This was my first novel by Catriona Ward, and it won’t be my last! This book took me awhile to get through as it is truly a mind bender. I loved the premise and the execution. If you take your time with this one it really pays off. The book within the book aspect was well done. I’m not usually a huge horror reader, but I was able to read this one no problem.

This one was not for me, unfortunately. While I thought it was interesting, the pacing felt off. It was very much "one thing happened, then we did this, then we saw this" which I think can work well with certain stories but not necessarily this one. I also thought so much was lost in the pursuit to make these characters quirky. They speak (and the narrator thinks) in similes and analogies. I think this could have been made even more unnerving if the characters spoke and acted like real people. Harper especially came across as a manic pixie dream girl in the first half.

I think everyone will experience this book differently, however. This would do well with fans of Paul Tremblay and Stephen Graham Jones. I've ultimately decided that Catriona Ward just isn't the author for me.

Thank you Tor Nightfire for my Netgalley copy of LOOKING GLASS SOUND by Catriona Ward, out now!

WOW. This book legitimately scared me. I had to put it down about halfway through and take a break because it was spooky and I live alone and it was scary to read at night lmaoooo.

This is the latest twisty psychological horror novel from Ward, and it is VERY unique in its format. In a lonely cottage overlooking the coast of Maine, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of him and his childhood besties discovering the bodies of murdered women by a killer that stalked the small New England town.

While dealing with the horrors of that discovery over a decade, Wilder meets Sky, who steals his unfinished memoir and turns it into a lurid bestselling novel, Looking Glass Sound.

As Wilder continues to try and write and reclaim his story, the lines between memory and fiction start to blur. He starts to lose his grip on reality, see ghosts and fall apart. This book is MIND-BENDING. It’s like ten stories in one. I loved it - the ending was spectacular once you realize what she is doing.

Also, let me emphasize that this is HORROR. The ghosts are scary, the talk about serial killers and what they do is scary, and there are multiple instances of “degloving flesh.” Just a fun warning! Your brain will need to work in overdrive to comprehend this book, but it’s worth it! Go in with as little as possible and let it warp your mind!!! It’s definitely a nesting doll of a novel, so be prepared to take it slow.

Ward is officially an autobuy author for me because this was mesmerizing.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
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Horror, grief, memory, all in a twisty wild story.
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I think it’s better to go into this one blind- but know it is a tremendous story, I loved this book, it’s sad, HORRIFIC at times, and really beautifully written at others. I recommend this for high school and up!
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Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. This book is was just published! Go get it! 🌊
#lookingglasssound#catrionaward #bookstagram #bookreview #fivestarread #gracecookiereads #netgalley #arc

“𝑨𝒔 𝑰 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒊𝒅 𝒂 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒑 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘.”

My friend Dennis (@ScaredStraightReads) first led my attention to Catriona Ward, and although I have to finish a couple of her backlist books, the cover of her newest attracted me immediately and I had to dive in.

As always, you never know what to expect with book by Ward; at first it seems straightforward: an author writing his final manuscript, but that is just the very first layer. I absolutely loved Wilder’s relationship with Nate and Harper - the friendship triangle and pure tension that comes with it was fascinating. I wasn’t sure if Wilder was crushing after both Harper and Nate, but one thing is for certain that he had his fill of love in his time with them and learned that friends can break your heart just as easily as romantic relationships, perhaps more. That same tension continues as Wilder meets Sky in university, and I found myself very easily devouring their story too. Although less horror based and a bit slower moving compared to Ward’s other works, it is no less atmospheric. Once the twists of betrayal start coming, I kept questioning what is real, and how reliable a narrator Wilder is. I will admit I found the first half of the book, focusing on a coming of age and lose of childhood narrative, had me more hooked than the second half, but there are so many layers that I desperately needed them to be peeled away (even if I wasn’t always a fan of some of the reveals).

Looking Glass Sound is a story of friendship, first loves, trauma, closure and writing. It will be giving you whiplash and have you considering what happened long after the last page. Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the ARC!

This was like a fever dream.

The first half was great... interesting, understandable, coming of age, familial relationships, friendship,first loves. It even had what turned out to be more of a side plot line... a possible serial killer. I enjoyed it!

Then it switched gears. The MC teen was now college age and going out on their own and making an equally odd friend. But his personality was much different from the first half. And when you finally settle in and accept this new MC version, the story flips a few more times, so you don't know what is real, who is real, and what the real story is. It became a confusing,jumbled mess (at least for my brain), and it really lost me and my interest.

