Reviews
When girls come of age in this dystopian society, they are awarded a lottery ticket. White grants them marriage and children, blue grants them freedom. choice is a luxury none can afford.
Though this novel is hailed as a subversive feminist exploration of choice similar to the handmaid’s tale, in reality it does very little to challenge the status quo. Throughout the novel it’s heavily implied and even outright said that blue ticket women are careless, hedonistic, and ultimately unfulfilled by the freedom they’ve been granted while white ticket women are ‘like a witch’ and ‘unyielding and ungrateful, to be chosen in that way and not to understand it, not to value it’ in their desire to obtain the same autonomy blue ticket holders have been awarded purely by chance. There is resentment on both sides, each possessing something the other covets, but the blue ticket woman’s resentment toward the white ticket woman is justified while hers is rooted in fallacy. This is not unlike the real world where childfree women are often regarded as foolish and chastised by women struggling with infertility for ‘taking for granted’ and ‘wasting’ their fertility while these women are left wanting for something they ultimately cannot have.
Though choice is the overarching theme, as the novel progresses it becomes increasingly clear even in its absence that one life path is considered more valuable than the other. Fathers are often showered with gifts and praise when pushing their prams through public spaces while blue ticket women are routinely objectified and regarded as deficient and complacent, doing little more with their lives than sleeping around and consuming alcohol. It’s heavily implied through the presence of emissaries whose purpose is to remind them that their lifestyle is superior so they are less tempted to stray from their path, that motherhood is every blue ticket holder’s secret desire that must be kept in check, and why wouldn’t it be when we’re still operating under the assumption that all women inherently desire to become mothers?
I really hoped this novel would do more to decenter motherhood as the pinnacle of woman’s existence and put to rest the tired myth that women are only destined to reproduce lest they be regarded as defunct, but sadly it fell short of my expectations. Writing it from the perspective of a white ticket woman trying to escape her fate would have been more radical and would have done more to challenge this trope, but despite the way the premise is presented, I’m under the impression that was never the author’s intention in writing this book. though it tried not to be, it was heavily biased in favor of the current patriarchal agenda with sprinkles of internalized misogyny throughout. Despite frequent and candid criticism of the negative and often irreversible effects it has on a woman’s wellbeing (which I appreciated greatly because how often are women actually told the truth about these kinds of things), as another reviewer said, the novel felt like an exaltation of pregnancy and motherhood over all other life paths, and that, in my opinion as a white ticket holder who would have preferred blue, is the very antithesis of choice.
My utmost gratitude to Random House for choosing me to review this eARC via Edelweiss+. I received a free eARC from them (Random House) in exchange for my honest review. I was excited to read this YA dystopia thriller but had to DNF 64% through due to the lack of world building. What is the history behind this government assigning women their reproductive status? Where is this located? Are blue ticket women allowed to marry? Does the government choose if men are allowed to procreate or not? There are too many unanswered questions. I also try to be empathetic towards the protagonists and/or supporting character(s) if they do something stupid, but I couldn't with this one! She unhappy with her ticket-status so she gets drunk, smokes, and hooks up with random men even though she KNOWS what she's doing is wrong and hurts her emotionally and physically! Why does she hate her chosen status? Plus, is marriage illegal for them? Her friend was in a committed relationship at the beginning, so it doesn't sound like they were prevented from being in a monogamous romance - which protagonist could have done - but what about marriage? I have more but they contain spoilers so I won't post them. Also, there's a lesbian relationship, romantic and sexual, involved, so this should also be under LGBT books. Don't know why that isn't specified. Sophie Mackintosh wanted to talk about society's expectations towards women, especially how they treat mothers. For this I applaud her, since we women have been told too long what's acceptable for us. For example, becoming a caretaker who looks after her husband and children while he's working to ideally pursuing a life as an independent, preferably single, woman who is focused on her career. If a woman wants to be a stay-at-home wife and mother, that's fine. If she wants to remain single and work, that's also fine. If a woman wants to marry and work, that too is fine, as long as she puts her relationship with her husband first (If its a healthy marriage). If a married mother wants to work, yes, that's fine as long she puts her husband and child/children first (again, this is a healthy marriage I'm talking about here). I don't have anything against Sophie for covering this topic but, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, there are too many unanswered questions left that quickly tugged my interest away.
** spoiler alert ** Blue Ticket has a great premise, but it left me wanting so much more. This rating is not a failure on the author's part but simply does not match with my reading style. Reading the blurb screamed out to me as the type of story I would enjoy. Feminist themes, resisting patriarchy, Atwood-esque, but I felt disconnected from the story. The author focuses much more on the story than on the world she has created, and I am a reader who needs world-building. I want to know why this future came to be, who were the powers behind it, how long has this been going on... I want so, so much more. I also had a difficult time connecting with the main character, Calla. I'm not sure if this was because the story jumps 18 years into the future or if I just felt no personal draw to her. Either way, the book was just not for me.
OH MY GOD. I want to cry, but I’m in the middle of the library. I’m not emotionally stable enough for this
Calla knows how the lottery works. She gets a white ticket or a blue ticket. That determines what path she will take in life. Will she be a mother or will she never be allowed the have a child? At only 14, the decision is made for her and she begins her new life with her ticket to her future. But as time goes on, she wonders why she got that colour ticket and if it could perhaps be wrong, as her wants and needs change day to day and desires for more grow stronger. I understand why this book is getting relatively low ratings - the world building is not up the scratch and also there are so many books already, dystopian style books, about women and their bodies and their choices. But for me this story, coming from a unique point of view, really hit home. I almost had to put it down in the first part due to the realness and rawness of the feelings. But I persevered, made it through what I felt was too close to home for me, and found myself sucked into Calla’s life, hoping and praying for a happy (or at least satisfying) ending. This book is not for everyone, I can imagine some people will find it slow going and others, as I said before and have read in reviews, will not think that it adds anything to the oversaturated women’s dystopian fiction… but I think this is a great book, timely, interesting and I do think it adds to the genre. It’s important to have more perspectives and more insights into something that affects at least 50% of the population.
2.5
“My name is Calla, and I wanted to choose.” ➰ Sophie Mackintosh has cleverly written a dystopian tale centered around the question of what it means to have free will and the freedom to choose motherhood for yourself. She begins the story with Calla, who is given a ticket when she comes of age that will determine whether or not she will become a mother. She gets a blue ticket, which means a childless future. After a few years pass, Calla starts to wonder if maybe she would like to be a mother and why a ticket/government has the power to make that choice for her. She plans a way to get pregnant and ends up on the run, being chased by the authorities. ➰ Mackintosh has created a dystopian society that centers around Calla and the people she meets on her journey . There isn’t a lot of world building and you don’t really know why society has become this way (nor are there a lot of details). It reminded me of Atwood’s Handmaids Tale in the most simplistic of ways but Blue Ticket really holds its own when it comes to Calla and her escape from the choices made for her. ➰ I thought Calla’s character was well developed as she worked through the small number of choices allotted to her at any given time and pushed back against a world trying to take away her free will. I’d recommend this story if you’re looking for something a little bit different and enjoy dystopian fiction.
