Review: The Water Cure

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don’t even know what to say about this book except I think I might find new nuggets the second time around. The basis is a family living on an island, secluded and parents strict with obedient daughters. They are taught weird, cleansing rituals. Love is about sacrifice and pain.

As I was reading this book, the picture of the Father (King) that kept flashing in my mind was the father of the 13 children in California who, with his vacant eyed and smiling wife, created a skewed reality of torture and extreme abuse. The guy with the really stupid haircut. Mother in this story is someone different in my mind than that guy’s wife. But the cruelty by both couples can be equated, although different.

Most of the story is narrated by Lia, the daughter who is unloved and shunned. The ages of the girls are kept ambiguous until later in the book but the reader understands they are grown. Particularly through Lia, as she is the main narrator, the skewed beliefs are revealed. The undeveloped social skills. Lia is very innocent and very hungry for validation. The three strange men showing up reveal much about what they do and don’t know.

I found myself uncertain if I was reading about a post apocalyptic world or mentally unbalanced parents. Were men more dangerous in the outside world? Was the air more toxic? Through the voice of Grace, I think I found the answers at the end, but the journey, through the POV of these two very different sisters, gave me a lot to think about.

3.5 stars

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