Sundial was disturbing on many levels, but this total wimp was glued to its dark, creepy horror vibes. This is the type of book where it may be best to go in blind, but prepare yourself for some psychologically and physically abusive relationships, a weird hippie family conducting questionable experiments, and how the past can come back to haunt you.

When I started the book, I couldn't get over how terrible the characters were. At a point, I didn't care what type of horror came upon this family. However, things really sped up and evolved during the second half of the book. Mysteries were revealed, and the action kept coming.

I'm happy I decided to pick up a book totally outside my comfort zone. If anything, I'm grateful that I didn't grow up in a situation that resembled the unfortunate characters in Sundial. I also want to give every dog I see a big hug.

4 Stars

One-Liner: Twisted and triggering

Rob only wished to lead a normal life with a normal family. She gets it somehow, though the normality is nothing more than an illusion. Life with a narcissistic husband is never easy. But things could’ve been better if Callie, the elder daughter, didn’t start talking to imaginary friends and collecting tiny bones.
Fear pushes Rob back to Sundial, her childhood home in the Mojave Desert. She wants Callie to know who she actually is and why it is important for them to become normal. However, Rob discovers new secrets in Sundial and is torn between having to choose between her two daughters.
Callie is worried about her mother’s instability and her father’s ‘bad-monkeying’ ways. She doesn’t know what to say or do as Rob talks about the past. She is equally worried about her little sister, Annie.
Irving, Rob’s husband, is getting restless. He has a powerful hold on Rob. But what if she breaks through?
Can Rob and Callie’s stay at Sundial be a chance to close the door to the past and move on to a better future? Can broken people still have a normal life?

My Observations:

• The blurb calls the story wild, twisted, and dark. I agree with it. I kept wondering if there was even a single ‘normal’ character in the book.
• This quote, “Kids are mirrors, reflecting back everything that happens to them. You’ve got to make sure they’re surrounded by good things,” sums up the book in many ways.
• This is my first read by the author, and I admit I’m intrigued by the characters she creates. It’s so hard to like them, but I wanted to know what happened.
• The book has a lot of triggers, so proceed with caution. From animals to humans, bad things happen way too causally in the story. I can see why it’s classified as horror. The actions are no doubt horrifying.
• The beginning is slow but starts with a bang. We are pulled into the web of secrets, cruelty, and hatred from the first page. The slow pace makes the dark stuff even worse. Luckily, it picks up pace after 50%, or I maybe got used to the writing and could read faster.
• There’s a story within the story in the book, which TBH didn’t keep me interested. I read the first two bits with curiosity but started to skim through these bits afterward. I can kind of understand why these chapters were included. But take them out, and the book will still be the same.
• The climax was my favorite. I was waiting for it to happen. The ending left me in two minds. It’s perfect for the story (which is more important). You can’t, after all, neatly tie up everything and a cute little bow. However, the HEA fan in me wanted something more hopeful. Oh, well!
• There are a couple of subtle hints to guess the twists, making them more believable. I prefer such twists rather than the ones that come out of nowhere and nullify whatever happened until that point.

To sum up, Sundial is a dark tale of twisted minds where evil is a natural part of almost everyone’s lives. Oh, I enjoyed Callie’s POV more than Rob’s.
Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Nightfire, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
*****

P.S: Read this book only when you’re in the right frame of mind. It’s not mind-blowing or terrifying but can push things over the edge if you are not prepared for the triggers.

After reading The Last House on Needless Street last year and it being one of my favorite books of 2021, I was so thankful to received an e-arc of this book. Although the plot immediately had me hooked, I think that my interest tapered off because of too many moving parts. I expected more of a thriller with this novel and was ultimately a little disappointed. I think overall it had a lot of potential to be awesome. 3.5 stars.

Sundial by Catriona Ward was horrifying, thrilling and impossible to put down. This is the first book I've read by her so I'm excited to go back and read The Last House on Needless Street! What a truly amazing writer, I can't wait to see what's next! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this digital arc.

This is the next Goodreads horror winner of 2022. This is the most twisted, bizarre horror novel I've read in a long time and I devoured every word. I slowly consumed this novel to make it last. SO GOOD!

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(5 stars)

My thoughts: HOLY MOLY.

I LOVED Needless Street, so this one was inevitably going to be compared to that, in my mind at least. It met EVERY expectation I had for it.

Not kidding, Catriona Ward is now an auto-buy author for me.

This was a bit easier to understand than Needless Street, but OH THE TWISTS!! Absolutely loved it.

