"Looking Glass Sound" by Catriona Ward is a moving and unsettling novel about a group of friends struggling to come to terms with the horrors of one summer. The characters, especially Wilder, are realistic, raw and flawed, making them easy to relate to. The plot is intriguing, sometimes bewildering, sometimes confusing, sometimes shocking, but very humane in recounting Wilder's ultimately sad, even heartbreaking life story.

However, the ending wasn't to my liking, as it changes the meaning of an element of the story (trying to be vague to avoid spoilers), while I'd much prefer it to be presented in a consistent light throughout. Despite this, the novel is still captivating and emotional, making it a recommended read for psychological thriller fans. Ward's writing style is fantastic, and the story is well-paced and expertly crafted, keeping readers on edge until the very end.

Overall, "Looking Glass Sound" is a must-read for anyone who enjoys a twisted thriller with complex characters and an expertly crafted plot. While the ending may not be to everyone's taste, the novel is still an impressive work of fiction that will leave readers thinking long after they've finished reading.

Everytime I finish a book by Catriona Ward I find myself wondering what the frick I’ve just read. I’m not exactly confused, I’m rather perplexed and all over the place, uncomfortable, and a little bit haunted. I always think I’ve understood very little about the book and because of that I may believe that I will forget about it soon. Not at all. It has been two years since I read “The Last House on Needless Street” and I’m still thinking about it. It has been on year-ish since I read “Little Eve”, I’m still thinking about it. I don’t think I will forget about “Looking Glass Sound” in one or two years, or longer. Catriona Ward is a book tattooist, she engraves her books under your skin and into your soul.

There is something that I can’t quite identify in Ward’s writing that makes me read her books compulsively. Perhaps it is that she has this incredible way of giving her stories such settings that they grab you by the neck and, just like “The Neverending Story” did to Bastian, introduce you inside the book. This is, I believe, the third book I’ve read by Ward and the third time she does this to me. Her writings are immersive. But let me give you a little advice concerning the plots; the less you know about them, the better, the fuller the experience.

Being able to create this high level of dreamy (or nightmarish) yet incredibly real settings is a gift that I’m convinced Catriona Ward has inherited from writers like Daphne DuMaurier, whose influence is quite palpable in this book, Shirley Jackson or Angela Carter. These are the only horror or disturbing writers that can engage me. Their stories might sound ordinary on the surface, and they are ordinary, but not really. In “Looking Glass Sound” Wilder, Nat and Harper meet one summer like anyone else’s summer. My own childhood summers were like that; kids telling stories and tales that are half real half fantasy, the more horrific and hard to swallow, the better. They’re all lies, legends based in what they hear the adults talk. It is in one summer like that, full of fantasies, secrets, truths, and dares, where the key to the development of events lies. After that, the fear, the grief, the missing, the traumas and the obsessions, the insecurities of not being able to describe fantasies from actual events.

Wilder is our main character, our narrator. He writes most of the book in the first person and due to experience with other books by Catriona Ward, we the readers are prepared not to believe everything he says, he’s completely unreliable, his psyche as we can see soon enough is completely twisted. But he’s not the only one. He himself is not aware of what his writing says about him. We can read this book as a dark coming of age or we can read it as stories inside stories that play with our minds in a bizarre game of matryoshka dolls. We see Wilder grow up and hide from the monsters of his past until he can hide no longer. This book is not scary, it is utterly disturbing.

I know that I’m going to read all the books that Catriona Ward is going to publish. They’re so unique, it’s mesmerising. I know I’ll be taken on the adventure which will make me question what’s real and what’s not, the plot I thought I figured out is definitely not what I thought and at the end I still won’t know what happened. But that’s the whole beauty of it!

The Looking Glass Sound has several timelines and narratives. It has kind of books within the book and as expected it’s all very confusing and at the same time enchanting.

After the first part I didn’t know what will happen next as I thought that the story is over and was surprised that the book is not even 30% done, but what follows only makes it more interesting!

Difficult to review the plot without the spoilers.

Definitely a must read for people who like a weird plot with an excellent writing.

A beautifully-crafted novel that travels through different times and weaves a compelling narrative around a group of young people who may or may not be figments of imagination... At times I found myself comparing this (favourably, I should say) to early Barbara Vine and, indeed, in the character of Wilder I immediately was reminded of Gallowglass. Looking Glass Sound is the scene where the Daggerman stalked his victims when Wilder was growing up and befriended two other lost souls, and the sea is what draws him back years later, when his mind is is no longer able to differentiate between reality and fiction. There is a touching beauty with the way Ward treats her characters in this novel, even more so than in her previous one, Sundial, although on some rare occasions when moving between time periods I almost felt a little disorientated. However, that's a nit-pick, and suffice to say, this is a novel that will captivate and enthrall.

