Thanks to Tor Publishing Group and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

-this was a 5 star book for me but I have a hard time articulating why:

It’s really difficult to talk about this book without giving everything away. In true Catriona Ward fashion, nothing about this story is what it seems. The characters hook you from the moment you begin reading; wild and intense Harper, taciturn and forgiving Nat, and Wilder, with his strange pale eyes and all the awkwardness of a teen learning about who he is. As Wilder gets to know his friends, and Ward begins to reveal deeply buried secrets about the trio, you get pulled into their story.

The story seems pretty straight forward until you get to the last third, when you realize you’ve been reading metafiction all along. A book within a book, or a character within a character, and so on. There is way more to the story than what I was expecting.

The ending basically shook me. It took me a month to write this review. And I still don’t really know what to say about this book. I’m still thinking about it. It’s weird, and deep, and wild. And you should read it.

I liked this book a lot. But with that said, it confused the hell out of me at times. Keeping track of the events and what was the past and what was the present took a lot of effort. This one was just a bit too chaotic for me to really engage and connect with.

My reaction finishing this book is the meme from Veep where Julia Louis-Dreyfus is laughing nervously and saying “wtf…!?”

Did I love this book? Did I hate this book? Did this book take me on several twists and turns and maybe left me behind somewhere along the way?

I want to start by saying I LOVED The Last House on Needless Street. Honestly that book was amazing and I even still think about it randomly. It was a 5 star read where I’m sure I also said WTF out loud, but the book didn’t lose me that time. I stayed along for the ride and couldn’t get enough. 🤯

I like Catriona Ward’s writing style, and I think it works for this book. I know it’s meant to be disjointed, but at times listening to the audio I had to rewind several times because I thought I accidentally skipped forward. Nope, that’s just the style.

Catriona Ward writes such creepy main characters, and paired with Christopher Ragland narrating it is SO unsettling. He also narrated The Last House on Needless Street and was perfect!

This book definitely got a reaction out of me, and I will certainly remember it. It’s a puzzle that will confuse you, and then it does fall into place (I think?) - but man it was a weird ride!

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

I think Catriona Ward might have just been a “one-hit-wonder” author for me.

This book started off pretty strong and I was very intrigued by having a teenage perspective to read from. However, once we started flipping the story on it’s an axis one too many times, I was just left feeling dizzy. The plot was very hard to keep track of along the way and I just ended up feeling bored because I felt so disconnected from everything going on.

I think Catriona’s writing style just doesn’t work for me and that is OKAY. I know plenty of people who love her books and I wish I could be one of them.

so much happened - and i am lost wondering what the point of it all was.

I absolutely adored Sundial and was so excited to read Catriona Ward's next book. and while i found the beginning a little slow I was incredibly curious what was going to happen. But there was just.... too much going on and none of it really mattered.

It almost felt like a slice of life masquerading as a horror- but it also wasn't really scary. There was no real or present threat. the scariest parts where the descriptions of the deads skin sloughing off. Otherwise it was not very scary.

There was also the book within a book trope which i usually enjoy but quite honestly never knowing what was real and what wasn't was incredibly confusing and by the end i just didnt care about anyone or anything.

Ward definitely tried something new and experimental with this - and unfortunately it did not work for me. I will continue to read from her until I can decide if Sundial was a one-off for me or not but this one was a loss for me.

What in the world?? I mean this in such a good way, though. My first book by Catriona was The Last House on Needless Street, and it was amazing. I still think about that book randomly. It lives rent-free in my brain.   Looking Glass Sound is no exception! The characters Nat, Wilder, and Harper are all relatively relatable in that they are all very different, so at least some characteristics will be familiar to either you or someone you know. Then, there is Pearl, who isn't a main character but plays a big role in the story, in my opinion. 

There are multiple POV, and it goes from past to present and back through the whole book, but it isn't consistent, so pay attention. You don't want to miss a single detail. What are those dolls where you open one, and then there is another doll inside, and it keeps going on for what seems like forever? This book is like that. Or like peeling an onion. You think you know where the story is going and then BOOM another layer to the story. There is no way you can guess what is about to happen in this book so for all my fellow "let the author tell me the story since it is theirs " this book is definitely one to look in to adding to your TBR.

