Despite DNF’ing The Last House on Needless Street, I wanted to give Sundial a chance as the premise looked promising. I wish I had better things to say about the novel, but honestly I probably had little business finishing this one either.

I think I was expecting a creepier and gothic plot line, but the specifics of what goes on at the titular desert compound is more over the top bizarre (at times venturing into melodrama) than anything else. While some horrific events do occur, I’d really hesitate to describe this a horror novel as I believe it’s being marketed as.

In all of Sundial’s meandering and cheap suspenseful “thrills,” it barely held my attention past the 40% mark. While I was curious to see the resolution, I found the characters and writing quite dull, unfortunately.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for providing me with a digital ARC.

I was a huge fan of LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET, so was very excited to read this. Expectations were high, of course, and while this book doesn't match the genius of NEEDLESS STREET, it has a lot of surprises going for it, though the book feels at times like 4 different ideas mashed together. There were a few points in the reading that I considered DNF'ing, but since I received a free copy from NetGalley for a review, I continued. I'm glad I did, as it mostly comes together in the end in a satisfying way.

Still not sure I understand the reasoning behind having the narrative chapters throughout. If anything, they spoil some of the bigger twists to come, and didn't add anything to the story. Also, the end relies a lot on a heavy explanation chapter to make sense of what has happened, and I'm not sure I completely bought it. Still, very interesting book, from a writer that definitely tries to do things differently. I'm a fan.

Rob is married to Irving and is a loving mother of two daughters, Callie and Annie. They’re a relatively normal family on the outside but on the inside there are many dark secrets. Rob desperately clings to normalcy until she can’t anymore. She’s forced to confront her past when her daughter Callie becomes exactly what Rob fears. Callie begins to exhibit odd behavior, collecting animal bones, talking to herself, and displaying bursts of violence. Rob decides to take Callie to Sundial; her childhood home in the Mojave Desert and figure out what to do from there.

The characters are definitely the defining factor in the whole book - specifically Rob and Callie. The dynamics with one another were so well-written and gave the reader a sense of unease. We don’t know their motivations until the very end of the book. Themes of family, grief, and the need for independence were prominent throughout the book and Ward was able to flesh it out well.

The story is told in past and present by Rob but Callie has a few of her own chapters as well, with excerpts of Rob’s book titled, Arrowood. The book plays with your mind, not knowing who to trust or what’s going to happen next as Rob and Callie were both unreliable narrators. The characterization is well done as they each had a very distinct voice.

Ward has quickly become one of my favorite horror authors and I will always be on the lookout for her next book. When you think you know what’s going on, she pulls the rug right from under you time after time. Catriona Ward never fails at giving the reader twist after twist. Her writing is amazing and readable, so much that you forget you’re reading a book. She knows how to keep you glued onto the page and put out each twist that will leave you shocked. I felt myself physically transported into the desert with our characters.

The genre of the book is psychological horror and it will definitely put you on the edge of your seat, in psychological turmoil (in a good way though). Be warned to check out the trigger warnings because the book does get dark and may be upsetting for dog lovers.

All Rob wanted was a normal life. A family of her own far away from the compound she grew up on. But things at home are anything but normal.

Her husband is cruel and unfaithful, belittling her if she dares to call him out on his affairs. Brandishing her past as a tether. A history she cannot escape.

But more disturbing is the behavior of her eldest daughter Callie. A solitary child. A collector of dead things. While unsettling on its own, her macabre obsession seems to be taking a more extreme turn. Speaking to shadows. Punishing her little sister Annie in progressively more dangerous ways.

A missing bottle of pills. The blue lips of an overdose.

Rob knows there’s only one place where she can help Callie out. Sundial. Her family home. A place to reveal to Callie the secret in her families blood.

Told through dual timelines, the mystery of what happened in Rob’s past starts to reveal itself. Packed with twists that only Catriona Ward is capable of bending. I’m in awe with how she fools me.

Supernatural elements, medical experiments, family traumas, gaslighting, aggressive dogs. There are loads of themes stuffed into these pages, but it’s brisk and propulsive, and while I don’t feel it was as seamless as Needless Street it’s a hell of a follow up effort. Seriously, Ward has become an auto-but author for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 rounded up

Catriona Ward is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Sundial grips you immediately and does not let go. I was entranced by the story telling and character building. You find yourself in the story with these characters and finding your reasons to understand all of them while simultaneously being scared of what they will do next. The setting of this story is unsettling enough, just you wait until the truth comes out.

It is very rare for me to read a book in January and know, without a doubt, it will be in the top ten books I read this year. But here we are.

Much like this author’s book from last year, The Last House on Needless Street, this book is best gone into as blind as possible. The only things I knew about this going in were that I liked the cover, I enjoyed this author’s book that came out last year, and I got an ARC of it so I was just going to check it out and see if it was anything like Needless Street.

