The less said about the plot the better, so suffice it to say that this centres on Rob, her daughters Callie and Annie and with her marriage to serial philanderer Irving as another important element. Sundial is Rob’s deceased parents home in the Mojave Desert where the ‘old dead and gone’ Rob takes her daughter Callie for reasons which become increasingly apparent.

I couldn’t write this review for over 24 hours because I was too stunned and unable to put pen to paper, stunned, but in a good way. First of all, this book won’t be for everyone especially the faint of heart as there are several triggers. However, the beautiful writing is unbelievably powerful I’m unable to put it down and it’s as if you are being held there by magnets or is that because of the magnetic prose? The characterisation is incredible and the sections where Callie speaks to us are truly amazing and mind blowing. As the book progresses each chapter reveals more of their personality and nature and there are some major surprises in store that leads to questions that people have debated for years about nature or nurture.

To start with you think you’re engaged in some sort of toxic game albeit the mortal combat kind and then you realise it goes much, much deeper than that. The dynamics between all the main characters will give you every kind of chill and that raises a multitude of emotions. Sundial has a unique atmosphere that begs a million questions and trust me, it’s unlikely you’ll see its truth as it’s beyond your wildest dreams or more accurately nightmares. There are so many twists and turns it will explode your brain. It’s amazing, incredible, creepy, horrifying and utterly unforgettable.

Overall, for me this is an absolute winner albeit a horrifying one! Brilliant!

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Serpents Tale/Viper/Profile Books for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Menacing, twisty and perfectly paced, I really enjoyed this book. Very, very creepy but with clever plotting, I had no idea where it was going and found it to be a wild ride...

Sundial is a twisting tale of a family and the horrors that lie beneath the surface, as a mother and daughter take a trip to an old family home. Rob appears to have a normal suburban life with her husband Irving and her two daughters, Callie and Annie. However, she fears for them, for the strangeness of Callie and for what she could do to Annie, and when she thinks Callie has become too dangerous, she takes her to Sundial, her own childhood home in the Mojave desert. But Sundial is a place filled with secrets, and Callie is scared of what her mother might do to her, as she learns the story of her mother's past.

I've not read Catriona Ward before but heard hype around The Last House on Needless Street, and I didn't know what to expect going into this one. What it turned out to be was an unsettling story of ideas of who is good and bad, centred around a woman whose part wasn't quite what she thought it was. The opening feels disarmingly regular, showing a marriage in breakdown and fears about children, but nothing particular weird, and then once you start to learn about Sundial, things get weirder, into a world of science experiments and doubleness and what you have to do to really protect someone. I enjoyed the twists and turns, even when they were a bit outlandish, and the ending works well, leaving a creepy lingering sense of ambiguity.

Without wanting to give away much more, I will say that Sundial is a slowly tense read that unfolds multiple stories that leave you never quite sure what exactly is meant to be true.

This is my first time reading Ward, and after hearing so much about her previous book, I was keen to be an early reader of this one. Chaotic, dram.atic and experimental are words i'd use. Sadly not for me, but I know her fans will absolutely love it

I realise this is going to be an unpopular review but this book just didn't gel for me at all. It was quite long winded and I felt the plot was quite thin. There were some brilliantly horrific moments, horror induced terror but the build up to this was just too long for me. Strange family dynamics, twisted people, and seriously wrong parenting made for quite a picture but I just didn't get from this what others seem to be getting.

That's the beauty of book blogging though as this will be great for the right reader.

Having read "The Last House on Needless Street" by Catriona Ward, I was delighted to be able to read an advanced copy of "Sundial" on NetGalley. This is a very different story but still seriously twisted. You aren't sure who the "good" characters are, what is real and what is imaginary, and the horror of Rob's upbringing. Seriously addictive stuff!

Absolutely mesmerising, chilling and tragic. Catriona has managed to top The Last House with another immersive story. Utterly emotional, spooky and chilling, I highly recommend

"You put a screwdriver in my neck," she says.

You know those books which promise so much in the blurb, then don't deliver? This IS NOT one of them! Instead, this has delicious darkness in spades with blood, gore, psychological suspense, perverse twists and a can't-put-it-down feel. With cruelty in marriage, twins, sisters, mother-daughter bonds, murder, dodgy experiments, ghosts and mad dogs it ought to feel over-packed with sensational elements but actually Ward dials down the extravaganza expertly and knows precisely where to drop in a gasp-inducing twist while somehow making the whole thing feel oddly credible (at least while we're reading!). The extracts from Rob's books was one step too far for me and I started skimming those as they're not as illuminating of the main story as I'd have liked. But the characterisation binds us to the story with enough of the everyday to bring the whole thing down to earth. Be warned, this is probably not for the faint of heart - but me, I'll be checking out Ward's back catalogue for when I need some dark and devious page-turning entertainment!

Catriona Ward writes some weird stuff.
Weird and thrilling and so incredibly good.
As with the previous book,it's difficult to review without giving too much away,but this book was tense.
So many things hidden,and I flew through the pages waiting for all to be revealed.
This book does not disappoint at all after the huge hype of Needless Street.