I received a free advance review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest, unedited feedback.

When his Uncle Vernon dies Wilder is not looking forward to spending time at his house in the windswept town of Whistler Bay. However when he meets Harper and Nat they become instant friends and he never wants to leave. There is a dark side to Whistler Bay though that overshadows the town.

Catriona Ward has done it again..written another book that is almost impossible to review. I can never go into much detail about anything as I don't want to spoil the story or experience for any potential reader. Even if I could say something it would be hard to pinpoint without going off on major tangents. With Looking Glass Sound I am left discombobulated as I started off thinking the story was about one thing then becoming lost and then all became clear eventually..I think?! I am not sure if the title alludes to an Alice in Wonderlandesque tone but I certainly didn't know which way was up for a lot of the time. I would have been happy with a straight forward eerieness but that is not Ward's style and I was thankful in the end and should have not have expected anything else! For those readers who have been wanting to read Ward's books but were too scared to then this one is for them as it is not as horror as her other two in my opinion.

Looking Glass Sound is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma which very nearly lost me. I'm not sure if after my review you will be any the wiser whether to pick this book up or not but just like her other two this book needs to be read to be believed.

I absolutely loved “The Last House on Needless Street” so I was very happy to be approved for a copy of this one.

I love Ward’s writing style. The twists and turns along the way are absolutely second to none. I love the way she slowly builds the tension but also keeps the plot interesting along the way. It’s not a book with just big moments and not much going on in between, the whole book kept me gripped the entire time but then the ending was just perfection.

I honestly am finding this such a difficult review to write because I would hate to spoil anything because you really need to go into this with no preconceived ideas of what is going to happen and no spoilers because the twists are absolutely incredible.

There are a couple of different narrators and some time jumps but it was always clear whose story I was reading and where I was so it didn’t cause me any problems.

For once, I did feel that the format of the eArc was a little detrimental to the story so I’m definitely going to look at getting a physical copy once it comes out but that’s not the author’s fault so I’m not taking any stars off for that.

I don’t want to say too much but I was genuinely open mouthed at some of the twists.

If you’re a fan of the thriller genre then mark that date in your diary cos this is definitely for you.

Do you ever, upon finishing a book, wonder what the heck you just read? I’ve been staring at a blank page for ages, not knowing at all how to review ‘Looking Glass Sound‘ without giving anything away, which quite frankly feels like an impossible task.

Let’s start with the beginning. That part is easy enough. During a summer vacation, Wilder meets Harper, and Nat in a coastal village called Whistler’s Bay. At this point, ‘Looking Glass Sound‘ is very much a coming of age story. That meeting and subsequent events will change their lives forever, though.

Years later, Wilder returns to Whistler’s Bay to write his memoir. And this is pretty much where my brain shattered into a bajillion tiny pieces that I’m sure I’ll never be able to put back together again. There’s a fine line between fact and fiction, between what is real and what is not, and I admit I completely lost my way. Yet, somehow, despite the massive head hurting thing, I eagerly swiped the pages, desperately wanting to know what was what. Just when I thought maybe I finally had a handle on things, everything was turned upside down.

This is one of those novels where you just have to go with the flow and try not to ask too many questions, hoping it will all make sense at some point. ‘Looking Glass Sound‘ is immensely dark and unsettling, it’s a gothic thriller after all. For the most part, it left me feeling bewildered, confused, and discombobulated. There was a lot of frowning, a lot of moments where I had the sense I was missing something, of not getting it. This story definitely requires your full attention and concentration, and even then I dare you to figure out what is happening underneath the surface before it’s revealed to you.

The foremost thought in my head while reading was “this book is weird”. But, in an odd sort of way, it’s the weirdness that pushed me on to keep reading and I enjoyed every single minute of it, because it’s strangely addictive. The characters are complex, to the point where I never really felt I knew any of them. ‘Looking Glass Sound‘ is a unique kind of mystery, very cleverly plotted and brilliantly written. For fans of gothic mysteries and the book-in-a-book thing. And those that don’t mind a wee headache afterwards.

Also, I’m forever boycotting green pens.

As with all of Catriona's books we never quite know which way is up, who is really who they say they are, and what is hidden out of sight.

When Wilder goes on summer vacation to Looking Glass Sound and makes friends with two other teenagers they start to uncover the mystery of The Dagger Man who breaks into houses and takes photos of children while asleep. But is he also connected to the missing women from the last few years, and what's real, with an unreliable narrator?

This is a mind bending ride, with a real sense of place. I felt I knew this area like the back of my hand, until it all flips on its head. Very clever!

