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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
The Water Cure
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 20 reviews on
Nominee:Booker Prize -Novel (2018)
"A gripping, sinister fable!" --Margaret Atwood, via Twitter ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR:
NPR - GLAMOUR - GOOD HOUSEKEEPING - LIT HUB - THRILLIST
King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky. Here on his island, women are protected from the chaos and violence of men on the mainland. The cult-like rituals and therapies they endure fortify them from the spreading toxicity of a degrading world. But when King disappears and two men and a boy wash ashore, the sisters' safe world begins to unravel. Over the span of one blistering hot week, a psychological cat-and-mouse game plays out. Sexual tensions and sibling rivalries flare as the sisters are forced to confront the amorphous threat the strangers represent. A haunting, riveting debut, The Water Cure is a fiercely poetic feminist revenge fantasy that's a startling reflection of our time.
NPR - GLAMOUR - GOOD HOUSEKEEPING - LIT HUB - THRILLIST
King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky. Here on his island, women are protected from the chaos and violence of men on the mainland. The cult-like rituals and therapies they endure fortify them from the spreading toxicity of a degrading world. But when King disappears and two men and a boy wash ashore, the sisters' safe world begins to unravel. Over the span of one blistering hot week, a psychological cat-and-mouse game plays out. Sexual tensions and sibling rivalries flare as the sisters are forced to confront the amorphous threat the strangers represent. A haunting, riveting debut, The Water Cure is a fiercely poetic feminist revenge fantasy that's a startling reflection of our time.
Book Details
- Publisher: Anchor Books
- Publish Date: Dec 3rd, 2019
- Pages: 288
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 7.90in - 5.10in - 1.00in - 0.65lb
- EAN: 9780525562832
- Categories: • Psychological• Coming of Age• Dystopian
About the Author
Sophie Mackintosh won the 2016 White Review Short Story Prize and the 2016 Virago/Stylist Short Story competition, and has been published in Granta magazine and Tank magazine, among others. The Water Cure is her first novel.
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
"Chilling. . . . Unsettling. . . . Feels both futuristic and like an eerily familiar fable."
--The New York Times
"Remarkable. . . . Mackintosh seamlessly weaves together the themes of Shakespeare . . . with the very modern issue of toxic masculinity."
--The Washington Post "Sensational. . . . Part fable, part feminist dystopia, Mackintosh's taut novel turns a keen, unsparing eye on violence, patriarchy, and desire."
--Esquire
"Mackintosh's novel follows in the footsteps of The Handmaid's Tale . . . but this debut has its own alluring style."
--Vogue
"Ingenious and incendiary."
--Laura Miller, The New Yorker
"A tart, uncanny debut novel."
--NPR "Haunting. . . . Sumptuous."
--The New York Times Book Review
"Gorgeously dark, disturbing, and provocative."
--San Francisco Chronicle "This harrowing book manages, somehow, to simultaneously walk the line between fairy tale, coming-of-age tale, and morality tale. It does them all with plenty of intensity, and with muscular prose to boot."
--Thrillist
"Eerie and quietly stunning."
--Bomb
"Creepy and sexy in equal measure."
--The Independent
"An evocative coming-of-age novel."
--Kirkus Reviews
"[An] intense, ambitious debut."
--Publishers Weekly
"An extraordinary otherworldly debut. . . . [Mackintosh] is writing the way that Sofia Coppola would shoot the end of the world: everything is luminous, precise, slow to the point of dread."
--The Guardian
"This chilling dystopia feels like a fable for a modern era, and a must-read for women today."
--Good Housekeeping "A haunting, disturbing look into the ways in which young women are failed by those closest to them, and how those failures echo outward, poisoning all of existence."
--Nylon
"There's something Joni Mitchell-esque about the lyrical, emotional tone of the prose. . . . Mackintosh's profound faith in sisterhood imbues her particular dark vision with beauty and a kind of hope."
--Newsday "A feminist dystopian fairy tale--evocative, suspenseful, and bleak--in short, everything this age seems to be demanding."
--Fresh Air
"Demonstrate[s] why the subtlest fiction is often the most powerful."
--Vulture "This riveting debut adds another dimension to a post-Handmaid's Tale world."
--The Telegraph
"Startling. . . . Mackintosh is a wonderful stylist; the full scope of her imagination, as well as the cohesion of her vision, is evident on every page."
--The Irish Times
"A hypnotic read. . . . This extraordinary debut is a feminist quasi-dystopian read for fans of Hot Milk, The Girls, and The Vegetarian."
--Elle (UK)
--The New York Times
"Remarkable. . . . Mackintosh seamlessly weaves together the themes of Shakespeare . . . with the very modern issue of toxic masculinity."
--The Washington Post "Sensational. . . . Part fable, part feminist dystopia, Mackintosh's taut novel turns a keen, unsparing eye on violence, patriarchy, and desire."
--Esquire
"Mackintosh's novel follows in the footsteps of The Handmaid's Tale . . . but this debut has its own alluring style."
--Vogue
"Ingenious and incendiary."
--Laura Miller, The New Yorker
"A tart, uncanny debut novel."
--NPR "Haunting. . . . Sumptuous."
--The New York Times Book Review
"Gorgeously dark, disturbing, and provocative."
--San Francisco Chronicle "This harrowing book manages, somehow, to simultaneously walk the line between fairy tale, coming-of-age tale, and morality tale. It does them all with plenty of intensity, and with muscular prose to boot."
--Thrillist
"Eerie and quietly stunning."
--Bomb
"Creepy and sexy in equal measure."
--The Independent
"An evocative coming-of-age novel."
--Kirkus Reviews
"[An] intense, ambitious debut."
--Publishers Weekly
"An extraordinary otherworldly debut. . . . [Mackintosh] is writing the way that Sofia Coppola would shoot the end of the world: everything is luminous, precise, slow to the point of dread."
--The Guardian
"This chilling dystopia feels like a fable for a modern era, and a must-read for women today."
--Good Housekeeping "A haunting, disturbing look into the ways in which young women are failed by those closest to them, and how those failures echo outward, poisoning all of existence."
--Nylon
"There's something Joni Mitchell-esque about the lyrical, emotional tone of the prose. . . . Mackintosh's profound faith in sisterhood imbues her particular dark vision with beauty and a kind of hope."
--Newsday "A feminist dystopian fairy tale--evocative, suspenseful, and bleak--in short, everything this age seems to be demanding."
--Fresh Air
"Demonstrate[s] why the subtlest fiction is often the most powerful."
--Vulture "This riveting debut adds another dimension to a post-Handmaid's Tale world."
--The Telegraph
"Startling. . . . Mackintosh is a wonderful stylist; the full scope of her imagination, as well as the cohesion of her vision, is evident on every page."
--The Irish Times
"A hypnotic read. . . . This extraordinary debut is a feminist quasi-dystopian read for fans of Hot Milk, The Girls, and The Vegetarian."
--Elle (UK)