The ride Catriona takes you on is warped, dark, and I friggin loved it! Take your time reading this book, and if you are someone who annotates books, this one would be awesome for annotating.  This book reminds me of a Stephen King book in that you're like, what in the actual f*ck is going on?? But, again in such a great way.

Many thanks to my friends at @tornightfire and @macmillan.audio for the #gifted copies of this book.

Complex. Weird. The perfect mix of confusion and satisfaction.

“It was me that was haunted, not the place.” -Ward in conversation at @politicsprose.

There’s a certain genius with which Ward writes horror. It’s never simplistic: mere violence and fear. Instead, it brims with a passionate intensity and steeps in perplexity, leaving the reader haunted by the writing itself.

And Ward’s newest may be her most haunting yet.

On the first summer holiday in the idyllic coastal town, Wilder is determined to find love. And he does. Those friendships of youth burgeon with a special intensity. But things change when the friends make a terrible discovery. And it will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

What opens as a coming-of-age tale swiftly shifts to a disturbing circular narrative. A story within a story within a story, blurring the lines between fact and fiction to create a horrifying sense of uncertainty.

This is a wildly ambitious plot, unpacking the traumatic effects of violence while pondering the authenticity of memory and storytelling. And on both accounts, Ward excelled.

While many felt the plot confusing and convoluted, that’s where I thought Ward’s narrative stood out. The meticulous layering (though necessarily befuddling at times) created an intimate and resounding portrait of trauma. It was a look within the mind of survivors, narrating the distortion and horror, unlike any I’ve read before.

The more I sit with this story, the more I appreciate it’s brilliance. I can’t wait to see what Ward does next!

🎧 You’re going to want a physical copy of this one, if for no other reason than to reread sections for clarity. But the audiobook is a great accompaniment. Full of emotion and nuance, I found myself lost in the voices created by narrators Christopher Ragland and Katherine Fenton.

Strange Sally Diamond

First let me say I’m a fan of this author. After finishing some of her other books, I’ve picked my jaw up off the floor because of her clever twists. But this novel isn’t my favorite.

Wilder is bullied at school, has no friends, and his parents’ marriage is on the rocks. He’s struggling. When his father inherits a beach house, the family decides to spend the summer there. Wilder meets Nat and Harper, and it becomes a summer of friendship, love, adventure, and laughter. I enjoyed seeing Wilder come out of his shell. When the three of them meet up again the next summer, they’ve each undergone changes, and the mystery of the Dagger Man looms over them. Soon, the summer takes an unexpected, dark turn. This part of the book captivated me.

In the second part, Wilder goes to college. He wants a fresh start away from the coast and bad memories. Sky is a new friend who helps Wilder with his panic attacks and encourages his writing. Knowing this author’s style, I paid close attention to details and thought I’d figured out a big twist. I was so far off base I was on a different field entirely.

The third part of the book is where it went off the rails for me. It felt like a chaotic fever dream, and I wasn’t sure what was real. Just when I thought the story was over, more twists were added. Not like a “Wow!” twist, more like a “Um, what?” I found it difficult to follow.

There are plenty of four and five star reviews for this book, so don’t let my review deter you from giving it a try. Ward’s writing is beautiful, and I’ll read anything else she releases.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A twisty, mind bender of a story. Who is writing the notes? Why the green ink? Is it Wilder's former best friend, turned enemy? Set in Maine, in a lonely cottage, this book is creepy vibes!

I will never fully understand how Catriona Ward's mind works. This was a wild ride. I started out listening to the audio which was really well done, but alternated with the physical copy which I think was a good choice otherwise I may have been confused. The way the books within the book all wove together was so intriguing. As always, Ward includes a great setting that adds so much to the story. My only gripe here is that I was expecting there to be a bit more about the serial killer in the bay. Overall, I still liked it and Ward continues to be an auto-buy author for me.

I can't wait to discuss this one with our buddy readers for PM Reads.

Looking Glass Sound is a psychological horror novel about the power of memory and the dangers of nostalgia. The story follows Wilder Harlow, a man who returns to the small Maine town where he spent his summers as a child. He is there to write a book about the summer of 1989, when he and his friends Nat and Harper witnessed a horrific crime. But as Wilder begins to write, he starts to question his own memories. Is he misremembering what happened? Or is something more sinister at work?

The novel is told in two alternating timelines: the present day, when Wilder is writing his book, and the summer of 1989, when the crime takes place. This structure allows Ward to explore the ways in which memory can be unreliable and how the past can come back to haunt us.