Sundial will be released on March 1st.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I will freely admit I requested this bc of the cover aesthetics and because Nightfire was offering it to NetGalley readers as part of the spring previews. I was not expecting how deeply I got sucked in, and her wonderful kind of fucked up and twists that were in store here. On the surface, this is a story of a mom possibly having to make a terrible choice between two of her daughters. What this really is is a fucked up story about experimentation, family bonds, the things we hide from our kids and our spouses, and some really fucked up nature vs nurture stuff. My only issue with it is that a solid 45% is told via flashback, but the alternating POVs, desert gothic, and sheer depths of the fucked up ness makes up for it. Will be up front about the fact that there’s animal experimentation here (specifically on dogs and other mammals), if that is an auto-nope for you. But I’m definitely interested in her other works from this, and will be seeing if there’s anything at the library. Pick it up when it comes out in March, and get ready for some scary ass shit.

TW- Psycological/emotional abuse, domestic abuse, animal abuse

Sundial is a psychological horror full of tension from page one. It follows Rob and one of her daughters, Callie.

Rob takes Callie to her old house in the desert, Sundial, after noticing unsettling behavior from her. There she tells her back story, and with each chapter, it gets more and more unsettling. Having a dual timeline made the story feel more suspenseful, as we’re learning and understanding along with Callie.

The characters in this are terrible, though most have somewhat understandable motivations. Except for Irving. He has no development and no real reason for him to be terrible, he just is.

I never knew where the story was going to go, and it kept me at the edge of my seat the entire time.

Sundial was thrilling and unnerving, with plot twists through the very end.

This will not be for everyone and I highly recommend checking out the trigger warnings since I’m sure I missed some.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me access to an ARC.

This book was meh. After reading, and liking, Needless Street I was looking forward to more by this author. I don't know how I feel about reading her next work.

This book had an interesting premise, but then went off the rails in what seems like an attempt to appeal to the masses. I'm so tired of author's attempting to write screenplays that they think will work well on Netflix instead of writing actual stories. This book had too many storylines that were just confusing and slow to be resolved. Throw in way too much blood, gore, and abuse...with some last minute high speed drama...and this is what you end up with. I found the whole thing unsatisfying.

Catriona Ward has done it again! This multi-layered novel unsettles the reader with its characters, development and slow burn. The information is parsed out like drops of water to one dying of thirst. The “Russian Nesting Dolls” signature of the author is evident in this novel as it reveals, bit by bit, the horrors and secrets within. With a final, unforeseen twist, it leaves one final question for the reader to answer on their own.

Ward delivers genuine Horror with Sundial- the type of straight-up-twisty-sad-but also fun horror that has been kind of replaced by the over encompassing "psychological thriller". A lot of care goes into building that horror within this story- but even more into the eloquent writing that puts that horror into the characters themselves, and that character study is detailed and again, deeply upsetting- in the best way. Loved it.

I will start out by saying that horror is not my usual genre but after reading The Last House on Needless Street I knew I wanted to read another book by this author. I'm not sure if this is normal for the genre but so much weird stuff goes on and your head spins but by the end things all come together, in ways you didn't imagine. Events start off right away and immediately you are questioning everything and everyone but as the story unfolds more and more is revealed until the end when it all falls together. The pacing and the crazy unreliability of the characters keep the story moving and your mind guessing. I will definitely read more from the author.

I will say that this book does have some animal cruelty issues so definitely not for everyone.

Another good effort by Ms. Ward. I found my mind wandering a bit during this read. It was a bit exhausting for me trying to keep up with the various plot-twists and big reveals. I do wonder if perhaps less is more on that front.

I know that many changes are still to be made before publication, but many of the British spellings of words (centre, favourite, etc.) will hopefully be changed to reflect the characters residing in the American Southwest.

Look forward to reading more from Ms. Ward. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.

If The Push was too icky for you, I don't recommend this book. Some important trigger warnings - cannibalism, miscarriage, abuse (emotional, physical), drug use, animal cruelty... Really just the works.

All that aside, here we have a gothic horror tale told from a mother and daughter's PoVs, often delving into the past and fantasy worlds. We see experiments performed on dogs to rid them of bad genes, a trip to the desert with questionable motives, and betrayal after betrayal between two sisters. This book leaves you questioning everything with each chapter, and don't get me started on the ending. MIND BLOWN. The writing was poignant and compelling, though I'm still a little confused about certain sequences. Ultimately this is a great book for horror fans, and possibly even for thriller stans who can handle some gore.

*Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review*

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I liked how it used two characters perspectives and moved through time without being confusing. It made me want to read more of Catriona's books!

