The book is excellent. It’s her most intricate, tightest novel to date – I don’t even know how she plotted it all out.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward | Waterstones

But don’t get too comfy behind your rose-tinted glasses. As you’ll soon discover, this isn’t all summer fun and campfires on the beach. We’re also treated to an exploration of the dark underbelly of this New England town.Also, there seemed to be 3 stories being told intermittently that didn't feel at all relative to each other. I enjoyed them somewhat separately but struggle to see why they're in the same book. The Daggerman, the throuple between friends, and the book being stolen were all wildly different tones and didn't seem to mesh well together at all. A deeply dark and unexpected tale about families, love, hate, the long shadow of the past, and the redemptive power of storytelling. Clever, poetic and immersive.”— Araminta Hall, author of Imperfect Women

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward - Lightspeed Book Review: Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward - Lightspeed

This twisted tale of ghosts and murderers, derailed lives and childhood traumas is a vertical labyrinth that will take you straight down into the heart of darkness. Enthralling and heartbreaking." - M R Carey Unbelievably good... so clever, so haunting and melancholic. A novel about obsession, love and loss; an exploration of trauma and delusion; a meditation on writing and what it means to create, to be trapped in a world of your own making, tormented by your own characters. It's so beautiful, so dark and so vivid." - Jennifer Saint Readers will question every word as Ward expertly weaves together an enigmatic story of friendship, young love, obsession, and horror."If there's one thing I've come to expect from Catriona Ward, it's this: expect the unexpected.. So often writers fall into the same tropes, the same literary TRAPS even, and it's a rarity to find a voice and a person brave enough to not only think outside the box, but to WRITE outside of it. Ward has been compared to Stephen King (and has received praise from him as well), and for good reason: her work is dazzling in its literary prowess, breathtaking in its descriptive and visceral prose, terrifying through its twisted protagonists and plots, and baffling in its intricacy. Sensational….I can’t recall another novel in recent years that dares so much and succeeds so wildly.”— A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward - The Eloquent Page Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward - The Eloquent Page

Ward will break your heart, mend it, and then break it again for good measure. A novel that will define a generation." - Awais Khan I knew it was set in Maine, my home state, and involved a writer, but that was about it. I recommend you go into it not knowing much more than that. It wasn’t my favorite of hers, but I’d still highly recommend it to those who love a book within a book story (with a twist!) and enjoy the mental challenge of a more complex plot. Catriona Ward’s unique blend of psychological horror, mystical elements and atmospheric writing are an appealing combination! As the novel opens, we read the unpublished memoir of Wilder Harlow, a sixteen-year-old boy whose uncle has died and left his parents a cottage on the Maine coast. Wilder soon meets two friends, also with author-inspired names: a handsome boy named Nathaniel and a redheaded British girl, Harper. The trio form a closeknit bond during their magical summer together and promise to return each year.I don’t tell my parents about what happens at Scottsboro. It might make things even worse between them. But then it started to go a bit off the rails for me. Part two, when Wilder decided to write a book was very repetitive. It was the same story but with slightly different names, and I didn't enjoy it at all. I loved every word...an irresistible, beautifully written story powered by dread and fascination with the unknown.”

Looking Glass Sound | Catriona Ward | 9781250860026 | NetGalley Looking Glass Sound | Catriona Ward | 9781250860026 | NetGalley

Come on, sport,’ my father says. ‘Good for you to get out. You can’t sit in your room all vacation.’ So I go with him to run errands in Castine. What else am I going to do?This is for sure a coming-of-age novel, the characters start as young adults and by the end, are much older. The story really unfolds in distinct acts: Childhood/Adolescence, College life, and Adulthood. The three main characters are bound together by an evolving mystery. And that’s all I will say about that. For both the character and the reader, it’s definitely a trip through the looking glass — everything you thought you understood is washed away with the tide and the truth is what remains on the shore. CATRIONA WARD was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She studied English at the University of Oxford, and later, completed a Creative Writing Masters at the University of East Anglia. Ward won the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel for her debut, The Girl from Rawblood, and again for Little Eve, making her the first woman to win the prize twice. Ward is the internationally bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street.