Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Looking Glass Sound.

This is my first book by the author and it was good and strange, but I'm not sure if it was good in a strange way.

The beginning was a great setup; Wilder is an awkward, sexually confused teen navigating puberty and the tension between his parents.

When he meets Harper and Nat one fateful summer at his deceased uncle's cottage, everything changes, friendships are made and shattered, and Wilder is never the same again.

I loved the inclusion of the serial killer, and if the author had just run with that and continued with Wilder's coming of age, I would have enjoyed it more.

But, the narrative got confusing. Fast.

There was a story within a story, and characters coming alive, I think, and now I'm not sure who is real and who is not?

I'm not a fan of meta themes, I find it confusing and distracting, but as I kept reading the story was disintegrating along with the characters (maybe that was the point), and when I got to the end, I didn't know who was what and what was going on.

I really liked the premise, but I'm not a fan of the writing style and how the narrative progressed.

This story was a haunting and riveting tale of youth and the loss of innocence. The characters were deep and interesting and the plotting was intricate and well-executed.

I love Catriona Ward! I think that she does a wonderful job of mixing thriller and horror. The way she weaves stories is magical. However, Looking Glass Sound was not my favorite. I'm not sure if it was the formatting of the arc or just the story itself but I felt more confused than ever (not in a good way) while reading this book. Reading a Ward book is an experience and you can always bet that you will be confused. However, there's a difference between a book being confusing because the characters are unreliable versus it being confusing because the writing itself doesn't make sense. I feel like Looking Glass Sound might fall into the latter category. I will definitely be giving this book a second read when the finished copy releases and my review might change at that time. But character wise, I felt disconnected from them and that may have been the point because the ending of course has a twist. But when the twist came, I didn't seem to care. I felt that it was a bit gimmicky and could have been better.

Overall, I think Looking Glass Sound is okay and deserves another reread for me.

I found this book to be so confusing that I could not finish it. I couldn't get a handle on the characters, because they sounded like young children but I don't think they actually were. I had liked another book by this author and would read her again, but this one was not for me.

Do you like onions? If you read this book, you probably should because there are LAYERS in this baby. It’s cleverly written with a ghostly, gothic feel which becomes a stronger element the further you read. This is my first Catriona Ward read and I’ll probably be reading more from her in the future.

The book is about Wilder Harlow who vacations with his family on the coast of Maine. He meets two other teens and is inserted into their joys of summer. There is also a killer on the loose around the same time and, of course, these kids find a body. This messes with all of them in one way or another. Fast forward to university where Sky, Wilder’s one-time best friend, stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, Looking Glass Sound. Wilder is determined to write his own book and kill Sky with his words. Fast forward again, I think 30 years? Wilder goes back to that vacation home in Maine to begin writing his memoir, but as he writes, the lines between memory and fiction blur. He fears he’s losing his grip on reality when he finds notes hidden around the cottage written in Sky’s signature green ink.

The story is quite an immersive read. It had plot twists up until the very last sentence and I loved it. The only thing that took me out of the story a bit was revisiting the same story from different POVs and it felt a little repetitive. The moment you start to think you know what is happening, ummm ya don’t. I found myself stopping to go back and reread to make sure I was tracking correctly. I did get a bit confused a few times but thankfully everything wrapped up by the end.

The mystery slowly becomes creepier as the story progresses and because it’s full of secrets, it can be a bit difficult to review without revealing too much. It’s a tale about murder that deals with the long shadow it casts. It’s about writing and witchcraft, unrequited love, death, and not being able to move on from things that happened, or things you felt when you were very young. For fans of gothic mysteries and the book-in-a-book thing, you’ll probably like this one!

Thank you to @netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was drawn to this one by the cover, and it was my first time reading something by Catriona Ward. Lots of great characters, haunting story, trauma, loss, friendship. It will definitely stick with you after you finish it.