And the answer is yes and no. This book also starts at a slow, confusing pace but it doesn’t have as much weird stuff going on in it. Not to say it isn’t really weird itself. It’s just very different in style. Something about this book just really clicked for me. This is a book with many twists and reveals but they are all earned. I know several twists were foreshadowed 100 pages or more before the twist happened and I feel like upon reread, it would probably be all of them.
Ward is a master of her craft and is able to construct these stories were you just read along for the ride and halfway through realize how hooked you are. With just the two books I have read of hers, she has cemented herself as a favorite author to me.

If you are someone who needs to know just a tiny bit about a book before picking it up, this story is about a wife with two children who lives in a pretty suburban area. But when one of her children starts exhibiting strange and scary behavior, the mother decides to take a trip with her misbehaving child to Sundial, her childhood home. Maybe there, she can get to the root of what is causing this behavior.

If you like weird. If you like unsettling. If you like a deep dive into what makes people the way they are, read this book.

Sundial had all the tropes I love: a creepy child, complicated family dynamics, combined with a unique writing style. I really liked Ward's previous novel The Last House on Needless Street, and while I didn't like Sundial as much, I still enjoyed it. I didn't guess any of the twists, and the very last one was my favorite and the most shocking. The narration style felt a bit stilted to me, going from Rob in present-day to Rob in the past to Callie in present-day. I'm not sure how it could have been formatted differently, but it did kind of take me out of my enjoyment of the story each time the point of view and time period switched. 3.5/5 stars.

This is an insane book, full of absolutely creeping horror and evocative images. You don't want me to tell you everything that happens, trust me.

It starts out as a look at a dysfunctional marriage, but guys, you aint seen nothing yet if you think that's the whole situation. Little sprinkles of information slowly lead up to an incredible reveal that is both horrifying and sad. Complex characters, weird science, and a small amount of justice in the end make for a great horror tale. Im very into it.

I loved the indie movie style ending if you know what I mean by that, although I wouldn't skip a sequel if she were to write one.

It's a horror novel. If you can't handle horror, then don't read horror.

I received this as an ARC from netgalley in exchange for honest review.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

This book was creepy AF and truly weird as all hell. I kinda knew what I was getting into from other reviews I have read but I was still left thinking WTAF did I just read? I am one of very few people who has not read The Last House on Needless Street and if Sundial is any indication of this author's writing count me in.

Ms. Ward is such an amazing writer and her words are just beautiful. She has such a unique imagination, so remember while reading this that not everything is what it looks like. You will be shocked and appalled by this book but in a very good way. There are plenty of twists and turns a long the way and lots of horrible things along the way...be prepared for the unbelievable and remember...you have been warned.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book blew me away! I really enjoyed how the perspectives went from the present to the past, from different characters points of view, and had a little piece of a fictional story woven in. The narrators are all unreliable to a certain extent but I like uncovering secrets along the way, and this book definitely had that! The only minor issue I noticed was that the characters are from and living in Ojai, California but much of the dialogue and spelling is written like they’re in the UK. For example, words like rucksack, colour, cheque, and the child in school being in “third year” when here in California, we go by grade levels. Otherwise I very much enjoyed this book and will definitely recommend to friends and family!

Catriona Ward is an amazing writer, and I want to read everything she publishes. Sundial is no different, a book that does not give up its secrets easily. The characters so rich, a family so complex.
I do wish the back story, sorta 'parallel story'' had been streamlined or synced differently. I was so stoked for one storyline, and suddenly i felt weighed down, and introduced fairly deep into the work. Still, the plot elements sync together and Ward seems to play on reader expectations with head fakes that the reader can't help but fall for, until later reveals.

Unsettling. This is a wildly dysfunctional psychological horror, a disturbing family gothic tale that will at times turn your stomach.

There were moments when I became lost in the many dark details, the thick creepy weeds of erratic narrative. Just when I thought I knew what was happening . . . no, I didn't. By the end of the novel, the scattered details came into clearer focus and made a lot more sense . . . albeit a tale that is quite sad, mangled, and bizarre.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for an advanced copy of Sundial for my unbiased evaluation.  3 stars

I received an ARC for Catriona Ward’s novel “Sundial” through Netgalley. The book is due to come out March 1st, 2022!

This is the second book I’ve read by Catriona Ward and I can tell you that she is someone to keep your eye on in the horror industry. Her writing is like a dream. The character development is thorough and genuine; they all have their motives and reasons and it is always made clear as to what those are. The story is unique and extremely engaging. “Sundial” hits the mark.

