The Water Cure

by Sophie Mackintosh
The Water Cure cover
Good Books rating 3.83
Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic
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  • ID: 1724
  • Added: 2025-10-08
  • Updated: 2025-10-08
  • ISBN: 9780735235359
  • Publisher: Penguin
  • Published: 2019-01-08
  • Formats: 1
  • Reviews: 3

The Water Cure is a haunting debut novel that explores the capacity for violence and the potency of female desire. Set on an isolated island, the story follows three sisters—Grace, Lia, and Sky—who have been raised to fear men and endure cultlike rituals to protect themselves from the chaos of the mainland. Their world is upended when two strange men and a boy wash ashore, sparking a psychological cat-and-mouse game that tests their resolve and sibling bonds. Over the course of a blistering hot week, the sisters grapple with sexual tensions and rivalries as they confront the amorphous threat the strangers represent. The novel, praised by Margaret Atwood and The New Yorker, is a gripping and sinister fable that reflects our own world back at us, questioning the nature of protection, desire, and survival.

Reviews
Mother Booker Blog · Mother Booker · 2021-07-07
intriguing 3.00

An interesting exploration of gender and patriarchal conditioning, though predictable at times.

Mother Booker finds the novel's exploration of gender and patriarchal conditioning intriguing, but notes that the big twists are easy to spot from the outset. Despite this, the book remains a solid read with a unique writing style.

Quick quotes

    The Water Cure was an interesting way to explore gender and patriarchal conditioning.

    For one thing, all of the big twists are easy to spot from the outset.

    It's different and that's what makes this book a solid read.

NPR · 2019-01-13
powerful 4.00

A complex exploration of solidarity, sisterhood, and toxic masculinity.

This review praises the novel's unflinching look at toxic masculinity and its impact on women. It highlights the book's complex ideas around solidarity, sisterhood, and the dangers of gendered violence, making it a thought-provoking read.

Quick quotes

    The Water Cure is not a simple book.

    It unspools ideas around solidarity and sisterhood, danger and gender, and the ways that families become both shelters and traps.

    With brutal allegory, Mackintosh shows us that it's dangerous to be a woman, a female body, in both our world and the world of the novel.

The Guardian · 2018-05-23
haunting 4.50

A haunting exploration of female desire and violence, with themes of isolation and patriarchal control.

This review highlights the novel's powerful commentary on gender and isolation, drawing comparisons to Shakespeare's King Lear. It praises the book's ability to devastate and astonish, making it a compelling read for those interested in feminist literature.

Quick quotes

    A haunting, riveting debut about the capacity for violence and the potency of female desire.

    The Water Cure both devastates and astonishes as it explores themes of isolation and patriarchal control.

    There are shades of King Lear in this story about three sisters who are isolated on an island, far away from lethal men.

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