Highly recommend! Much more than a standard horror novel, Looking Glass Sound is Catriona Ward’s ode to the power of the written word. The reader becomes entranced by her prose and entangled in her circular narrative of metaphysical horror. Put simply, Looking Glass Sound is a multilayered masterpiece of speculative fiction and proof that a horror novel can reach the greatest of literary heights. Know it’s a nesting doll of a novel, so multi-layered that it’s difficult to make sense of the ins and outs of the story. Ward plays with time, names, and even hides secret messages in the pages, and your brain cells must be fully charged in order to keep up. The book is excellent. It’s her most intricate, tightest novel to date – I don’t even know how she plotted it all out.

Welp, my nerves were shredded by Catriona Ward's latest, but, hey, that's exactly what I signed up for. Her latest falls just on this side of the horror genre. I'd classify it as a very creepy thriller. The mood set here is what absolutely nails this one. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier is my all time favorite novel and this has some of those vibes (throw in a bowl with Jane Harper and a bit of the nostalgic creep of Stephen King's The Bones).

After reading Catriona Ward's masterful "The Last House on Needless Street," I was so excited to see her newest offered here on NetGalley. Although it is ultimately a satisfying work of suspense, there are some hiccups along the way: for ostensibly being set in Maine, the characters very often don't sound American - which, in the case of one British character, is fine, but the others, it's jarring - and there's a lot of phraseology used that's distinctly of the United Kingdom. Though the framework can also seem a little bit choppy, that's eventually explained, but in the moment, it's doesn't make for a seamless read. Overall, Ward manages to blend the melancholy air of New England with the urgency of a mystery at hand, to create a cast of characters who are distinct and well-formed, and to create a book that keeps the reader guessing at every turn - while defying those guesses each and every time. It does, however, follow a similar pattern to "The Last House on Needless Street," so I wasn't that surprised to be met with an eleventh-hour reveal that's supposed to be shocking, but instead that feels like a bit of a deus ex machina. The book was engaging, though, and I'll probably be recommending it to folks who are looking for something twisty to whet their appetite for suspense.

Wilder has trouble making friends. In fact, he's bullied. So when his parents taking him to the beach for the summer, he's pleasantly surprised to make friends. And they become his everything.

It's the timeless tale of kids running wild in nature and enjoying a good old-fashioned summer on the beach. Except there is sinister twist here. There are missing women in the small town. And it tunes out, someone has been killing women for many years. It all comes to a head one day when the three friends stumble upon the watery graves.

From there, Wilder and his friends are torn apart and all follow different paths. And Wilder isn't quite sure how to tell reality from fiction anymore.

Catriona Ward is exceptionally good at writing creepy AF twisty tales. And Looking Glass Sound is no different. It's a richly told tale that is dense with story.

‘Writing is power,’ she says. ‘Big magic. It’s a way of keeping someone alive forever.’ ‘Why would someone want to live forever in a book?’ ‘Maybe they don’t. Maybe the writer keeps them prisoner.’

Catriona Ward has done it again! Looking Glass Sound is another 5 star winner!

I’m trying to pick my jaw off the floor and stop my head from spinning! This twisty plot is steeped in multi-layered metafiction, constantly challenging readers to question the truth. What starts out as a rather simple narrative, morphs into something completely different. Want to know what that is? Ya, me too! Ward is a brilliant writer with unique ideas that force readers to use their brains in ways that even they don’t understand.

I’m absolutely gobsmacked from this book! It definitely begs for a second reading in order to fully absorb all of the subtle clues and details. I will not rehash the plot, as it is too complex to summarize. Trust me.

Here are some of the themes explored, in case any are triggers for you: Identity, gender roles, alcoholism, pedophilia, homosexuality, suicide, witchcraft, and ghosts.

I cannot wait to read more from Catriona Ward! Each book she writes raises the bar even higher, and I will be first in line for the ride!

5/5 stars

Expected publication date: 8/8/23

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor publishing for the ARC of Looking Glass Sound in exchange for an honest review.

Degloved...
Absolutely haunting! Ward's Little Eve impressed me with its twists and uncomfortable atmosphere, and I am officially a super fan of her after this one. She has proven beyond any doubt that her imagination is endlessly fascinating and supremely disturbed.
Underneath the gore, murder, and darkness, Ward always keeps her characters at the forefront, vulnerable and empathetic through all the chaos. This sets her apart from other horror writers, along with her skill in subverting all my wildest expectations. It is not easy to surprise me, and she has twice now dropped my jaw!
I can see myself re-reading this in a few years, to properly appreciate the scope of the story, and find all the special little hints and twists I did not notice the first time.
I highly, highly recommend!

Looking Glass Sound takes place in Down East Maine, along the rocky coast that tourists flock to every summer. During a stretch of such summers in the 80s, we follow a trio of teenagers who spend their days together around fires on the beach or putting around in a boat on Whistler's Bay. Their intense friendship begins to implode, however, when The Dagger Man begins to plague their small town once more.

