Dystopia is my form of escapism. When life is falling apart, there's nothing like picking up a book about worlds that are worse than ours to ground me in reality and make me count my blessings. Sophie Mackintosh's new book Blue Ticket is one such novel to come forward in the female reproductive rights sub-genre of dystopian fiction.
Blue Ticket takes place in a world that we don't know too much about. What is apparent is that on the first day of a young girl's first menstrual cycle, she takes part in the lottery. At a station, she will either pull a blue ticket or a white ticket. A blue ticket girl gets to live a life of freedom, but she will never experience the one thing that many women crave and feel they were born for - to be a wife and mother. A white ticket girl doesn't get the chance to have a career or a life of her own; instead she is granted the future that is denied those who pull a blue ticket - a life as a wife and mother.
Our narrator, Calla, pulls a blue ticket. She is promptly fitted with an IUD and sent off into a life of childless existence, free to do as she chooses. But what if a woman were to decide that the life chosen for her was not the one she was born for? What if she wanted to choose for herself? What if a blue ticket girl were to become pregnant? Such is the case with Calla, and such is the premise of Blue Ticket.
Blue Ticket is a disjointed, hazy narrative chronicling Calla's journey into lawlessness. Pregnant and determined to see her baby's face someday, Calla will do anything to see her pregnancy through to the end. But no one said that things would be easy for a woman who willfully decides to disregard the fate chosen for her. Readers follow Calla on her heart-pounding trek to the border, trying to reach a place of safety where she and her child can live their days in peace.
Blue Ticket is an interesting play on the societal standards that have followed women since the dawn of time. Just how free have women been to choose their own fate throughout history? How many women married because they were afraid to be called spinsters? How many children were born because their mothers felt it was their duty to bear children? Conversely, before Roe vs. Wade, how many pregnancies were carried through because women were left without a choice? Blue Ticket is an example of yet another society where women are denied the right to make the decisions that are best for themselves, and this is where I find that this novel really shines because ultimately, it has been the story of many women throughout history.
Blue Ticket is recommended to lovers of female-focused dystopian fiction, especially those who loved titles such as The Handmaid's Tale and When She Woke.
Availability: Book; eBook in CloudLibrary; eAudiobook in CloudLibrary Rating: **** Stars (I really liked it)
Reviewer: Brooke, Public Relations Librarian
ARE YOU AND THIS BOOK A GOOD MATCH? DISCOVER MORE WITH NOVELIST APPEALS! Blue Ticket
GENRE: Dystopian Fiction WRITING STYLE: Compelling; Richly Detailed CHARACTER: Sympathetic TONE: Haunting; Moving; Thought-Provoking SUBJECT: Birth Control; Dystopias; Free Will & Determinism; Human Reproduction; Lotteries; Motherhood; Pregnancy; Pregnant Women; Tickets; Women's Role
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