Well... that was interesting.

Rob lives a normal suburban life with her husband and two daughters. Until one day she finds that her oldest daughter, Callie, has given her youngest, Annie, a bottle of her father's diabetes medicine. Wanting to keep both of her children safe, she whisks Callie away to her childhood home in the Mojave Desert, Sundial. In doing so, she must confront her twisted past and dig up memories best left buried. Told through Rob, Callie, and Rob's fictional universe, Arrowood's, points of view, we learn the ins and outs of this toxic and dysfunctional family. Will Rob be able to get through to Callie before it's too late?

Catriona Ward does a wonderful job of keeping the book suspenseful. With that being said, I didn't really engage with this book until after the halfway mark. I believe that drawing out the suspense of the story made it a little bland and confusing at first. However, the twists and turns definitely weren't predictable and that is something I truly appreciated. Once they get to Sundial and you get to learn about Rob's past is when the story really picked up for me. Though again, it seemed to be a little drawn out in some places just for the sake of length.

This wasn't my favorite read of all time but it was definitely a unique story. It was suspenseful and made me want to know the ending.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy to review!

This was the first book written by Catrina Ward and I was surprised by the way it drew me in. Lots of twists and turns in the story line that had me changing my opinion of who was "good" and who was "bad". Near the end it got a little repetitive but the overall quality of character formation and plot made it a riveting read. I would recommend this book and a look at others by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and Catriona Ward for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Wow, I really liked this book a lot. I'm not 100% sure I'd call it horror. The further I got into it, the more it seemed like a super weird, occasionally violent family drama type thing, but it's at the very least horror adjacent for sure. I really enjoyed the writing style and genuinely had no idea what was going to happen next for most of the book. Some of the twists in this thing are absolutely bonkers. The only thing I'll say is towards the end, it gets a little repetitive for a little bit and one of the bigger twists basically gets revealed twice, so it could have maybe been cleaned up a bit there. Still very good!

I really wanted to love this book as it was one of my most anticipated for the year. Unfortunately, I don’t know where I stand with this book. We’re following a dysfunctional family with unreliable characters which I LOVE and I was so invested in what made this family so dysfunctional. I was also extremely invested in Callie’s (the daughter) chapters because I love creepy children. However, a majority of this book takes place in the past and the actual plot of what was going on just wasn’t as intriguing to me as the present day issues with the daughter. This is one of those books where you have absolutely no clue what you are reading and what’s going on until everything is revealed towards the end. This works for a lot of people but for me it just ends up being boring and confusing. The plot is very convoluted with so many things happening that I lose interest because I’m confused. This book also has to do A LOT with animal cruelty against dogs which I would really do without. Also could have done without the whole “book within a book” chapters that didn’t make sense to me and could have just been deleted. Overall some aspects of this book I really enjoyed and I did enjoy it more towards the end but overall I’m conflicted on how I feel.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book to read and review.

Another Catriona Ward book that I flew through and could not put down!

If you liked The Push by Ashley Audrain, you should pick up this book. It has similar themes with toxic mother/daughter relationships, trauma and not knowing who you can trust. Also, if you love Samantha Downing’s books, Ward and Downing are similar in the way they create characters and in the dark undertones of their writing.

Like her last book The Last House on Needless Street, which I also thought was incredible, Ward’s sense of atmosphere and suspense in Sundial is brilliant. While reading I always had a feeling of uneasiness and that I never quite knew what was going on. The pacing and plotting was impressive, smartly written and clever, with slow reveals scattered throughout the story.

I love how Ward explores psychological horror and digs in deep to her characters’ backstories and past traumas. Right from the beginning I wanted to know what had made this family so dysfunctional. Why had Rob even married or continued to stay with her husband, Irving, for so long? The start of the novel reads like a dark domestic thriller instead of a horror novel, but slowly the plot became darker with creepy and sinister things happening. I liked that the flashback chapters from Rob’s past didn’t take place right away. They happened right when I was at the edge of my seat wondering what the heck had happened that led to this chaotic and messed up family.

You don’t know who to believe or who to trust. And then when you think you start to understand a character, you see the same scene from a different POV, so you get a new perspective on what might be going on that upends what you thought in the previous chapter!

Ward is absolutely an auto-buy author for me from now on. While I did have some small criticisms with the development of some of the side characters, and there was so much going on in the plot that at times there needed to be a bit more resolution and explanation, I still have to give this book 5 stars for my compulsive reading experience, its wonderful sense of atmosphere, and depth of the main characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillian-Tor/Forge-Tor Nightfire for and advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.