A serial killer plaguing a coastal New England town is a perfect premise for an end-of-summer read - and also the setup for Catriona Ward’s latest horror release. I think it’s important to note that this book is a horror novel and not a thriller. There’s definitely an aspect of intrigue and mystery encircling the plot more typical of a thriller, but also a greater focus on PTSD and the main character’s slow spiral as the traumatic events of his childhood summers continue to plague him.

Catriona Ward has done an exceptional job at making her recent horror releases distinctly dissimilar from each other and I think this is my favorite release from her yet. She does an incredible job of establishing atmosphere, particularly during those idyllic summers of Wilder’s teenage years on the coast. I could nitpick and say that she could have been more efficient with her writing, and certain scenes were a choice and not a necessity. But the prose in this book is just so striking I really wasn’t overly bothered by a somewhat inflated page count.

Beyond some of the grotesqueness of the horror elements of the novel (body horror be-warned) I was surprised more that most of the novel was actually spent with Wilder in college and the years that followed. A lot of books with a serial kiler backstory tend to completely skip the years between the inciting event and the serial killers eventual return and Ward definitely took a different direction with this spin.

This book is extremely meta, in a way I think some people will hate and others will completely resonate with. I’ve seen complaints from people who resent reading “books within a book” and if that is the case for you - avoid this one. I personally love this aspect when it is done tastefully and meaningfully. And Catriona Ward has used this trope to its full potential here in a way I genuinely didn’t see coming.

Thank you to the publisher Macmillan Audio for providing an audiobook ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

I enjoyed the summer friendship of the trio and the mystery of the stolen manuscript. It did get a little slow and I was not invested in the reveal. Could have been a little shorter.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the free ALC in exchange for my honest review. This is my 2nd books by the author habent read sundial yet and perhaps my expectations were high as this felt like a YA mystery book not a thriller or horror. It felt very character driven and didnt seem likenvery much happened or the pacing was far too slow. I will chexk out sundial next.

Thank you NetGalley for the AudioARC of Looking Glass Sound!

This was my first book by Catriona Ward, and I am hooked! This was fantastic, there were so many twists and turns, as soon as I thought I had it figured out, Ward threw in a new curve ball & kept me guessing until the very end.

YES! Just, Yes!

I have been devouring everything I possibly can by Catriona Ward ever since I read the house on Needless Street and I have yet to be disappointed. Ward's way of writing will leave you questioning reality and halfway through this book I was physically shaking from the tension and mind-blowing twists that Ward relentlessly throws at her readers. If you are a fan of horror, suspense, thrillers, or just great writing in general you need to be reading Catriona Ward.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC!

This was a trippy book. It had a slow start which took me some time to get into the story. After the 30% mark, I was all in. A story about 3 kids who develop a relationship in the summer where this whispering of a serial killer. It is mainly focusing on WIlder and his life. He makes friends with Nat and Harper one summer and then their relationship just turns toxic. I did find the twist satisfying but also confusing. I wish we got the perspective of Nat and Harper. They are still a mystery to me and I didn't believe that they had such a strong feeling about each other that could cause such destruction.

The narrators were amazing.

3.5 stars

I couldn't finish this book. It is badly written. The dialogue is dreadful. I had no idea how old the main character was. His parents treated him like he was 10 and sometimes he acted like it. Sometimes he acted 15 and sometimes 20. And some of the things that were said and done would be okay at some ages but absolutely inappropriate at other ages. A writer has to establish where we are in order for me to follow. This book couldn't even establish an age for the main character.

I read The Last House on Needless Street via audiobook, so I was already familiar with the narrators of this audio. I really like them both a lot, and I'm glad they were chosen again to narrate.
Maybe I just need to read Ward's books instead of listening to them because I felt a little lost trying to understand the rhymes that are most likely written in the physical book.
I really enjoyed the story and Ward does a spectacular job keeping the reader engaged and guessing that the eff is going on. She does a great job building a narrative that she then dismantles slowly. I love an unreliable narrator!
If you liked Ward's first book, this one is not to be missed!
If this is your first Ward book, and you like an unreliable narrator, this this book is a good one!
Every character is well written and each has a quirk or five that keep them interesting. Even minor characters are full of life and emotion.
Great stuff!

