Thank you @netgalley for sending me a digital arc! I squealed when I saw I was accepted! Catriona Ward is an author I will read every book from.

➡️THOUGHTS:
This was a signature Cat Ward book. Dark, twisted, and weird. And I loved it!🤣 This book is hard to review without giving away what is actually going on. It was like a book within a book within a book, if that makes ANY sense whatsoever. I enjoyed the first half more than the second half, but it was still a solid 4 star read! It is basically a story about storytelling and how you can make yourself the hero in the story, no matter if you truly are or not. It will required your full attention, or you might feel confused. I think you will either love this one, or hate it.

It follows Wilder, Harper and Nat from teenaged years through adulthood in Whistler Bay. There was a serial killer in town, and someone was sneaking into houses taking polaroids of sleeping children with a knife to their neck. Same people or different? Wilder meets someone named Skye in college and they become friends. Skye encourages Wilder to write a memoir about what happened at Whistler Bay all those years ago. But why? What are his motives?

I really enjoyed this. A story within a story within a story. Like one of those Russian Matryohksa dolls, this tale unfolds one tantalizing piece at time until all is knitted together at the end.

Recommended.

Twisted doesn’t begin to describe this book, in a mostly good way. I enjoy books told from different points of view, and different periods of time, although this one had me pretty confused as to what was happening sometimes. It did finally come together for me, and I was happy to have stuck with it. The images of the Maine coast in all of its seasons were beautifully written, the serial killer and photographer totally creepy.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy, I won’t forget this book anytime soon.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward is a multi layered psychological mystery horror that is a complicated mind read.
The writing is amazing and the plot is creative and twisty. So many twists that my mind was spinning at the end.
I would definitely recommend this book.
Thank you NetGalley and Tor/Forge for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

We meet Wilder Harlow when he arrives in Maine with his parent for vacation. Ward already begins her hypnotism - weaving a story of a young man who cannot fit in and is looking for acceptance as his parents marriage disintegrates. There is a serial killer in Maine, and Wilder begins to record the events for his first planned novel, but that's just the first half of the book. Wilder returns many years later and with complete control, Catriona Ward adds layers to the story that will make you question once, twice, three times what happened. If you are a fan, you know that nothing will be straight forward and that that horror will slowly seep in. This is a slow burn of a book but so artfully and beautifully done. I loved it and challenge you to find something similar.
.#Tor #LookingGlassSound #CatrionaWard

What. Did. I. Just. Read?!

Thank you #netgalley for this eARC!

4/5⭐⭐⭐⭐

"In a cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of a sun-drenched summer of his youth and of the killer that stalked the small New England town. Of the terrible tragedy that forever bonded him with his friends Nat and Harper in unknowable ways. Of a horror that has followed them over the years."

This is my first Catriona Ward novel. Her writing style is unique, and I kind of love it! She will no longer be a stranger to my library.

This book is tragic, and twisted, and so damn good. When you think you know what's happening, or how this will end, I can guarantee you're wrong. All of the characters and storylines/timelines tied together perfectly. This is one of those books I can't get out of my brain long after I've finished it.

The only reason I'm giving this a 4 star rather than a 5 is because around page 200 it was losing steam due to some repetitive storylines, and I was struggling to get through some of the slower parts. I was hoping it would pick back up - and it did!

This book is being published August 8, 2023.

#Bookstagram #fiction #netgalley #arcreview #lookingglasssound #readingaddict #bookwormsofinstagram #comingsoon #thrillerbooks

Boy what makes this book different?? How about everything! This is one of those books after you read it you think what did I just read? And this isn’t a bad thing. I enjoyed the book but you need to read it through and don’t skip to the ending because you will be really lost.
The story starts with a tale of a boy, Wilder, going to his uncles summer house to stay while they fix it up to sell. While he is there he meets two kids, Nat and Harper, who also come from a rough home life. They bond over the summer with trips to the beach and cave diving. During that summer some women disappear and mysterious Polaroids are found with someone taking pictures of sleeping children with a knife to their throat. When the mystery is solved Wilder leaves and the story picks back up when he is in college and drifting from that nightmare summer. You need to keep your eye on the ball because before you know it the story goes a different way and that’s great story telling.
It is definitely a book that will haunt you for a few days, the characters are intense, the store is extraordinary and the writer does story telling to another level.

Another incredibly unique thriller from Catriona Ward. I don't want to spoil the (many) twists so I will just say that I am so excited to push this book on my friends and customers- if only so I can get their reactions!

This book really made me think and question everything I just read in prior chapters. There's so many layers to the book. I was still thinking about this book days later and trying to piece together what actually happened. I think I might read this a second time to see if I catch any other clues and hints about what was going on

I don't feel worthy enough to review this book. Catriona Ward is by far one of my favorite authors. Her writing style is so unique and I know that any book I pick up from her....I will love.

Looking Glass Sound was absolutely a 5 star read. As usual, I was all over the place....confused.....guessing....confused again. Sheer Madness and I LOVED IT! Keep em coming Cat!!!

A confusing and twisting tale surrounding a group of friends. Murder, secrets, and lies run wild in this book.

I enjoyed this, but felt it fell down a bit in the last act - like Ward's previous works there's a moment where the book gets flipped over on its head ("twist" isn't a strong enough word for these books!) but this time the resolution and reveal just were not satisfying for me. I enjoyed but did not love it.

