Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh
Published by Hamish Hamilton, 2020
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
I’m not surprised to see that this attracted mixed reviews, my own opinion having changed multiple times throughout my time with it. Though not stated explicitly, it’s presumably set in a near-future Britain. On the day of their first period, all girls are allocated one of two tickets – white or blue – before being sent out into the world to fend for themselves. Having been monitored throughout their childhoods, the tickets dictate their fate: white ticket girls will marry and become mothers, while blue ticket girls are forbidden from conceiving. Calla, our narrator, was allocated a blue ticket, and though she doesn’t fully understand the strange, animal urges she feels, she longs to have a child of her own.
Despite how promising this setup sounds, the novel falls flat when taken as speculative dystopia. This is due to the undeniable contradictions and lapses in logic where the scant world-building is concerned. I’m fully on board with authors not spoon feeding everything to their readers, but the complete lack of context for the society we find here feels less like a writer leaving things open to interpretation, and more like her not having the answers herself.
Initially, I found this frustrating, but I was soon able to suspend my disbelief, swept up by the book’s many merits. When taking the setup less as genuine dystopian fiction and more as Mackintosh’s in to explore the policing of women’s bodies, freewill, motherhood, and desire, the novel becomes far more successful. I was pleased to see its social commentary become increasingly nuanced as the narrative progressed, assuaging several of my initial reservations. This includes exploration of the equally valid desire for women not to have children; the intersection of motherhood and queerness; the complexity of achieving true autonomy when parenthood is in many ways the ultimate sacrifice of independence; and the difficulty of forming a united front against patriarchal systems when they exist to turn women against each other.
It’s definitely more binary than it could have been in its look at gender as a whole, but Calla is a fascinating heroine; her story at once thrilling and full of psychological insight. Mackintosh’s prose is another highlight, beautiful despite the clinical air of numbness she establishes in Calla. She uses this skill to create a tone that is almost fable-esque, full of claustrophobic tension that swells towards inevitable tragedy.
I’m intrigued to see how my feelings about this one develop over time. Though it was undoubtedly flawed in its construction (particularly when viewed as a genre piece), it offered one of the most compelling reading experiences I’ve had for a while, cementing Mackintosh as one of my must-buy authors.
Callum McLaughlin 
I’m not sure this is for me – i think I’ve read too many dystopian books lately!
Fair! It offers little new on the dystopian front, but if you fancy a more character focussed look at body autonomy at some point, it certainly has a lot going for it! 😊
It doesn’t sound like a world, I would want to live in. What about men, were some of them not allowed to become fathers? Anyway, I would actually be one of those hoping for a blue ticket. I think that choice (the decision not to have kids) is just as important. By the sounds of it, you should ideally view this book as a discussion of views rather than as a dystopian genre piece. It seems like the author has a lot to offer.
It’s very much a critique of the way society tries to police and control women’s bodies, so (big shocker) the men retain their right to choose how they live their lives.
I loved the author’s debut as well, so I’m excited to keep following what she does!
No surprise there… 😉
I’ve had this on my TBR but this is the second review I’ve read recently that is more middle-of-the-road. I would have hoped for this to be more of an exploration into who gets to be a mother and who is deemed “worthy” of the role, which I think could be an interesting and relevant conversation.
That idea is definitely touched on, but it doesn’t ultimately come off as the main focus of the book. It certainly has its flaws, but I was pleasantly surprised by how engrossing I found it.
I felt very similarly about this! It works much better if you forget about the poor dystopian worldbuilding and read it as something more stylised and literary. I was also impressed by the prose.
Yes! I got for more invested once I started approaching it from that angle. I’m excited to see what she writes next.
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Great review! I’m glad to see this mostly ended up working for you, despite the lack of attention given to the dystopian world. I loved Mackintosh’s writing in The Water Cure and have been keen to try this one for that reason alone, though the premise certainly appeals as well. I’ll be sure to approach this one with more attention on the characters now and less on the setting details!
I’ll definitely be following whatever Mackintosh does next, and I look forward to your thoughts on this one once you’ve gotten to it.