I really enjoyed The Last House on Needless Street. But this is the 2nd book from this author that I've read since that I just couldn't grasp and really get into. Either her work is above my brain's pay grade, or it just is a craziness that I can't flow with.

Because I enjoyed the first half I gave this 3⭐️.

I genuinely appreciate Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read an advanced ebook copy of this book.

The nitty-gritty: Truth and fiction blur together in Catriona’s Ward’s latest, a complex tale about death, love and stories.

I never know what to expect from a new Catriona Ward book, other than it’s sure to be complex and different, and Looking Glass Sound is no exception. This story is many things: a coming-of-age tale, a murder mystery, a tragic love story and a story of betrayal. It’s also hiding a secret within its pages. What seems like one thing in the beginning turns out to be a lie, and then that lie becomes another lie. By the end it’s almost impossible to untangle the truth, and the reader is left with a sense of both awe and confusion. Yes, I enjoyed this book, but it’s not a story you want to rush through. I’m glad I’m in the habit of taking notes while I read, and later writing them down (Looking Glass Sound is five pages of notes!), because it gives me a chance to “read” the book a second time. This is one of those stories where you want to go back to the beginning after you’ve finished, because you’ve most certainly missed something important.

The story begins with a memoir written by Wilder Harlow in 1989, titled The Dagger Man of Whistler Bay. Wilder recounts a summer spent in the small seaside town of Castine and the life-changing events that happened there. The house the Harlow's inherit from a relative is just up from Whistler Bay, named for the whistling sound the wind makes as it passes through the surrounding rocks. When they arrive, Wilder meets two other teens his age, and they become fast friends. Harper is a red headed beauty and Nat is the son of a fisherman, and the three become caught up in the mystery of a man dubbed the Dagger Man, who sneaks into houses and takes Polaroid photos of sleeping children—with a knife at their throats.

Then bodies are discovered and the Dagger Man becomes a serial killer. The fallout from this fractures their friendship in terrible ways that will reverberate for years to come.

Next, the memoir jumps to 1991 when Wilder goes to college. There he meets and befriends a boy named Sky, who claims to be an aspiring writer, but their friendship ends when Sky steals Wilder’s memoir and rewrites it as his own story. Later we learn that the book, called The Sound and the Dagger, has become a bestseller. The story, eerily similar to The Dagger Man of Whistler Bay, has four characters named Wiley, Nate, Helen and Skander.

Finally, we are introduced to Pearl, the daughter of a woman named Rebecca who supposedly drowned a decade earlier in the bay. Pearl is also a writer and is tangled up with Wilder, Harper and Nat, although to explain how would be a spoiler.

Ward jumps around in time and also from character to character, slowly pulling back the many layers of her story to reveal an unsettling truth. I felt the strongest parts were Wilder’s chapters, which make up the bulk of the story. The mystery of the Dagger Man and the horrible discovery in the bay after the Dagger Man is identified is the sort of riveting storytelling I was expecting from this book, and the author came through with lots of eerie details revolving around the serial killer and his prey, and plenty of tension among the characters.

But when Pearl is introduced, things get confusing. Pearl is clearly connected to Harper and Wilder, but it takes a while before the whys and hows are explained. The story contains no less than five different books: The Dagger Man of Whistler Bay (written by Wilder), The Sound and the Dagger (written by Sky), Skye (Wilder’s second book), the “fictional” Pearl (written by Skye), and finally, Looking Glass Sound (written by Pearl). The characters take on various personas and seem to appear in each other’s stories, and keeping them straight isn’t easy—Wilder/Wiley, Harper/Helen, Nat/Nate, Sky/Skye/Skander—some are real and some aren’t. To confuse things even more, another character named Grace makes an appearance late in the story, and again, she’s connected to the others in some interesting ways.

Ward names her characters after famous writers, and that isn’t coincidence. This is a story about stories, the power they have and the magic within their pages. I did love some of the things she has to say about characters living on through books, never having to die, which gave the tone of the story a hopeful feel.

In the end, Looking Glass Sound is a weird little tale that does some clever things. I’m still thinking about the book days after finishing it, turning over the bits of story in my head to see what I might have missed. I’d love to know if you’ve read this too.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

A huge thank you to the publisher @tornightfire and @netgalley for providing me with this ARC for my honest review.

This book was something!  I really enjoyed this book and the author's writing style.  It's extremely unique, and I will definitely be reading more of her books. 

