Review to come... ( )

Well this was bizarre. It also left me feeling very unsettled. Calla lives in a society where as a female you are given a blue ticket or a white ticket once you begin your bleeding. Blue - career, White - family. Calla receives a blue ticket, but she wonders, should she be a mother, does she want a husband and children? She takes matters into her own hands, but once she does that, she becomes a fugitive, because she bucked the rules.
This is unsettling and strange and sad. Taking away one's free will and their voice, it is frightening. ( )

I received a galley copy of this book as part of a paid bundle from PRH.

My favorite part about this book was definitely the writing style. It definitely felt like reading the journal of a woman going through the experience is being a Blue Ticket. The pacing felt a bit rushed. There were definitely times that I wish I was able to hear more about what was going on, especially towards the end. But overall this was an interesting take on what it means to be a woman and reproductive rights. ( )

This was a Storygraph recommendation, totally not on my radar. It's a cross between Never Let Me Go, Handmaid's Tale, and one of the many on-the-road dystopian novels (Marrow Thieves, Parable of the Sower, The Road, etc) but also an exploration of what "choice" means and the ways in which culture influences how we see ourselves fundamentally. I enjoyed it, even though it was unsatisfying on some levels. ( )

A review I wrote in February 2020:

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh (4 stars)

A punchy, gritty feminist dystopia novel, exploring motherhood and women’s choice. In this world
a girl is given a ticket at the onset of her first period - a blue ticket is a childless life of freedom; a
white ticket is for motherhood. Young girls are not given a choice and all girls are separated from
their parents at this time.

Sophie has a compelling writing style; pithy narration, depositing clues within the first person
narrative and dialogue, leading the reader to make discoveries with her narrator, Calla. I found
Blue Ticket a compelling read but I would have loved to more background explanation for this
dystopian nation; it seems a little like an academic debate played out in a novel, albeit a very
good novel. Sophie Mackintosh is a really interesting author and can be bracketed with the likes
of Margaret Atwood, Jane Rogers, Christina Dalcher, Angela Chadwick and many more excellent
dystopian writers. ( )