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The Water Cure
Sophie Mackintosh
2018 · 288 pages · Literary fiction
How it reads
The Water Cure is literary fiction (dystopian literary fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is eerie. It's atmospheric and uncanny, with a sense that something is wrong. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in the wilderness or at sea, in no single period, told in the first person by several narrators. Its central concerns are family, survival and power and politics. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 288 pages it's a quick read. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something eerie
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or heartwarming
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- literary fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- debut
- Setting: place
- wilderness or sea
- Setting: time
- timeless or multiple
- Mood / feeling
- eerie
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- first person, several narrators
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- family, survival, power and politics
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- HarrowJoy WilliamsShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward DarknessIrene SolàShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
SistersDaisy JohnsonShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn- WitchesBrenda LozanoShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- The HoleHiroko OyamadaShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
A Spectral HueCraig Laurance GidneyShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
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