Sophie Mackintosh Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Sophie Mackintosh is a published author of fiction.

Sophie Mackintosh has appeared in print before. Her work has made it into TANK magazine as well as Granta magazine and more. She participated in the short story contents put on by White Review in 2016 and won. She also entered the short story competition put on by Virago/Stylist the same year and won as well.

Sophie Mackintosh’s first full length novel came into print in 2018. It is titled The Water Cure and is a work of fiction. The story garnered a lot of praise and buzz from reviewers as well as fellow authors such as Margaret Atwood.

The Water Cure is an original novel from author Sophie Mackintosh. It’s been described as partly reminding the reader of The Virgin Suicides mixed with a little bit of The Handmaid’s Tale. One thing is for certain, and that is if you are into dark fantasy paired with some feminist revenge, you might be in the right place.

This novel concerns three sisters that live together on an island. They are quite alone as the island is fairly isolated. Their sheltered existence means that they are easy targets for being imprinted with impressionable thoughts. The sisters grow up being raised to have a deep fear of men.

The reader may pick up this novel and be introduced to a strange scenario. A man named King decided to pick a territory and stake it out as the place to live with his family. This includes his wife along with the three daughters that they have together. The first is named Grace, then Lia, and then finally Sky.

King has taken great pains to try and do what he can to keep them safe and protected in this place. He has spared no limit and puts down barbed wire to keep people out and let them know of his territory if anyone strange should happen to come by and not know that the land belongs to anyone.

In case that was not enough, he has went out to the water and put buoys anchored out there. He also put a message that is clearly stating to those that would read it and gives them a clear warning not to enter. Then when it is viewed from a different angle, it says that it isn’t safe to leave there.

He feels that this is a place where the women can be protected sufficiently from the threats of the mainland. This would include all of the chaos perpetuated by men and the violence of men against women out there. Where it would not be safe living out there in the regular world, here on the island King’s daughters as well as his wife have the great fortune to be kept away and hidden from all of it.

Maybe it’s not the normal thing to do, but it is what is happening. On top of that, the family goes through therapies and rituals that are almost cult like in their conduction. These things that they do together are believed by King to give them the strength to resist the toxicity of a world that is totally degrading outside of their island.

This is the only place that they believe that they can all be safe. Are the daughters really going to be protected from the exterior world here, or is it all a lie? The girls have to contend with a new scenario when their father disappears out of nowhere. He’s been the only actual man that they have ever seen in their life.

The girls go further into the island and don’t know what to do. They are surprised one day when three men come up on the shore and were apparently washed there. They don’t know these men and have never seen another guy let alone three that they were not related to.

The girls all of a sudden have access to people that come from the outside world. Over the course of a week, everything that they know to be certain will have taken a giant turn. There are many games being played here, and the girls have never met strange men that they might be interested in.

Just like that, they are put into a unique position where they are interested in men instead of fearing them like they were taught to. The mind games also go into overdrive as the siblings develop crushes and have different rivalries rise up over different things.

Will the sisters end up competing over the men or are they going to decide that men from the outside world really are a threat after all? There’s plenty to be gained from interacting with new people, but these guys are also strangers that they do not know at all. They could be anyone and have all sorts of intentions towards the girls, not all of them good.

It is up to these sisters to figure out this new scenario and try to come out on top. They have been taught to not trust men in order to survive, as you can never predict when they are going to be violent or when they are going to have it together.

The strangers are not just people that they do not know, but they are also symbolic of a vague threat that the sisters are always watchful for. They are going to have to do what it takes to try and get through this situation. They have been prepared by their father, but is the knowledge that he gave them correct or more of an exaggerated version?

You are going to have to pick up this book for yourself if you want to find out! Check out The Water Cure by author Sophie Mackintosh to find out how this plot really ends. This debut novel is a riveting and hauntingly engaging story that goes into desire, female drive, the darkness of the human heart, how we all have the potential to do violence inside of us, and what we can see in the realms of fiction to be said about our very own world.