I was shook by The Last House on Needless Street and I was floored by Sundial, so I knew that I wanted to read LOOKING GLASS SOUND.

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

And when the trio makes a grisly discovery in a seafront cave, it seems as though the infamous Dagger Man was something much darker than a simple local creep, and there’s much more to the townsfolks’ lingering stories of missing women than anyone could have initially predicted. Catriona Ward’s latest novel, Looking Glass Sound, is, in part, the story of a serial murder, but its dark and unsettling feel has more to do with the everyday characters at its center—and the various betrayals they’re capable of—than it does a killer who stalks innocent women at night. We Harlows aren’t much good at staying alive so Uncle Vernon did better than most; he made it to his seventies.Darkly mind-bending and softly gut-wrenching, this is another masterpiece from the incomparable Catriona Ward. My sincerest appreciation to Catriona Ward and Tor Nightfire for the physical advanced reading copy. She studied English at the University of Oxford, and later, completed a Creative Writing Masters at the University of East Anglia. I imagine him living in a board shack, bleached silver by the sun and salt, down by the water, going out in his boat every day before dawn.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward REVIEW: Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

From the retro cover design to its late 1980s northern Gothic setting, Looking Glass Sound is dripping with nostalgia for a simpler time that may never have existed. It’s about writing and witchcraft, unrequited love, the death of the author, and not being able to move on from things that happened, or things you felt, when you were very young. The lines between reality and fiction slowly blur as Wilder descends deeper into existential crisis, making the reader question everything they believed. The summer Wilder Harlow turns 16, his uncle passes away and leaves his family a cottage on the coast of Maine. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys, well, a literary mindf*ck, featuring great atmosphere and nuanced characters.High tide has eaten away at them, making little holes – kind of like the finger stops on a flute – and when the wind is in the east, coming over the ocean, it whistles through.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward Unpacking creepy thriller Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

Looking Glass Sound is the latest release from one of my favorite voices in the Horror space, Catriona Ward. I wouldn’t say that I hated or loved this book because I definitely feel like I had a beautiful journey as I read it. If what you want is a procedural to puzzle over, or a thriller for the train, then God help you, that’s not my deal and it’s not Catriona’s deal either.

The truck is battered and rusty with panels beaten out badly where they’ve been staved in by collisions.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward - Fantastic Fiction Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward - Fantastic Fiction

No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does. 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. Ward depicts all the joy, pain, and catharsis with a gentle but chilling hand that I couldn’t help but relate to Shirley Jackson’s style. They started when I was about 13, taking the form of a hand in the small of my back as I was falling asleep, shoving me out of bed really hard. Instead, an infernal scratching—horrible, like rats’ claws on stone, like bone grinding, like the creak of a bough before it breaks.

His parents had just inherited a cottage from the late Uncle Vernon, and opt to spend a summer there before deciding whether to sell. I loved the mystery element of the Dagger Man, and the horrifying events which unfolded when Wilder, Nat and Harper were teenagers. There are liars here, overt manipulators, and all of the story’s potential heroes are deeply broken, damaged people.