Since the first time I read one of Catriona Ward’s books back in 2021, I’ve been completely enthralled by the stories she creates and the twists she includes within them. I can still vividly imagine the settings of any of her books that I’ve read, and that’s saying something for my ADHD brain 😅

I absolutely loved this one until about 75% of the way in. The characters, setting, twists- everything was great, but unfortunately the ending just wasn’t for me.

If you love twisty psychological thrillers and books within a book, you should definitely this one to your list! It kept me on my toes the entire time, and I genuinely could not put it down until I knew how it ended.

Thank you to the author and netgalley for my e-ARC to read and honestly review!

At this point, if Catriona Ward wrote in lipstick on a napkin I'd buy it. Genre notwithstanding, she is a towering talent with an infallible sense of literary timing. Writers across the spectrum could take a lesson from her deft hand with structure and revelation in the text. As a writer, I was thrilled that she decided to examine the power and the danger of writing itself. Her trademark labyrinthine plots - complete with horrors both objective and interpersonal around every corner - lent itself so well to the book-within-a-book (within-a-book) structure. As always, Ms. Ward seeded her worlds-within-worlds with the painful inevitability of generational trauma. And as always, I'm in awe. One could aspire to write half as well and still be considered brilliant.

Looking Glass Sound is another one of Ward’s twisty, surprise-filled novels that manages to piece together its central mystery little by little. The story’s pace slows some in the middle, but it is necessary to ease the reader into the quick changes in point of view. The writing is lyrical, and the story is almost dream-like due to these changes in POV that can happen with no warning. This may confuse, at first, but once you catch on, it is a pleasure to follow the characters’ trains of thought. There are touches of witchcraft throughout that adds to its mystery, because the reader doesn’t know what is based in reality or what could be chalked up to magic. Reading Looking Glass Sound is a pleasure to puzzle through.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward is a haunting and gripping story of a writer's attempt to revisit his past and tell the story of a sun-drenched summer of his youth, and the tragedy that forever bonded him with his friends Nat and Harper. Wilder Harlow, a bestselling author, returns to the small New England town decades later to write his memoirs, but as he writes, he realizes that events in the manuscript are starting to chime eerily with the present.

The novel is a masterful exploration of memory, truth, and the blurred lines between reality and fiction. The author skillfully weaves together Wilder's present-day experiences and his memories of the summer that changed everything. The characters are richly drawn and complex, and their relationships are intricately woven into the fabric of the story.

What sets Looking Glass Sound apart is Ward's ability to create an eerie and unsettling atmosphere that permeates the entire book. The cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast and the dark-haired woman Wilder sees in the icy waters below add to the sense of foreboding that pervades the story.

The book's pace is perfect, with tension building slowly but surely as Wilder's grip on reality begins to slip. The ending is shocking and unexpected, a fitting conclusion to a story that keeps the reader guessing until the very last page.

Overall, Looking Glass Sound is a haunting and thought-provoking novel that explores the nature of memory and the power of storytelling. It's a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers and anyone who enjoys a good, unsettling read.

Like a lot of Ward's novels, I really like the first half or so, but the last half usually goes steeply downhill for me. Although the first half has a lot of really common horror tropes, I thought they were done really well, and the reveal of the killer and what he had done were bone-chilling. However, things did get a little convoluted towards the end. The effect was there; I was incredibly creeped out, but I thought that the lack of clear delineation between time periods was a little jarring, on top of having to decipher what was real and what was written. Some of that could be due to the poor formatting of the ebook, thought. Regardless, I did enjoy this one, even if I was confused for some of it. Ward's books are really ones you need to concentrate on when reading.

Catriona, my queen, what ever you do, DON’T. STOP. WRITING. You are my auto-buy. You are my “ohhh I'm so excited to see how she is going to mess up with my mind again”. You are my “this is the new type of horror I’m in”. Now that I’m done fangirling, let’s talk about this story within story, book within book.

I thought being stuck in a story might be fun; because it is like living forever. But I understand when people warm you be careful what you wish for. Sometimes being capturing in a photograph or a story can be worse than any curse. Not every image worth remembering, not every story is meant to be retold. Wilder should have known about it. Nathaniel should have known about it. They should have listened more intently when Harper spoke.

I didn’t expect the layers after layers thrown at me when I flipped these pages. I was wondering where those few words that were exchanged as a part of the game were going to lead. I don’t know how to describe my amazement without giving away more than I should, but “in Catriona we trust”

This was an ok read for me. Without spoilers, there is a storytelling device used that I am not a fan of. That being said, I definitely got all the things that I have come to expect from Catriona Ward: atmospheric, creepy, what the hell is going on? All of that is there, and this story definitely keeps you guessing until the end. While I didn't love it as much as some of her others, it was still a solid choice.

Leave it to Catriona Ward to send you on a wild ride. It all starts the summer Wilder goes to Whistler Bay for vacation at his late uncle’s cottage. He befriends Nat and Harper over the summer and they get into some pretty creepy adventures. They tell stories of The Dagger Man, a local serial killer in the area, and get trapped in the chaos. Wilder is also writing a memoir about his experiences in Whistler Bay. The POVs and time periods change throughout the book, and you begin to wonder what’s real and “just a story”. Wilder goes on to college and meets Sky, who picks Wilder’s brain for his own benefit.

In typical Ward fashion, at times you’re wondering if you’re the one hallucinating while reading. I love her twists throughout the story and the fact I’m kept wondering what’s next. First half was a little slow, but still had me hooked. Fantastic thriller!