The Water Cure

by Sophie Mackintosh

Imagine a world very close to our own: where women are not safe in their bodies, where desperate measures are required to raise a daughter. This is the story of Grace, Lia and Sky, kept apart from the world for their own good and taught the terrible things that every woman must learn about love. And it is the story of the men who come to find them – three strangers washed up by the sea, their gazes hungry and insistent, trailing desire and destruction in their wake.

Hypnotic and compulsive, The Water Cure is a fever dream, a blazing vision of suffering, sisterhood and transformation.

Review

★★★★

Back in March, I told you guys about a wonderful book I read but couldn’t review it because the publishing date was far away. Well, that’s not the case anymore and I can totally write about it. (Gush about it, more like!)

I was kindly given an e-ARC of the book in return for an honest review.

I have been trying to dive into new and different things lately and I have to say that ‘The Water Cure’ certainly falls into that category. Its plot and the writing is just so atmospheric and almost languid. I have to admit that I haven’t really read anything like this before and the author impressed me!

When I started reading the book, I was really confused. I mean, I had a rough idea of what it was supposed to be but the thing is, the book is so much more! Right from the very start, you can sense that there’s something odd about the girls’ life. The three sisters; Grace, Lia & Sky, live on an island sequestered away from the world. Their mother telling them that men are the literal worst, then we see the odd rituals they have to go through in order to not be contaminated. This book felt almost like I was walking through a mist with no sense of direction and oddly enough, I liked that feeling.

Their living on the island is filled with all the amenities one could dream of but there’s always that sense of something being wrong about the whole thing. As if we are just waiting to see something bad happen. Then the men come to the island and the results aren’t quite pretty. When the attraction happens, it happens with some consequences. The whole thing remains mysterious and in the end, I was left with questions that I did not have any answers to! Were the men that terrible? If yes, why? What was happening outside of their little island? What sort of contamination was their mother trying to save the sisters from?

Sometimes, I love it when I don’t have all the answers by the end of the book and this is one of those times. However, I have to admit that I would have loved to have answers to at least some of the questions. I wouldn’t say it left me unsatisfied but I was very hungry for more. I think, in making everything vague, the author just fueled the fire for curiosity which is totally awesome.

All in all, this was a very beautifully written, almost haunting book. I loved that, it isn’t often I get to say that. I would absolutely recommend it to people who want to read something different, something new. However, be prepared to get sucked into this odd, little world of mysteries.