found it difficult to read, but had to get through it. I was happy to finish.

Thank you to the author, Doubleday Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I've read the author's previous books and was very intrigued by this one. It's difficult to describe, strange and sad and complicated. I am not sure this entirely worked for me, unfortunately, though I appreciate what the author was trying to do.

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.

3.75 stars

I am completely riveted by the narratives Sophie Mackintosh develops. They are creative, sinister, and led by characters who feel hollow but somehow important.

_Blue Ticket_ features a society that centers - at least for the main character - on a lottery process in which women are designated white ticket or blue ticket holders upon the arrival of their first periods. White ticket holders will have children, and blue ticket holders will not. Calla, the m.c., has the titular blue ticket, but she also has other ideas.

While I feel like I can typically exert some level of distance while reading most works, I couldn't do it here. As a person who has consistently been fiercely opposed to parenthood throughout my entire life, I found the series of events here riveting. The conversations around what freedom means, how free one can be when others make major life decisions on your behalf, and how folks might feel about parenthood with all of the extenuating circumstances here are gripping. This fascinating set of questions and concepts is offset by the creepy detachment of the m.c. and the sinister undercurrent of violence or almost violence all the time. Being a woman-identifying character here is unquestionably and endlessly challenging.

I expect polarizing reviews for this one for the same reasons that they exist for _The Water Cure_. Mackintosh appears to have quite the characteristic style, and it's beautiful but tough at times. This works follows suit.

Calla goes against everything the blue ticket defines her life to be, but she doesn't do it in the way one might expect. She isn't motherly, she has no natural instinct to care about a child, let alone herself. She's unreliable, a drinker, selfish, and at times I questioned her mental stability. She is determined though and with determination comes an interesting, albeit difficult to picture, journey to try to chase the life she wants to create for herself and her unborn child. I wasn't in love with this book, the writing style, page breaks, and lack of dialogue really were hard to get used to, but something about it was riveting. You never really get to know Calla, there's no true description of where the events take place, even the secondary characters feel too far out of reach to picture, and yet I couldn't stop reading. It was strange, unique, and at times quite terrible, but to say Blue Ticket was a bad book just isn't true. It wasn't entirely for me, but I can absolutely see the draw for others.