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Blue Ticket
Blue Ticket
Mar 16, 2026 7:50 AM

Author:Sophie Mackintosh

Blue Ticket

From the author longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and theWomen's Prize for Fiction and selected as one of the Best Young British Novelists of the Decade:

An unsettling and addictive feminist fable for fans of Hot Milk, Unsettled Ground and Klara and the Sun

Recommended by Stylist, Evening Standard, Esquire, Red, Daily Mail, Oprah Magazine, LitHub, and Belletrist Book Club

'Be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes' Deborah Levy

'Definitely don't miss the return of Sophie Mackintosh' Stylist

Calla knows how the lottery works. Everyone does. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the lottery station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you children. A blue ticket grants you freedom. You are relieved of the terrible burden of choice. Or, to put it another way, you have no choice. And once you've taken your ticket, there is no going back.

But what if the life you're given is the wrong one?

Blue Ticket is a devastating enquiry into free will and the fraught space of motherhood. Bold and chilling, it pushes beneath the skin of female identity and patriarchal violence, to the point where human longing meets our animal bodies.

'Dreamlike, tense, compelling, [with] a pitch-perfect ending' The New York Times

'Gripping, ethereal, atmospheric' Sunday Times

'Thoughtful and haunting' Observer

'Terrifying and enchanting in equal measure' LitHub

'Blue Ticket will worms its way under your skin and haunt your dreams' Red

Reviews

Definitely don't miss the return of Sophie Mackintosh... Blue Ticket gets to the root of women's ambivalence and confusion around becoming mothers set against an unsettling dystopia; she's amazing

—— Stylist, Best Autumn Reads 2020

Dreamlike, tense, compelling... Blue Ticket adds something new to the dystopian tradition set by Orwell's 1984 or Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale... Piercing moments of wisdom and insight drive toward a pitch-perfect ending

—— The New York Times

The cool intensity and strange beauty of Blue Ticket is a wonder - be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes

—— Deborah Levy, author of 'Hot Milk'

Even more hallucinatory and spiralled than her first [novel]... Terrifying and enchanting in equal measure

—— Lit Hub, Best New Books to Read This Summer

The Handmaid's Tale as told by David Lynch... A bona fide chase narrative as well as a polyvalent, dream-like allegory of pregnancy and bodily change - not to mention the vortex of judgement that surrounds womanhood... Mackintosh is part of an exciting generation of writers, including Daisy Johnson and Julia Armfield... Blue Ticket stands apart from the crowd

—— Anthony Cummins , iNews

One of the most disquieting novels I've read in a long time, Blue Ticket will worms its way under your skin and haunt your dreams

—— Red, 'Best Books of August'

Gripping, ethereal, atmospheric... Mackintosh handles haziness deliberately and with poise, demonstrating the near impossibility of trying to articulate or rationalise maternal desire

—— Sunday Times

Mackintosh writes with a language drawn from the body.... Impressionistic and haunting in equal measure

—— Annabel Nugent , Independent

Visceral, primal, striking... This is a potent exploration of biology and agency, motherhood and childlessness, which confirms [Mackintosh] as a writer of note

—— Daily Mail

Mackintosh is part of a new generation of female writers creating feminist fictions that relate uncannily to our dystopian times... [Her] fiction lives, to an unusual extent, in its musicality, in the rhythm and spareness of its sentences

—— Claire Armitstead , Guardian Review

For anyone currently waiting with bated breath for the new season of 'The Handmaid's Tale', Booker-longlisted author Sophie Mackintosh's new novel is a feminist dystopia to quench your thirst

—— Evening Standard

A thoughtful and haunting exploration of freedom, fate and a woman's right to choose her destiny

—— Observer

Chilling, timely, thought-provoking

—— Esquire, Best Books of Summer 2020

[Mackintosh] writes with an ethereal lyricism that is equally capable of fragility and violence

—— Spectator

Blue Ticket offers a completely different angle on a familiar subject... Like all good speculative fiction, [it] reminds us of a truth in the real world

—— New Humanist

A compelling, unsettling tale... Part-horror, part thriller, and part pregnant-lesbian love story