Catriona Ward is one of my favorite horror authors, so I was beyond thrilled when I got approved for this arc.
One of the things I love about Catriona Ward's writing is that it is 1. very atmospheric, 2. descriptive in the setting, sounds, and smells in a way that it feels like you are physically there with the character, 3. and of course the plot twists. All of the things I love about her writing were in this book.
In "Looking Glass Sound" we follow Wilder who at the beginning of the book is 16 years old and is struggling with being bullied at school. Over break, his family inherits his uncles house in a small town in May. While Wilder is there he makes friends for the first time and feels like he is finally accepted. Those happy feelings don't last forever because there are weird things and secrets going on in this little town.
I had such a blast reading this. I simply could not put it down. The plot twists in here I could have never guessed and when they did happen I got chills.
Usually when I read a Catriona Ward book, I don't really know what is happening for 50-60% of the book, but then when you hit that first plot twist, everything starts to make sense and it is absolutely genius.
I would highly recommend this book to someone who wants a book that will shock and surprise them in the best way, but also for someone who appreciates eerie, beautiful, descriptive writing.
Although this is not my favorite book by Catriona Ward, I still had such a fantastic time and am very excited for publication day!

Wilder returns to his family's cottage on the coast of Maine to write a book about the summers he spent there as a teenager. This story has already been told, by Wilder's one-time best friend, Sky, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a best-selling horror novel, but Wilder wants to set the record straight. Unfortunately for our man Wilder (and fortunately for us), this is a Catriona Ward book, so nothing is as it seems.

I absolutely love the way Ward writes. Her stories are always vaguely hallucinogenic and really uncomfortable, with a solid dose of creepy terror to make your insides feel extra squirrelly. Told through multiple narrators and criss-crossing timelines, this book was deeply unsettling (and, honestly, very confusing). Another reviewer who I trust said she read this in one sitting, which I think is the way to go. Keeping track of who is who and when whatever is happening is happening requires a lot of focus and allowing yourself to be fully immersed in the world Ward is building... and trusting that she'll lead you through to the other side. I feel like this is a book I'd like to read again when I can be uninterrupted (so... like maybe in July when my kids are both gone at sleepaway camp?) I did like this even if I didn't quite get it, and consider Ward an auto-read author. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

This was my first Catriona Ward book even though I have many of her books I have on my TBR. Looking Glass Sound has single handedly insured that I will be reading the rest of them, expeditiously. This was a mind FREAK to say the least. So many questions and very few answers until it all unraveled at the end. That is not to say that it cleared anything up I am still unraveling to twists and turns of this story but I'm not upset about that in the least bit! This was an absolutely addictive story line full of mystery and suspense with a sprinkle of witch craft that I didn't see coming. Looking forward to Ward's other works. I'm just hoping they are as dark and twisted as Looking Glass Sound.

After reading The Last House on Needless Street I was super excited when this book became available to review. Unfortunately, it fell flat. I loved the first part of the story with Wilder, Nat, Harper and The Dagger Man. The character development was great and I loved how each part was written. When The Dagger Man is caught and things change in the friendship dynamic (even though they are only summer friends), that is where you lost me.

I thought the addition of Sky was interesting as well, but, before you know it I was pretty lost in the story line. I know it is a story within a story but I found it hard to follow unfortunately.

With that said, the author's writing style is clean and flows well and as with Needless Street things aren't always as they seem. This one just was a little too confusing for me.

I'm incredibly distracted by the Britishisms of the main character, who's supposed to be American? Has this book been proofed yet?

I tried to read it but the arc I received of this book is almost unreadable. Dashes and numbers randomly in the middle of sentences and the layout is like a poem. I have no problem with punctuation or spelling errors because I do understand it's an advanced copy. But the numbers and dashes made it hard to continue reading.

Astonishing! What a journey! I found this to be an excellent exploration of grief, queer longing, identity, and so much more. The author has masterfully crafted a creepy ambiance filled with twists and mind games. I thought I had it, but everything got turned around at the end. Advance reader copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

𝙈𝙮 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars)

𝙈𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨:

So much to say here… I’m going to try to be as succinct as possible but even 12 hours after finishing this book my heads still spinning, so I’ll probably fail.

First, a note on formatting…

If you got this book from NetGalley and had it sent to your kindle, be aware that the formatting is off. Line breaks where there shouldn’t be, random 1’s and 0’s, etc. I think it actually added to my enjoyment of this book, because I had to read it super closely instead of just letting myself zone into it, but it took me a bit to get used to it.