Looking Glass Sound is a beautifully written and atmospheric novel that will stay with you long after you finish reading it. It is a story about the power of secrets, the dark side of nostalgia, and the dangers of forgetting.

Here are some of the things that I liked about the book:

The writing is beautiful and atmospheric. Ward does a great job of capturing the feel of a small Maine town in the summer.
The story is suspenseful and twisty. I was kept guessing until the very end.
The characters are complex and well-developed. I felt invested in their lives and wanted to know what would happen to them.
Overall, I thought Looking Glass Sound was a great book. It is a psychological horror novel that will stay with you long after you finish reading it. I would definitely recommend it to fans of the genre.

Catriona Ward has such an incredible way of weaving a suspenseful story and her newest release, LOOKING GLASS SOUND, is no exception!

One of the reasons that I love Ward’s novels so much is that each one is so different from the last. In LOOKING GLASS SOUND, this was a slower burn that had more of a psychological feel to it. I really enjoyed the story within the story and how, as the reader, I was left questioning what was real and what was imagined.

There are so many elements of LOOKING GLASS SOUND to breakdown and digest after you finish reading. This is certainly a book that will have you thinking back on earlier sections to pick apart and analyze. I know I will be thinking about this one a lot more but encourage readers to pick this one up, especially if you’ve been a fan of Ward’s past work! I cannot wait to see what this incredible author has in store for readers in the future!

This book utterly blew me away. I admired so much the meta quality of the story. I won't write much about it, in large part because I don't want to give anything away, but also because I want to spend more time piecing together the meaning hidden within it. I will say that -- although the story is entirely different, the style and layers within this really reminded me of House of Leaves, which is one of my favorite books. I absolutely love when a book or film makes you go back and recontextualize and reexamine everything you've read, and it is no small feat for an author to pull that off successfully.

Layered plot had me struggling to keep up, but tied it all together in the end very nicely! This was my first by Catriona Ward, and the setting of a New England town is all it took to get me excited for this one. Towards the end, some of the narratives became confusing, and it may be even better if I get around to reading it the second time!

Thanks NetGalley for this arc, all opinions are my own.

Thank-you NetGalley for the ARC!

Catriona Ward has done it again! I absolutely LOVED this book and I cannot stop thinking about it. If you are a lover of gothic fiction, this is the book for you. I was not prepared for the twists and it was pure perfection.

Catriona Ward is an ambitious writer, and the plot constructions of her most recent novels prove that. With "Looking Glass Sound," she has taken on the challenge of a book within a book within a book structure, and it works pretty well for the majority of the story. Ward was holding a lot of different plot threads here, but she made the fatal mistake of having the least interesting storyline be the book’s anchor and ending. Things just didn’t come together in a satisfying way for me. That being said, there’s a lot to admire here. Ward’s writing is pretty great, and she does a good job of bringing the locales to life with vivid imagery.

Told in 1st person from Wilder’s unpublished memoir, 3rd person of Pearl. Was good until about 75% in then got weird and confusing. Wasn’t a fan of the ending. Beautiful writing like always. Loved the characters, setting, and literally everything hence 3.5 rounded to 4 stars.

I think that I just need to come to terms with the fact that Catriona Ward is an absolute genius. At this point I need to accept that she is going to be an auto-buy for me, and hopefully for you too. Catriona Ward is, in my opinion, comparable to the likes of M. Night, she can take an incredibly simple idea and turn it into something complex and weirdly beautiful. Take "Looking Glass Sound" for example, she crafted something that was already a nightmarish coming of age but then she added layer upon layers of storytelling, making it into something I have never read in my life I truly applaud her for that. I can't reveal too much about "Looking Glass Sound" because it is best to go into it completely blind and hopefully have a *shocked Pikachu* moment I think a lot of us readers had reading this story. It's a truly brilliant story and I highly recommend it! Happy Reading! x

Catriona Ward is an author I feel that is best enjoyed knowing as little as possible before reading. Looking Glass Sound was the second book I have read from this author and I look forward to experiencing more works in the future. Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for advanced copies of the physical and audiobook for review.

This book has a little bit of everything. Coming of age, horror, monsters, friendship and a psychological thriller. It is the perfect book club read for Halloween!! I loved it