—— i

A dark fable... Mackintosh sensitively conveys resonant questions about motherhood, female solidarity, queer love, and bodily autonomy

—— New Yorker

Cool, disturbing, it deals with emotionally fraught material. Mackintosh traffics in ambivalence and ambiguity... What Calla really wants, the author shows us, isn't necessarily a baby; it's an answer

—— Washington Post

A spare, haunting tale of autonomy and free will

—— Anthony Cummins , Daily Mail

Both claustrophobic and expansive, dream-like and heart-stoppingly tense. You will want to languish in its world for a very long time

—— Lara Williams, author of 'Supper Club'

This book left me breathless - it is gloriously subversive in its exploration of motherhood and desire. I'll be pressing it on everyone

—— Angela Chadwick, author of 'XX'

Strange and luminous, spare and precise... A thrilling exploration of what it means to follow one's own longing to the point of destruction and beyond

—— Rosie Price, author of 'What Red Was'

Utterly exquisite - clever and brilliant and heartbreaking. From the dusty road to the salving forest, I absolutely adored it

—— Emma Jane Unsworth, author of 'Adults' and 'Animals'

Chilling, haunting, heartbreaking... Mackintosh brings a new sense of pathos to the dystopian novel... A moving and original meditation on freedom, fate, and women's rage

—— Kirkus, Starred Review

A dreamlike exploration of free will and desire

—— Monocle

A must for Handmaid's Tale aficionados

—— Booklist

Powerful, Ishiguro-esque... Sophie Mackintosh lays bare many of the fears and realities that face any society's women as they contemplate when their choices begin, and where they might end

—— Boston Globe

Told with ragged prose that catches the breath, [Blue Ticket] articulates the irrepressible desires and wounds that can lie deep within, marked by a claustrophobia that never stops pressing in from the margins. This unsettling reimagining of the anxieties and pressures around motherhood lays bare the alienation that comes when your body is not truly yours

—— Irish News

A darkly brilliant allegory... Astute, revelatory and heartbreaking

—— Heather O’Neill, author of 'The Lonely Hearts Hotel'

A rich, sharp, and daring book. To read Blue Ticket is to feel so vigorously alert you can feel the world turning

—— Heidi Sopinka, author of 'The Dictionary of Animal Languages'

Mesmerising

—— Daily Nerd

Mackintosh poses urgent questions about social expectations and free will that are relevant to all realities

—— Poets and Writers

Heartbreaking but redemptive, and lightened by French's trademark humour, this is a compelling read that will keep you poised between laughter and tears

—— Daily Mail

A tantalising story of motherhood told with Dawn French's signature warmth

—— Sainsbury's Magazine

As ever, even in the darkest of times, Dawn has found humour to inject into her novel

—— Best

A brilliant book

—— Good Housekeeping

The life-affirming and unmissable new novel

—— Eastern Daily Press

A tale told with warmth

—— Daily Record

While Dawn French's latest novel contains a dash of humour, it's also heart-wrenching

—— The Hunsbury Handbook

A fabulous emotional tearjerker of a novel

—— Silversurfers

Praise for Dawn French

—— -

Hilarious and brilliant

—— Woman & Home

I adored According to YES. It's so different to anything I've read in forever, so charming, wise, brilliantly written. I loved it all

—— Marian Keyes

Witty and wise, it'll have you burning the midnight oil. A cracker

—— Woman's Weekly

Very funny and packs an emotional clout. Brilliant!

—— Heat

An enlightening and feel-good read offering a fresh look at life and how to embrace it. Funny and enjoyable to the end

—— We Love This Book

There is lots of fun to be had reading this book. It's impossible not to warm to Rosie, a funny and open-hearted woman who acts as a salve and comfort blanket for this unhappy, inhibited family. There's something quite joyous about the way she unashamedly romps her way through the novel, changing the lives of those around her for the better

—— Express

Another hilarious novel!

—— Bella

French can spin a yarn . . . which sets According to YES apart. Think the vicar of Dibley, without the dog collar. YES YES YES indeed

—— Independent

Wise and poignant

—— Beyond the Joke

Heart-warming

—— Choice Magazine
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