Catriona Ward has quickly become one of my favorite living writers. She has mastered such a specific atmosphere throughout her books (at least the two that I have read) that hangs over you like a haze, even after you’ve finished. When I read Sundial earlier this summer, I had a hard time forgetting the way that it made me feel. Even now that dread sits in my chest, and Looking Glass Sound has made me feel no differently.

This was comped, at least to me, as Stand by Me meets Shirley Jackson, and I’d be remiss not to confirm this comparison is correct. Wilder is sixteen when his parents first bring him to Whistler Bay, to the cottage that his uncle lived in up until he died, and he’s determined that that summer, he’ll get a girlfriend, and he’ll write every day. Then he meets Nat and Harper, a local fisherman’s son and a rich British girl who summers in Maine, and his plans fall askew – in more ways than you can possibly imagine. Women are disappearing, and have for as long as everyone can remember, and there’s someone slipping into children’s rooms in the night to do nothing more than photograph them with a knife against their sleeping necks, but nonetheless, and rightfully so, people are frightened. It all comes to a head the summer before Wilder is meant to head off to college, and what happens will linger in his life until the end of it.

I love how many different narratives Ward is always able to weave together. You think you know exactly what’s going on, but she’s always one step ahead, and when she finally reveals to you how all of these stories align, it’s like you never actually understood what was happening at all. This could get confusing at times, but I was never lost for too long, and I came to understand that when I was lost, it was because Ward wanted me to be. And that ending! This is my favorite Catriona Ward novel so far, and I can’t wait to delve further into her backlog.

Maybe I'm just not a horror lover? The thrillers/mysteries that err more on the horror side are not my cup of tea, and this is how Looking Glass Sound leaned.

I can see how people would enjoy it, even with a slow start and it being kind of confusing. However, I don't love reading books that *consistently* give me the heebie jeebies.

What in the world did I just read? Catriona Ward is an intriguing author. This book is creepy, and it’s weird, and it’s a masterclass in unreliable narrators.
While the narrative requires patience, it was also very hard for me to put down. Even when I was confused, I was completely immersed. This book won’t be for everyone, so if strange, convoluted horror does not sound appealing to you, you might wanna skip this one.
If it intrigues you, then consider picking this one up and letting it take hold of you, leaving you unsettled and in awe.
Thank you to Tor publishing for the advance ebook, and Macmillan Audio for the complimentary audiobook (which I did not end up listening to).

This story centers around three teens that form a bond during a summer in a small , coastal New England town. The trio are from very different worlds but are all struggling as they approach adulthood. This summer finds them facing danger and tragedy that will leave a mark on them forever. Years later Wilder, one of the trio finds himself back in Maine to write the story of that summer and the killer of Looking Glass Sound. He finds himself questioning everything and everyone including himself as he faces the demons from the past.

Catriona Ward knows how to weave an intricate tale that keeps you guessing and questioning everything until the last page. This one was the most detailed of her books so far. It definitely messes with your head!! I enjoyed it a lot but take your time reading it. There is a lot to unpack!! That being said as with all of her books it is best to go in without knowing too much and let the mind bending commence!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

4 🌟

#NetGalley #LookingGlassSound #CatrionaWard

I devoured this book over the weekend. Maybe it was Oceanside vibes. The murder. The mystery. The young summer. I’m not sure but it drew me in and kept me there. When the twists started unfolding I literally felt the leap of thrill in my chest. Loved it.

Catriona Ward has a special kind of magic: she can pull out a twist ending like no other, and she can shatter your heart while doing it. LOOKING GLASS SOUND is no different, and just might be Ward's biggest tidal wave yet.

Did not finish. So boring and just hard to connect with any of the characters. Nice, spooky setting but unfortunately I just couldn’t continue reading because I was so bored.

This book was a wonderfully twisty story that you feel you know the ending to, and then you get shocked and awed at the ending. Catriona Ward has a way with psychological thriller/horror that never fails to impress.


Thanks to Catriona Ward and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

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.