The novel opens with the unpublished memoir, The Dagger Man of Whistler Bay by Wilder Harlow, a teenaged chap who takes a summer vacation with his parents in their cottage on the cost of Maine. Wilder soon meets two friends, a boy named Nathaniel and a redheaded girl named Harper. The trio form a very close bond and over the summer their lives will be forever changed. The Dagger Man is a serial killer who has been active for many years.

Told in different timelines, we travel back to Maine coast as Wilder, a college student is unable to escape the events of the summer. He returns to write his memoir of the Dagger Man of Whistler Bay and to seek answers to the questions that has plagued him over the years. We also travel once again when Wilder, a married man returns to Maine Coast, two decades later.

What can I say about this book other than it is a bewildering masterpiece! It is like playing chess and doing a puzzle at the same time. Just as you connect puzzle pieces, the puzzle expands, and you are hunting for the next and next piece. This book is unique and nothing like anything I have ever read before. It was sheer brilliance, and I loved the ending! The narration was also well done. I 100% recommend this book!

This was a wild ride. Ward kept flipping everything on it's head and I realized I couldn't trust anything or anyone. So many secrets between multiple unreliable narrators. It was a bit much to keep up with on audio but that just means I can do a reread and still be as surprised as I was the first time around.

I swear this author pretty much only puts out good books so I wasn't surprised that this was another banger. This is in the same realm as her previous books, we follow a kid named Wilder and he goes to this small new England beach town with his very trouble family and it turns out there is a murderer in this town and it haunts not only Wilder and his family but the friends he makes as well. So decades later we see him writing about this story in a memoir but his memory from what happened begin to blurs and he can’t tell between facts and fabrication. It's definitly more like a psychological horror, a very eerie mystery, if you love this author then you definitely want this on your radar if it’s not already.

This book is a seriously bad acid trip. It is a train wreck that is so awful that it mesmerizes and one just cannot look away.

I wish I'd looked away. Frankly, I want that thirteen hours of my life back.

The description of the book has nothing whatsoever to do with what the book is actually about, in large part because the author doesn't know what the book is supposed to be about. It's a child's memoir. It's a Goonies-style coming of age story. It's a sci-fi meets criminal minds. By the end, I wasn't certain if the author had taken serious drugs or if I had! What I was certain of was my head was pounding from the spinning of the story and my throat hurt from yelling at it. Sheesh! What a mess!

Ms. Ward is an American. She grew up in Washington, DC, according to her bio. This makes her usage of ENTIRELY British terms by characters that are supposed to be born and bred Americans, completely inappropriate. Her use of British terminology and sentence structure is misplaced. Her obsession with vomiting is entirely overdone. It lost all impact and meaning.

All the characters were in desperate need of intense therapy, some needed clinical incarceration.

I would like to find one positive note to include about this book, but I am entirely at a loss.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward initially held the promise of an enchanting journey akin to a youthful adventure, but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. As I ventured further into its pages, I found myself facing repetitiveness and an excessive length that hindered my enjoyment. Regrettably, I struggled to maintain interest, ultimately abandoning the book at the 75% mark after an arduous struggle that began around the 40% milestone.
While I am typically drawn to plot twists, in this case, they felt convoluted and poorly executed, making it difficult for me to follow the story's tangled threads. Despite its categorization as a horror novel, the intended sense of fear and dread failed to manifest within me. The book's attempts at inducing a chilling atmosphere seemed lackluster and uninspiring.
I usually appreciate the concept of a book within a book, but in the case of Looking Glass Sound, it failed to resonate with me. The execution felt flawed and ineffective, leaving me yearning for greater depth and originality. Although the narrator's performance started off on a mediocre note, I must admit that it gradually grew on me, redeeming some of the book's shortcomings in its early stages.
The story's repetitive nature, which involved retelling events from different perspectives, quickly became monotonous and lacked the distinctive flair needed to engage readers. Moreover, the inclusion of a word game throughout the narrative felt out of place, introduced at odd moments without sufficient integration, ultimately leaving me perplexed.
Despite its promising premise and initial intrigue as a coming-of-age tale, Looking Glass Sound ultimately lacked the depth and originality necessary to make it a standout read. With regret, I must conclude that it failed to deliver on its potential, leaving me disillusioned and unsatisfied as a reader.