I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read The Last House on Needless Street & Sundial and they are simply amazing and also equally terrifying and like no other books I’ve ever read before (and I read a lot) so I was over the moon to be approved for an ARC of Looking Glass Sound.

This story starts with the unpublished memoir of Wilder Harlow( I love that name!) in the summer of 1989 when he was a teenager.

Wilder’s uncle has died and left his dad a cottage so they decide to take a vacation before they sell it, on this trip Wilder meets a couple of other teenagers, a boy called Nat and a girl called Harper and they become fast friends having the best summer on the sea.

All three of them are a little kooky and maybe hiding secrets?.

Running along side this summer is the story of a series of break ins by a man called The Dagger Man who takes weird photos of children as they sleep.

I was enjoying Wilder’s unpublished memoir and thought well if this is the whole book it’s great! But this is a Catriona Ward book so I was expecting the unexpected and was waiting for everything to be turned on his head AND IT WAS!.

It’s full of shocks, twists and a creeping horror that seeps out of the pages and into your head as you’re reading it and you’ll get to the end and think WTF.

I don't remember writing this. Magic seems to be making its way into this book. Or maybe it started with magic, because there is a worse possibility than all of this. I'm not being haunted by a book... [loc. 2963]

Wilder's father inherits a cottage on the coast of Maine, and the family spend the summer there. Whistler Bay is idyllic, though there's an unsettling local mystery: the Dagger Man, who photographs sleeping children. And over the years, a number of women -- lone swimmers -- have gone missing: but that's just the tides, the treacherous ocean. Wilder meets Harper, with her British accent and her witchy rituals, and Nat, who has a difficult relationship with his father. The three become close: they visit a sea cave and whisper secrets to the god that Nat says dwells beneath the water. One day, though, there's an accident: Nat is injured, and a serial killer is unmasked.

Years later, Wilder returns to Whistler Bay to write his account of the events of that summer, and his college friendship (or perhaps love affair) with Sky, who betrayed him and stole the manuscript of his first attempt to explore what happened to the three of them. He's still trying to make sense of everything, trying to construct a story about fathers and sons, or about Harper and Sky, or about his own sense of loss. But is it his story to tell?

This is a layered and labyrinthine novel about stories -- who tells them, how they're told, whose they are -- and identity. I've now read it three times (once is definitely not enough) and am still making new connections, hearing new echoes, recognising new threads weaving through the novel. Wilder, Nat and (especially) Harper are compelling characters, and their emotional tangle needs, and deserves, a lot of unravelling. And Sky... Sky is something else.

I think this might be my favourite of Ward's novels, and I am beginning to see patterns: stories that veer in unexpected directions, endings that can be seen as happy if one squints, surviving trauma and the scars it leaves, unreliable narrators with distinctive voices. And who is more untrustworthy than a novelist?

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review: UK publication date is 20 APR 2023.

I’m so frustrated by this book!!! The first half of it was amazing, easily 5 stars and I couldn’t put it down…then it just became super confusing and weird so I stopped enjoying it as much and then the ending happened and made me wish I had stopped reading it at 57%! It was literally like a completely different book and I had no idea what was going on or who half the new characters were! What a shame! I love a good weird storyline as much as anyone but it has to make sense, this just stopped making any sense!

It felt like a modern look at unsettling psychological gothic horror. I mean I wouldn’t call this a horror book in a modern sense at all, but if you consider the likes of late 18th/early 19th century tonality, it’s close.

It’s a complex, multi-layered affair that jumped around in both time and perspective, but not to a point that was hard to follow. I think the realism of the characters throughout was great and it was interesting to see them from the perspective of others.

The writing was beautifully done and at its core it’s a pretty sad, melancholy book that did throw in some creepy and unsettling moments. Most of all it’s fair to say that this book isn’t about what you think it is.

There. That’s the review. Anything that else would spoil the nosebleed of a read.

This went all round the houses and back in on itself. Deliciously so. And for that reason, it's hard to say much more about the book, so I will be very careful.
We follow author Wilder Harlow as he sits down to write his final book. Telling of a long not-forgotten childhood summer, his two friends and what happened to and around them. And how it has affected everything he has done ever since. It's also about his college days and his roommate and best friend, who stole his story. But it is much much more than that as the edges between fact and fiction start to blur and get mixed up. And then his past starts to threaten his present, his future being only short. Can he reconcile himself before the inevitable happens?
I loved this book. As I also loved Sundial - I have Needless Street on my ever growing TBR. I love the way the author weaves many different elements into her wonderful narratives, keeping me, a reader, guessing. Making me hold onto things I don't understand. Until exactly the right time and place to provoke the best AHA moment! Genius.
And the characters therein lies another awesome talent. I wish I could expand on that statement, to wax lyrical about Wilder, Nate and Harper. About Skye too for that matter. But I fear that to do so would no doubt inject spoilers into the mix and, nope, not going there!
The narrative is built up of layer upon layer of interconnected uncertainty. And horrific in parts and dark, and also uplifting. But when you get to the end, the total is so much more than the sum of its parts. I had to sit back and applaud the author for a job so very well done.
One thing I would advise is that this is NOT a dip into book. You would probably enjoy it more if you earmark a chunk of time to dedicate to it.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Thank you to the author, publishers Viper and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.