But this story is not solely about The Dagger Man. Looking Glass Sound explores grief, betrayal, and what life looks like after unimaginable tragedy.

In true Catriona Ward fashion, nothing is simply as straightforward as it first seems. Ward writes some of the most creative, weird shit I've ever read in my life, but I've enjoyed how she's played with perspective in unique ways in each of her books so far. Like I think I have her figured out, but then she does something totally different that I could not have possibly predicted. Her brain is working on a totally different wavelength than mine, that's for sure. But her works ultimately end up being a little hit or miss for me as a result.


The first two-thirds of this book was absolutely gripping - I thought for sure it would be a 5 star read. But it lost me in the last stretch, unfortunately. I was really invested in the Dagger Man mystery, and even later during the college years, but things started to get just a little too abstract for me after that. The e-ARC I had was also formatted horribly, so some of my confusion may be due to that, but there were instances that I just straight up had no idea what was happening and I'm still not confident that I got what she was going for here.

If you like the unreliable narrator part of Catriona Ward's previous book Last House On Needless Street. You will love this book.

This novel follows the story of three young people who become involved in a serial murder case. One of them writes a book about it that is stolen, sensationalized, and published.

There are multiple unreliable narrator'. At times youe are not even aware that you have crossed over into the pseudo novel of another character.

This is a book that I recommend you slow down and take your time with. If you do you will find it immensely rewarding in the end

This book wasn’t really what I expected. The synopsis makes it seem like Sky stealing the story is going to be present throughout but you don’t get any of that until about halfway through the book. You also don’t meet Sky until a good while in (although lesser). I think it could’ve been more flashbacks throughout/a different structure to really build that up well. Because of the lack of the other book/other main character from the synopsis I was left a bit confused for a while, which took me out of the suspense. Others might be ok with that and thus get more suspense than I did.

Catriona Ward has become an auto-buy author for me. Her books are all unhinged in the best way, and Looking Glass Sound is no exception. You never know what sort of book you're reading until the very end. Looking Glass Sound begins as a queer coming of age story and ends up...something else entirely.

Told mostly through excerpts of a memoir, Looking Glass Sound tells the story of one fateful summer in the early 1990s when teenagers Wilder, Harper, and Nat discover some horrifying truths about their small coastal town. Like any coming of age story, it deals with themes like budding love/sexuality and the growing, uncomfortable awareness of your parents failings and flaws.

While the three teens are inseparable that summer, we learn that their friendship is not without its own dark secrets. Their summer ends with disaster, death, and betrayal, leaving Wilder completely shaken.

To cope, he commits his memories of that summer to paper, writing the memoir that comprises much of the book. Framing the memoir, the book introduces other time periods, perspectives, and details that make it clear that there is far more to the story than is written in Wilder's recollections.

The challenge in reviewing this book (or any Catriona Ward book) is that it's so tough to describe without giving away its secrets, and its secrets are absolutely worth savoring.

In Looking Glass Sound, Ward writes the unreliable narrator(s) in a way that I've never seen them before.

By the book's end, it's completely unclear who is being honest, who even knows the truth, and whether the source of the confusion is magical or mundane. I felt markedly less sane after reading it (in a good way).

This is a difficult book to review. My first Catriona Ward book was The Last House on Needless Street, and I was a bit disappointed because I figured out what was going on pretty early in the book. I figured I'd give her another try, and I definitely found Looking Glass Sound to be in a similar style, but I had no clue where it was going... Well, it went to a pretty unique place. Looking Glass Sound definitely breaks the mold and blurs several genre lines, which adds to the suspense. Overall, a decent thriller with a twist I definitely didn't see coming.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced listener's copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Catriona Ward is such an amazingly awesome storyteller. I admit sometimes picking up her books and reading for a 2nd time I enjoy them even more. Sadly, Looking Glass Sound did not work for me. I know I’m in the minority here. But even though this was a miss for me I will hands down pick up her next read.

I struggled with the immaturity of the characters in this book. I thought we were dealing with children not 16 year olds. This was a strange book for me to even finish. A book within a book, within a book. Maybe I just wasn’t smart enough for this read. I will say I enjoyed the first 1/3 of this book the best. By the last 1/3 of this book i was just confused and lost and thinking what did I just read, lol. Maybe because this was an audiobook, it was harder to follow along Maybe at a later time I will give the physical book a try as I may enjoy that reading experience better. My confusion was not because of the narration but solely on the story itself.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook and e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Wilder is a strange kid. His escape from school is when his family spends their summers on the coast in a small beach town community. But the community is hiding something dark. As that darkness is revealed Wilder’s safe haven becomes a place of nightmares.

This one is dark and twisty and I enjoyed it. The pacing was great and the mystery was real. I did have some trouble keeping track of some of the timing/storylines but that may have been a kindle formatting issue. I love how this one delved into trauma and the ramifications felt for years to come.