Thank you to MacMillian Audio & NetGalley team at Tor/Forge for the ARC of the e-copy and the audio.

A coming of age horror about three young teens during a New England summer, and one, Wilder, who writes a memoir about the horrible events that occur.

I can't say much more because the novel should be read blind. Suffice it to say, in Ward's classic style; it gets weird, strange, and compelling. I especially enjoyed the gothic elements.

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. The writing style was very odd and felt broken and fragmented (which may have been the point?). This is my first book by this author so I have nothing to compare it to in terms of personal style, but it seemed to be 80% complex set up that was at times convoluted and difficult to follow. There were aspects of it that I really enjoyed and other parts that I really didn’t care for. Reading this felt vaguely Stephen King-esque: tedious, but with a huge pay off. I really enjoyed the twist and the ending of Looking Glass Sound, but I almost didn’t make it to that point. Around the halfway point I switched over to the audio, which I was approved for on NetGalley (thank god), and without which I doubt I would have made it to the end. All things considered, this falls somewhere in the middle for me. The atmosphere and the ending really saved this from being a 2.5 or 3-star read, but I’m still not sure I would recommend this to the average reader. I would probably have to know their tastes and what they were looking for in a book before assuming this would work for someone. Like a lot of Stephen King, this didn’t work until it did, and felt like you had to put in the work to get there.

enjoyed this! definitely a unique read. some parts felt stagnant and like nothing beneficial to the narrative is occurring, but i can see how it can be on purpose. overall an okay read!

— thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the free digital ARC.

Entirely a mind bending journey. Story within a story within a story. A cast that spins and changes like a ballroom full of guests suddenly thrust into a funhouse mirror labyrinth.

The actual story behind all of this, the serial killer is a seaside town, the tragic deaths of the women, beginning with the dedicated mother, and the love story between children who grow up to discover adulthood isn’t what they’d expected-well, it’s beautiful, heart wrenching, and unique.

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narrator very much, but I believe this particular book was best being read in ebook or physical form. All in all, four stars.

Have you read The Last House on Needless Street? Did you enjoy the writing? The complicated twist? Yes? Then read this!!

One of my most anticipated books for 2023.

Brain Freeze without the deliciously sugarful ice cream.

If you like her writing style you won’t be disappointed here! Go in blind! Just read it!

I love that feeling when suddenly I’m lost … I’m thinking, will this make sense? When I have to stop and reread something. Whaaaat? Then I’m feeling like Sherlock, by gad I think I’ve got it Watson!! Thinking, yes, unreliable narrator! I always go there first HA! But then it changes gears & I’m left thinking, uh oh here it comes! TWIST!

Such a satisfying mind twisting story. I cannot wait for her next novel!!

Thank you NetGalley & Macmillan Audio! Sooo good! Review also on Amazon.

This story was so freakin good! But I've enjoyed everything I've read by Ward. The creepy, mystery style of writing is always done to absolute perfection.

Is this a love letter to an author, possibly.... But with very good reason, and you should honestly check this book and her others out if you haven't already!

I loved the atmosphere of the Maine coast (that's where I'm from). But it's the characters, the blurred lines between past and present, and the magic of being a child mixed with the horror of what happened that made for a great story. All the elements worked so well together.

With this story, Ward weaves this web so intricately, giving just the right amount throughout to keep you on your toes. Waiting for the final piece to pop into place. It's one of those books where if you don't pay attention to every detail, you won't see anything coming. But to he honest, you probably won't anyway. And this is the way of Ward!

Would I have it any other way? Of course not. Because I love a good dark, twisty, mystery, and Ward is one of the very best at doing that.

The audio for this was also prefect. You got the whole vibe of the story through the narration.

This book has so many layers. It can be confusing at times, because it follows different stories and timelines. It’s also a book inside a book inside a book so it can be hard to figure out where you are in the rabbit hole. I listened on audio and wish i had a physical copy to look back on things to help it make more sense. I did really enjoy it overall. It’s one of those books where for most of it you stay kind of confused as to where it is going, but then by the end it all ties together, which are types of books I love to read. This is the first book i read by this author and I will definitely pick up more. Looking forward to reading Last house on needless street by her soon. I received this as an arc from Netgalley. Thank you so much.