Another dark, winding, complex and confusing story that defies description and understanding from Catriona Ward.

Wilder, Harper and Nate. Three friends who find each other one summer and who are bound by a dark discover in the caves beneath their village which overshadows the rest of their lives.

What is true, what is reimagined? Who knows?

A layered, contradictory and complex series of narratives make this a difficult story to understand. But, what else would you expect from a Catriona Ward novel?

I have absolutely no clue what I am supposed to believe is the truth at the centre of this story. Which version of memory, story or perspective represents the core? Or is it that no one can know the truth. Even those who lived it have their own perspective, their own experience and their own re-imagining to re-write the past as they wish it had happened.

I was pulled into this story. I kept reading thinking that it would make sense. But time shifts, perspective shifts and revisions of the same moments in a different story within a story mean I’m left confused and dissatisfied. I don’t mind an ambiguous ending. I don’t mind an unreliable narrator. But I’m unconvinced by a plot that I’m not sure if the author ever even really knew what was supposed to be going on.

was very excited to read this new offering from Cat Ward after absolutely adoring The Last House on Needless Street. Her writing draws you in and leaves you wanting ‘just one more page’ all the time, her books are so hard to put down. This was no different and I was completely hooked from start to finish. However I was also a little confused and reading other people’s reviews has only added to that.

There are lots of twists and turns and there’s a book within a book, within a book, within another book? Because of that it reminded me a bit of the film Inception, but in this it’s less clear about what’s real and what’s imaginary in this. By the end I was confused as to who was who, who was pretending to be who, and who did what. I *think* I have it but it all just felt a bit dreamy and trippy rather than completely rounded off, although perhaps that’s intentional? This also made it really hard to care about any of the characters, as the lines were so blurred as to who had actually done what and what their motives/intentions were. Don’t get me wrong, I love a twist, but I also like everything to be clear cut by the end of the book.

Overall this was a thrilling but perplexing read. I couldn’t put it down but I also didn’t really care for the characters and what was (or wasn’t!) happening to them all. It might just be me and I’m sure other Cat Ward fans will love it, so I’d still recommend it as a read as I’d love to hear others thoughts on it!

Thank you to Viper and NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a fantastic book. The atmosphere hangs over you from the start, a dark brooding presence that refuses to shift up to and beyond the conclusion. Wilder is dragged to Whistler Bay by his mum and Dad. A troubled teenager with an aim to fall in love by the end of the summer. A coming of age summer of love may be what is expected but this novel defies expectation at every turn. Terrible events that unfold over Wilder's summers at Whistler Bay that have lifelong ramifications for everyone.

The majority of the novel is taken from Wilder's memoir and as a reader you start to clock that something is not right: you question that narrative and its truth. I think that is what I loved most this book. It forces you to examine and question what you are being told and question it at every turn.

A dark, clever and twisting narrative that hooks you from the start, and one that I will definitely re-visit again.

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the views are entirely my own.

Hauntingly atmospheric, you can almost taste the sea salt in the air. This story about storytelling draws you deeply in as characters and their identities seem to blur. With the talk of magic and witchcraft in this book, you wonder if the author has caught you in a spell, it really is a bewitching read.

Another brilliant novel from Catriona Ward! Looking Glass Sound kept me guessing from page to page with its engrossing story of a haunted author. I truly never knew where this book was going…. And some of the twists were enough to break my heart. Possibly her best yet, just excellent!

It's been a couple of days since I finished this book, and even though I've been thinking about it for a while, I find myself unable to describe all the things it made me feel. I am once again a victim of the limitations of language.

I'm not a big fan of thriller stories, and I went into this book more for the horror aspect than anything else. However, what I got from this book was more than just creepy or thrilling scenes.

Looking Glass Sound is the kind of book that exists to remind people of the magic that lies within stories and the power they hold as both a healing mechanism and a torture tool. It's full of plot twists and a set of characters that you will inevitably find yourself falling in love with. If you plan on reading this book, you are in for a ride.

Another fantastically wild and twisting story from the amazing Catriona Ward. Hugely atmospheric with wonderful storytelling and unforgettable characters. Be warned, nothing is what it seems but, after all, it is a Catriona Ward novel...