The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh

Review by Heather The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh is touted as “hypnotic and compulsive.” “…a fever dream, blazing vision of suffering, sisterhood, and transformation.” I wish it had lived up to that dramatic description. Ms. Mackintosh is a descriptive writer, but I found the switching of voices to be confusing; all three sisters in one chapter, Grace, then Lia, then all three again, but we never hear directly from Sky. The ambiguousness of the “danger” to women to be distracting and no clear reason given for why the girls’ family felt the need to leave society and create their haven. The Water Cure reads like it wants to be a feminist manifesto, but comes across as misogynistic. Few of the characters in this book are very likeable from the girls’ cruel parents whose “cures” are really forms of torture; the girls themselves who at the first opportunity taunt and torture a small boy who happens upon the island with his father. And the two men who appeared on the beach with the boy who are selfish and self-serving. I will say The Water Cure is thought-provoking and an interesting take on an alternative world where women feel so threatened by men they voluntarily segregate themselves. I just wish the author hadn’t left quite so much to the imagination as to why. **ARC provided for an honest review**

Release Date: January 8, 2019

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