Wilder Harlow returns to his coastal Maine cottage to write his last book about the summer he spent with his childhood friends, Nat and Harper.  The summer of horror when missing women's bodies were found in oil drums at the bottom of a sea cave.  The summer, a killer who's been stalking the town has been discovered, and the killer is someone he knows.  It's also about Sky, Wilder's one-time best friend, who steals his memoir and publishes it as his own.  As Wilder writes, memories blend with reality, and he starts to wonder if he's losing his mind.

Told in multiple POVs and multiple timelines, this book was an extremely entertaining read.  You really have to pay close attention to what's going on, or you'll be completely lost.  You are literally thinking one thing, and it turns out to be another.  I was really intrigued by this book and would definitely recommend it!

I struggled a bit with this book. I usually enjoy the psychological fun house aspect of Ward's writing, but this got almost too convoluted with a lot of past and present events getting muddled, identities changing, and book within a book (within another book?) confusion. Also, since the story started when the MCs were teens, the first part read YA to me, but even as adults they seemed childish. To Ward’s credit, though, this is an ambitious and highly creative plot, and once again, she blew my mind with that ending! As usual, her writing is stellar.

I read along while listening to this on audio, with Christopher Ragland and Katherine Fenton narrating. I loved Ragland’s narration for The Last House on Needless Street, but not as much for this one. Harper is a British female, but she sounded neither British nor female, Wilder often sounded angsty or unhinged and Nat’s New England accent felt like a caricature. I did enjoy Fenton’s narration of a different female character and wondered why they didn’t have her voice Harper as well. Men voicing women almost always sounds off (and vice-versa).

It wasn’t my favorite of hers, but I’d still highly recommend it to those who love a book within a book story (with a twist!) and enjoy the mental challenge of a more complex plot. Catriona Ward’s unique blend of psychological horror, mystical elements and atmospheric writing are an appealing combination!

I am a big fan of Catriona Ward, and will continue to read her books going forward. However, "Looking Glass Sound" was a big miss for me. It started well enoguh and I fell into the story - she's an excellent writer in many ways: setting, language, but in the second two thirds of the book, I was lost. It's a book within a book kind of story, but told in a way that is confusing and because there is necessary repetition of aspects of the story, I grew bored and didn't care to try to figure out the intertwined storylines. I also will say, I was also taken out of the story when American characters used British-isms like "aircon," "dandelion clocks," and "motorbike." A minor quibble, but these small things tend to get to me and pull me from the story, making me very aware of the writer.

Looking Glass Sound is an atmospheric, Russian Nesting Doll of a story. It surrounds three friends whose lives one summer were changed by a local serial killer. I recommend going into this one blind and enjoying the journey the book will take you on. The story is very character based with a little bit of magic thrown in. If you love atmospheric and character based stories, grab this one immediately!

Thank you @tornightfire @torbooks and @netgalley for allowing me to read this one ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Tor Nightfire for gifting me a copy! I also listened to the audiobook via @scribd 🎧

In my humble opinion, Catriona Ward is indisputably the Queen of psychological horror! Every single of her books is a genre bender encompassing thriller and horror vibes in unique prose. ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴀsᴛ ʜᴏᴜsᴇ ᴏɴ ɴᴇᴇᴅʟᴇss sᴛʀᴇᴇᴛ was my top favorite book but 𝑳𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑮𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 is a close second. With both books, you’ll need to focus on the reading in every page and I still managed to get my brain into a pretzel with this book! It made for a formidable buddy read as we all pieced this book together as a group because this book has twists WITHIN twists! A beach read this book does not make!

Beyond saying that the book revolves around young Wilder who befriends Nat and Harper on a beautiful Maine summer, Looking Glass Sound is a story that cannot be summarized without spoilers, and the official synopsis is deliberately misleading for good reason. I would strongly suggest you don’t read reviews that may contain spoilers because going in blind is the only way to experience the wild emotions you’ll feel in the end…which may be good or bad. 😉
I can’t wait for Catriona’s next book!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of Looking Glass Sound. The story begins as a coming of age tale with an eerie, mysterious air and I was instantly engaged. Three teens meet one summer in coastal Maine where there have been unexplained happenings, including the creepy photographing of sleeping children as well as drownings off the coast. Mixing in some witchcraft added to the strange nature of the book.

At about the half way point, the story felt as if it had reached a pretty strong conclusion and made me wonder what more was in store. The second half of the book is where I got lost. While I admire the descriptive passages, I found the story very convoluted and hard to follow. I have to admit that I’m still not even sure what was real and what wasn’t. “The book is a mirror and I am stepping through the looking glass.” That’s how I felt reading Looking Glass Sound.

