REVIEW: The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh

Genre: Science Fiction, Feminism

Publisher: Penguin Canada

ISBN: 0241337348

Format: Hardback, Paperback, E-Book,
Audio-Book

Release Date: 8th January 2019


Links: Goodreads, Amazon.com, Indigo,
B&N, Book Depository

Synopsis:

King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky. He has lain the barbed wire; he has anchored the buoys in the water; he has marked out a clear message: Do not enter. Or viewed from another angle: Not safe to leave. Here 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 their father, the only man they’ve ever seen, disappears, they retreat further inward until the day three strange men wash ashore. 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 confront the amorphous threat the strangers represent. Can they survive the men?

Review:


**Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for
sending me a copy of the book in return for my honest review**

The Water Cure was an intense read and nothing like I was expecting.

This book follows three sisters who grow up on an island with their parents. It seems obvious that not everything is as it seems and yet it remains vague throughout the book. Their father leaves to travel to the outside community but fails to return. 

Much of the three sisters lives are already somewhat established during the first part of the book. They are being isolated for their own protection as on the mainland women suffer at the hands of men.

The second half of the book is mostly told from Lia's point of view (The book switches perspectives between the three sisters). Her life, and her sister's lives, changes after 2 men and a young boy arrive on their island and she begins to fall for one of them. The three sisters begin to question everything they thought they knew and come to realise that not everything is quite as it seems.

I really enjoyed the closeness between the three sisters. Their connection and relationship with one another was written beautiful and I really loved reading their interactions with one another.

The switching of perspectives I both enjoyed and didn't enjoy. I loved feeling closer to the different sisters and being able to see the world from each of their perspectives. However, at times it got a little confusing at which sisters perspective I was following.

I found the themes and writing of this book to be very compelling. The different themes of the psychological effects of isolation abuse, and the connections between the three sisters really help pull this book together. 

The Water Cure is a strong debut and Sophie Mackintosh has created a fantastic story with powerful prose. I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.