Now, the book itself…

If someone were to hand me this book, and I’d never heard of Catriona Ward and never read anything she wrote, I might have decided to put this one down after the first third. Sure, it was interesting, but in such a way that is pretty standard and can be found in many other gothic horror novels. In fact, I wouldn’t even consider the first third particularly “horror”.

But as it was, I knew better. And boy am I glad I did. This is my fifth novel by Ms. Ward. She was an auto-buy after Sundial. I would read the instructions on a shampoo bottle if she wrote them.

The twists, the mind-bending, the gender fluidity, the absolute “wtaf is going on here”… this isn’t a book you can read once and move on with your life. I’ll have to read it at least twice to even have a minor grasp. But I will, and happily.

Catriona Ward has earned her place on my shelf among Stephen King and Chuck Wendig. I absolutely cannot wait to see where her imagination takes me next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Nightfire and Catriona Ward for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Looking Glass Sound will be available in the US on August 8th 2023.

I have very mixed emotions on this one. I was consumed with it yet in the end I found it to be over complicated. Ward has such a unique writing style and always has a great reveal yet this one didn't seem to flow the way her other work does. I loved the ideas behind the story and the characters but it just felt contrived.

2.5/5

This book was interesting up till the first half. I like the friendship and mystery behind it, but it deteriorated after discovering all the bodies. It became weird, confusing and left me uninterested. I wish I liked it more! Ending was meh. It doesn’t make any sense.

Thanks for the ARC still! 🥲

Catriona Ward is like, a master of unreliable narrators and twists you know to expect, but don't stand a chance of ever figuring out before they happen. This book was no different--though the second half dragged a bit more than the first. Still, a highly recommended story.

This is an incredibly hard book to review. It is a complicated puzzle and just when you think you have it figured out it throws you onto a completely different path. What starts out as a mystery quickly becomes more of a gothic horror. The characters complex, flawed and broken. They are searching for their own resolutions to an event that connects them in a deep and heartbreaking way. Friendship, longing, secrets, acceptance, grief, and betrayal all play a role in their lives.

If what I said above intrigues you please give the book a chance. At times you will be confused, it is written from multiple points of view. The timeline does skip around. But I promise if you stick with it you will be blown away. At first I thought I hated it and wanted to throw it across the room but I would wake up in the morning dying to find out where the story was going to take me next. There are so many layers to this book. I found myself thinking about this book hours and days later piecing together what I had read previously. It is definitely worth a second read for me which I rarely do.

I will not spoil this book for you by writing an in-depth review. You will just have to read it for yourself. Without telling you too much, this story follows Wilder, Nat and Harper, three friends who are linked by a discovery they made one summer.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the advance copy for review.

I had never read this author before so I was excited as she has so many rave reviews! Initially, it is very odd and a little creepy as we meet Wilder, Nat, and Harper in the summer and we begin to hear the stories of The Dagger Man. I seriously had no idea where this was going and continued to be thrown by the real and imagined horrors as Wilder write, meets Sky, falls in love, and has no idea what he's in for! So many emotions ran through my mind as I contemplate the events and the. imaginings as things unfold. It's a gripping story unlike anything I've ever read and I'll be sure to read more of Ward as I'm blown away by her imagination!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Looking Glass Sound lulls you with the setting and circumstances of a coming-of-age experience that takes place among three friends over the course of an ill-fated summer in the late 80s. It's one of those stories that softly strangles with a fraught, undefined sense of doom and vague, looming dread that has nothing to do with horror but rather the sweetly unbearable, eerily desperate poignancy of the passage of time, how hope and youth and friendship and loyalty will never feel the same again after you cross a certain threshold. It becomes a kind of fever dream, turned around and bewildering, where the people and their stories keep changing, moving, slipping from your grasp; nothing’s as you thought, and maybe you never properly understood the stakes of the story to begin with--or even whose story it really was. Circuitous and labyrinthine in its leading one towards and away from the truth, depending on whose truth it was, Looking Glass Sound left me with the most breathtakingly frustrating and beautiful ache in my heart, and honestly, it's all I could want in a book by Catriona Ward.