Thank you so much for the early read! Wildly ambitious and cleverly played out, Catriona Ward at her best!

'Ghosts don't exist,' she says gently. 'They're just in your mind telling you things you don't want to know.'

Though intriguing, much of this was confusing as hell. The multiple, unreliable narrators left me feeling more frustrated than entertained.

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

This is the first time a Catriona Ward book has let me down.

When I started out this Russian nesting egg of a novel, I absolutely loved it. I was digging it. However, the longer this book went on, and the more layers Ward unveiled, the less I enjoyed it. Simply put: It became messy. It became less interesting. It became hard to keep track of. It lost propulsion. The pacing lacked off. I simply started to lose interest. By the end, I didn’t really care how it ended as long as the book just finally ended. I haven’t been this disappointed in a book in a very long time.

For the entire first act or so, I did truly enjoy it: the set up, the characters, Ward’s truly incredibly creepy prose and incredible world building. The book felt like it held so much potential in its pages…only for it all to fizzle out like the whole book has been rained on and it to become a damp mess.

The 3,5 stars I’m awarding this book comes purely for the portion of the book I loved and the passages here and there after that part that I thought were really beautiful. I’m not willing to go so far as to give this book three stars, because it’s not a simple, average novel I’d just toss away. It’s still Catriona Ward. It just doesn’t feel like her best effort.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone.

File Under: Gothic/Horror/Meta Fiction/Murder Thriller/Occult Horror/Paranormal Horror/Psychological Thriller/Supernatural Horror/Suspense Thriller/Thriller

I loved the first half of this book. Ward does a fabulous job drawing you in with the setting. It was creepy and atmospheric right from the beginning. The second half was MIND BENDING to the extreme. I thought there was one too many twists. It left me confused at the conclusion. I do love that this was not your typical thriller, it was absolutely unique. I think lovers of Catriona Ward will enjoy this book. Thank you Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this arc!

Catriona Ward’s latest psychological thriller is just at twisty and turny as her The Last House on Needless Street.

It starts off as a slice of life story about a boy named Wilder Harlow who spends the summer with his parents in a cottage off the coast of Maine. He meets Harper and Nate and together they hang out-building bonfires, catching fish and boating in the ocean.

But that summer horrifying things begin to happen. The Dagger Man, so named by the locals, takes polaroid pictures of children sleeping while he holds a dagger to their necks. And then something else even more horrifying happens that changes Harper, Nate and Wilder’s lives forever.

Like Ward’s other novels, the novel’s structure can leave you a bit confused at times. Actually, the confusion will only build over the course of the story.

But the last 15%? It made all the confusion worth every second! I was blown away and how intricately plotted this was. Little things that you think don’t matter? Oh, they matter all right!

Just like with The Last House on Needless Street, I wanted to immediately start back at the beginning so I could better appreciate how Ward crafted this story of trauma, obsession and revenge.

Ward is an all time favorite horror writer for me because she’s so unique. She’s doing things with structure and storytelling that I don’t see anyone else doing.

As much as Ward’s structure can often be choppy and scenes often jut up against each other without any transition or flow, there’s a haunting beauty to her sentences that work perfectly to tell this story. She makes so many astute observations about writing: how stories can preserve us, transport us and completely change who we are. It’s rich in themes and ideas that beg to be dissected and discussed.

Looking Glass Sound is now my favorite book by Catrinona Ward. It plays with structure in the way that The Last House on Needless Street did, but I believe her characterization is more mature and better crafted here.

I’d highly recommend picking up Looking Glass Sound if you’ve loved Ward’s previous books, if you like psychological horror that is unique and different, and if you’re ok with not knowing what’s happening for most of the book and just going along for the ride.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the digital arc. All opinions are my own.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
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Happy pub day to @catward66 and Looking Glass Sound!

This book was wild! It was creepy and kept me reading with all the twists and turns. Definitely getting Maine ghost story vibes from this one! It also had a very meta vibe.

In my opinion, it’s a complex story about love, loss, found family, but there are also themes of pedophilia, child kidnapping and abuse, witchcraft and murder. It was an intriguing read and the twists were so good! If you’ve loved her precious works, I think you’ll really enjoy her newest.

Thank you @netgalley and @torbooks for my copy of this story which is available today!

This novel is, as we’ve come to expect from Catriona Ward, tangled, terrifying and mesmerizing. The interconnection between the characters coupled with reality versus fiction within the book become a story, within a story, within a story. The twists and unexpected revelations come throughout but they are so deftly and subtly delivered that they feel more like an organic part of the novel. They way it always had to be.