Blue Ticket, by Sophie Mackintosh - Scarlett
Imagine if life was held in balance by the probability of a 50:50 lottery ticket? This is the reality for Calla, who is the protagonist of Sophie Mackintosh’s novel, ‘Blue Ticket’. The first line of the novel encapsulates this predicament perfectly: “It began with the allocating of luck, our bodies pinballs inside a machine”. Upon an every, dystopian style setting, ‘Blue Ticket’ portrays a slightly twisted realism to explore many weighty societal issues around freewill, social expectation and motherhood.
The novel begins by introducing the ticket system; the vehicle that is used to control levels of reproduction whereby upon every girl’s first period, she gets allocated supposedly at random, either a blue ticket or a white ticket. The blue ticket prompts the forcible insertion of a copper coil, preventing the female from having children and adoption is presumed by the reader not to be an option although this is not covered in the book - I presume a slight artistic license is allowed! In exchange for not having children, blue ticket women are given a career and freedom. On the other hand, white ticket women are granted marriage and children, yet for white tickets, there remains an initial element of mystery as the protagonist Calla (and the reader) observe another girl leaving the doctor’s surgery in tears and then heading towards the woods. As the story unfolds, the mystery over the fate of these white ticket women becomes clearer and the lack of freedom is apparent.
Every woman is required to wear a locket with the ticket inside, to be presented to any man or person should they request to see it. The right to have kids and the nature nurture debate between the differing desires to bear a child are all questions the reader is provoked to ask themselves. How much control should the ‘powers that be’ have over the right to have children? How do we deem someone as fit for a child and should we even have agency over that?
Overall, I found this a very thought-provoking read. I liked the realism setting yet with the slightly eerie subversion of expectation from the dystopian twist that is subtly interweaved into the storyline by the lottery being the dictator of an individual’s future. The novel has elements of adventure as Calla makes significant choices that force her on a path of risk and survival. I liked this aspect of the story as it kept it interesting and ensured the attention of the reader was captured throughout.
Mackintosh communicated the internal battle of the women well, as each person’s future is pre- decided yet for some, this is incongruous to the emotions and desires within. For Calla, she describes this as her ‘dark feeling’, a kind of hunger, grief, and joy. Some are seen to assume they wouldn’t be a good mother when they are chosen a blue ticket, thus prompting the reader to question the extent of chance involved in drawing each ticket. The topic of internal conflict is returned to multiple times, begging the question of where this feeling comes from and why do some women have a conviction early on for a future with motherhood and others do not? Having no desire to have children myself, I find this concept fascinating and mysterious. After all, as much as we like to feel nowadays that we understand the inner workings of the human body, I believe there is still so much that remains speculation.
My only criticism is that I felt that the ending may have been a bit abrupt and so perhaps could have been finished off better by being more seamless with the prior events of the story. Also, there were some moments where I felt context was lacking, thus I had a lot of unanswered questions but if one allows for a slight artistic license, it was a good read.
Mackintosh has written one other novel, ‘The Water Cure’ which was Man-Booker longlisted.
Scarlett