“Sundial” follows Rob, a woman in an abusive marriage with two daughters who are feeling the tension and mirroring the behaviour of their parents. The narrative flickers between Rob’s present life and remembering her past at the desert farm she grew up on (called “Sundial”), and the relationship she had with her sister, Jack, there. It also bounces into chapters of a fictional novel Rob is working on that draws on characters in her own life and puts them into fictional settings and circumstances.

There is a lot of depth in this story and it is clear that it took a lot of thought on the part of the author. The puzzle pieces move around until they fit together. There is scientific experimentation on animals and people (TW), ghosts, and domestic horror. I will say that the addition of the fictional novel chapters felt like an extra that was not truly needed, but was too negligible in length to get upset about. The details are beautifully written, describing smells and tastes in a glorious wave of synesthesia that fully immerses you.

I can see my students really loving this, so I'm going to include it on future reading lists... but it didn't entirely work for me. I loved Ward's writing here, the language she used and the way she described things strangely but in ways I totally understood (like voices as "sticky"). It's the overall plot that kind of lost me by the halfway point; no one's motivations made any kind of sense to me, and occasionally, as in Needless Street, seemed to boil down to a semi-offensive "some people are just insane and beyond help" trope in how they behave and what they do to move the story forward.

Still, I rushed through this in only a couple of sittings and found it absolutely enthralling for the last 30% or so.

Thanks to the author and publisher for an advance reading copy of Sundial for review consideration. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions.

A twisty, horrifying story that sheds its layers with pinpoint precision. This proves, once again, that Ward is one of the premiere voices in horror fiction right now. If she isn’t already a household name like Shirley Jackson or Stephen King, she needs to be.

Ward might be the ONLY author in the last few years who can wholly and completely pull the rug out from under me. With The Last House on Needless Street, and now Sundial, she is now 2 for 2 in blindside hits. Just when you think you have her all figured out… She just has this penchant for leaving you mouth agape by the time you turn the last page. It is absolutely mesmerizing.

Where the author excels, in my opinion, is with her characters. Yes, the reveal is clearly her specialty, but her characters are what makes that reveal SO FREAKING GOOD. In just a few short sentences, she can have you completely enamored, emotionally invested, and the biggest cheerleader for the protagonist, while also have you wholly loathing the antagonist – or who is perceived to be such. Her use of language is mind-bogglingly good and really puts her to the forefront as one of my favorite writers today.

Like a majority of novels that like to build up suspense until the very end, Sundial does tend to have its moments of pacing miscues as pieces of the puzzle are put into place. While this type of thing doesn’t necessarily detract from the enjoyment of the story, I know it can be a turn off to certain types of readers. Trust me, the payoff is worth is it. If those pieces were missing, the ending wouldn’t make sense.

While I’d love to do a deep dive into the story itself, any little misstep could lead to a massive spoiler. Just go into the story fresh; I suggest not even reading the synopsis – especially if you are already a fan of Ward’s. This generally helps suppress the want and need to figure everything out before the end, especially knowing I’ll be 100% wrong.

This book was just not for me. I did not understand anything that was going on until literally the last pages of the novel. I know Ward's novels are supposed to be twisty and mysterious in that way, but I just found myself unable to connect with the story or characters because of it. On the other hand, the horror aspect of this book was truly disturbing in my opinion. While I personally wasn't a fan of this book, I can see other people enjoying it. The atmosphere was great and the setting was unique. The last third of the book was a real page turner. If you enjoyed Ward's other book, The Last House on Needless Street, you will probably love this.

Creepy, psychological, fun with mirrors. Some parts I felt like the plot was incomplete, and the writer was painted in a corner. A few times she got out of the corner.
But I could have done without the animal stuff. Totally took me out of it.

Wow! What a trippy read. I finished Sundial by Catriona Ward in one sitting. I had no idea where the story of Rob, Callie, Irving, Annie, and soon others folded in, was going. I certainly didn't expect where it all ended up. However I can say it was a very satisfying read. So as to not give any spoilers I'll leave it at that. Thank You to Catriona Ward and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC, I enjoyed it.

A friend handed me Last House on Needless Street last year and it was unexpectedly, amazingly good. The story was solid, gripping, with so many twists and with crazy, flawed, lovable characters to boot.

And here comes Sundial, and I have unreasonably high expectations and Ward just sails over them all.

I enjoyed every moment with this horrific, terrifying, twisting story. Beautiful foreshadowing, as always. Scarred, complex, loveable, relatable characters, again. This story is about bonds between mothers and daughters, sisters, family. The background is full of wild animals, a harsh desert, and hurt people. It's about trying, whether or not you succeed.

And now, I think, I need to find a way to let go of the tension of it all. Funny, to read what you know will be the best book of the year in January. Five stars.