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.

I don’t know how she does it…. But she does it every single time!
You never know what you’re going to get. But it doesn’t matter because when you open a Ward novel up you know you’re going to be sucked down a deep dark hole that you never want to climb out of. She is a true masterful storyteller and her stories never ceases to amaze me.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward kept me on the edge of my seat.
Her descriptive writing style, and the way she creates such an hair-raising atmosphere in her stories, is mind blowing.
She is a master at suspense.
I was so invested in the story, I wasn't ready for this one to end.
The writing and story was mesmerizing and it’s proof that Ward is brilliant at what she does.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Excellent use of multiple timelines. Intrigiung characters. The mystery become creepier as the story progresses. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this incredible book

When you start reading this one, you think “wow, this seems fairly normal for a Cat Ward story…”. You’re wondering where and when the signature Ward WTFness is going to hit.

But as you keep reading, you start to realize THE LAYERS. THE LAYERS are added via slight, quiet reveals and unsuspected twists and turns.

Then you take a deep breath as you realize the signature Cat Ward WTFness is in full effect after all.

I saw a review that called this a “frightening nesting doll of a novel” and that’s so accurate. There are layers up on layers here and it’s kinda amazing to watch it all unfold.

It might just be my favorite Ward novel so far.

I don’t know how to explain my feelings about this book. Most of my time reading it I confused and wondering what direction the story was going in. Eventually there was so much going on and so many different elements trying to be included. I didn’t really enjoy the writing, which is weird since this author’s 2022 book, Little Eve, was one of my favorite reads last year. A lot of this book kind of feels like YA and the characters seem very young. I’m still not sure how I felt about that. I also didn’t like that there were pretty much no chapters in this book. Overall, I’m pretty conflicted on my opinion of this book. I liked the creepy vibes and some of the surprising moments that took place but overall I’m too perplexed by a lot of the elements of this book that I can’t really say that I enjoyed it.

Thank you to Netgalley, Tor Publishing Group and Catriona Ward for this ARC ebook. Looking Glass Sound will be published August 8, 2023.

What an absolutely beautifully and terrifying novel! This is my second book by Ward and once again, she did not disappoint. My favorite aspect of this story was how untrustworthy the narrator is….you start to question whether he’s truly all there!

Thank you so much Netgalley for the chance to read this advanced copy in exchange for a review!
I absolutely love psychology thrillers so I was very excited when I was approved for this read! Could not put it down!

As I suspected, Catriona Ward stumped me again. This twisty horror thriller had me guessing all over the place but in the end, I finally got it! Honestly, I was quite confused at times, not unlike my read of The Last House on Needless Street. This was an excellent read, I fell hard for the cast (again, like TLHoNS) and I’ll definitely be recommending it to friends. Bravo Catriona! Bravo!

Three young friends are haunted by the decades-old mysteries of a small, coastal town.

Part ghost story, part metafiction, part witchcraft, <u>Looking Glass Sound</u> is all kinds of chaotic insanity in the absolute best ways possible. The twists and turns and reveals were all extremely confusing as this book within a book within a book within a book continued to unfold. I enjoyed the characters and Ward's pacing, it was just the delivery of some of the final reveals that prevented this from being a perfect five star read for me. Highly recommend for suspense/thriller/horror fans.