A very trippy book that demands multiple readings. It is the sort of book that demands the reader revisit in order to see all the puzzle pieces fall into place. The way the book was written, you constantly feel off kilter and disoriented, which heightens the terror. I adored the characters, and found myself sad to find Wilder's ending was not the happily ever after Pearl wrote for him. Or did he?

'Looking Glass Sound' is a puzzle box of a story that will trap you until the final pages. Many books follow the trope of a coming-of-age story, with a tragedy far in the past and an adult character returning to the scene of their trauma to reconcile with it. We are introduced to characters in the present, and revelations about the past events are glimpsed through flashbacks and time jumps.

In Ward's newest novel, we actually start at the beginning. Wilder arrives at Whistler Bay as an awkward teenager with his parents, and quickly makes friend with Nat and Harper. Their relationships grow, ebb, and tangle while the community seeks the identity of the Dagger Man of Whistler Bay, who breaks into homes and photographs sleeping children. As Wilder grows up and goes to college, and then becomes a married adult, revelations about his summer at Whistler Cottage start to catch up with him. By the time Wilder makes his way back to Whistler Bay, well into the meat of the book, we have already lived out the events of the past with him.

Ward expertly nestles psychological horror and mystery into layer upon layer of narratives that are simultaneously inextricable from one another and conflicting in their delivery. I took my time absorbing this one and every time I thought I had a theory about the impending resolution, a new chapter would dismantle it entirely. Like Wilder, as a reader I could not differentiate between the truth and perception, real and unreal. Just read it!

This book was a little hard for me to follow. I usually love this authors books. It went back and forth and I couldn't figure out where I was. Not one of my favorite books.

Up until about 70%, this was probably a 3 star read, but the final portion saved it for me and I think I would give this 3.5-4 stars.

I had a NetGalley e-arc of this book and there may have been some organizational/structural elements that made this book more difficult to follow than if I had a complete or even a physical edition, so my review will be based upon the content in hopes that it is easier to follow in final format.

In true Catriona Ward fashion, this book is twisty and convoluted in so many ways and you are left guessing and puzzle-piecing up til the very end.

What I loved:
•The way the ending pulled everything together and connected all the dots. Ward’s books always seem like they would be even better during a reread and this one is no different.
•The foundational premise of The Dagger Man is very interesting and lends a great hand at supporting the rest of the main plot revolving around Wilder and his book.
•The characters have a lot of depth and even knowing as much as we do about them, there is still so much mystery about them all and how they intersect throughout the different timelines.
•The final 30% of the book saved it for me. The twists appeared and the pieces began to fit together. Finally the confusing elements of the book began to make sense (this is something I’ve learned is a staple of Ward’s writing and so far it has worked for me).

What I didn’t love:
•The first half of the book built up very slowly. It took me a long time to even make it to the 50% mark. Based on the description of the book, it felt almost like I was reading a completely different book for a while.
•The second half of the book contained a very exhausting retelling of events that had already been detailed heavily previously in the book. Until later when you learn how the retelling fits the overall plot twist, it just feels unnecessary and was a bit difficult to get through after already having read the events earlier.

Looking Glass Sound is creepy, atmospheric, and has lots of layers to it. The layers all sort of smashed together in the last half of the book, making it tough to sort out whose perspective is “real” and which bits are the book-within-a-book bits. The writing is gorgeous and the characters are interesting, but ultimately the story became overly convoluted and confusing.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

There’s a dark secret trapped in the coves off of Whistler Bay. A secret that Wilder, Harper, and Nat discover and completely alters the course of their lives.

This was so creepy and twisty that there came a point where I didn’t trust anything I was reading. Wilder, Harper, and Nat’s story is intertwined unlike anything I’ve read in a very long time. Catriona Ward has a way of pulling a reader in from the first few chapters and holding their attention hostage until the story is over.

This book is a mind bending psychological thriller. It has so many elements that I loved. Serial killers. Coming of age story. Twists.

I gave this book 3.5 stars

So let’s dive into the review.

Overall the writing is beautiful! This is my second Catriona Ward book and I’ve really found that I get sucked in by the writing. It’s ominous and creepy.

The first half of this book feels like a coming of age story (reminiscent of IT). I flew through chapter after chapter all in the span of hours. It was hard to put down.

The second half is where the book fell flat for me. It became repetitive. I won’t say too much to keep this review spoiler free, but a good portion of the last 50% of this book is one of the main characters writing about the events that took place in the first half of the book. So the scenes have already happened with some minor detailed changed.

A lot of plot twists happened in the second half. They were rapid fire, one after the other and I found myself getting a bit lost trying to follow along.

Still, I really liked this book. I just wish the second half was a bit stronger.

Also, the synopsis is kind of deceiving. I thought we’d be jumping into the story with the main character writing about his past in the cabin. Instead we don’t get there until the 50% mark. And the synopsis spoils events that actively take place in the first half of the narrative.

I would suggest going into this one blind! I had skimmed the synopsis, just getting the main idea and thankful missed the spoilers.