Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

78 reviews

caidyn's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is a hard book to rate. It took a while for the story to come together, but eventually it did. I enjoyed it but it didn't amaze me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse

travelseatsreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was beyond excited to read Sundial as The Last House On Needless Street was one of my favourite reads of 2021. Like with TLHONS I went into Sundial completely blind and I think it definitely paid off.

Ward has an innate ability to completely engulf the reader within her writing and immediately the darkness and unease begins to claw  it's way out of the pages from the very first chapter. There are so many layers within this story that it would be easy for a reader to get lost among them but Catriona harrowingly and flawlessly ensures every single enmeshed strand has a place and a purpose.

The story is told with alternating POV's and dual timelines which works perfectly to ensure the reader is left hanging on every word waiting for that gnawing tension to subside (spoiler alert, it doesn't).

I can't write this review without mentioning trigger warnings as frankly this book in itself is almost one. There are large sections to do with animal deaths and experiments on dogs. To be honest, this is normally a hard no for me and I will often DNF a book with animal abuse but to be fair none of it appeared gratuitous or overly descriptive so while it took me aback it wasn't overly distressing. There are also many mentions of multiple forms of abuse (adult, child, physical and emotional), mental illness, pregnancy, infant death,  self harm and suicidality.

Overall, Sundial is an engrossing, dark, sinister and twisted psychological horror meets thriller which will send shivers up your spine and leave you haunted for some time to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

jadereads_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Addiction and Suicide attempt

Minor: Infidelity

hmatteson's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Murder, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Violence, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Blood, Addiction, and Child death

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

reading_and_wrighting's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use

lizslazylibrary's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this book had me addicted from the first page. sundial is a gripping story about how you never truly know a person even if that person is you.

trigger warnings are in order for this book and they are: domestic violence, animal abuse/death & child abuse.

catriona ward's writing was so beautiful and i couldn't put it down.

i don't want to write about the plot because i feel it's best to go into this book blind (well with the exception of reading the brief synopsis and the trigger warnings i listed above) the twists at the ending is well worth waiting for.

although i loved this book i have a bone (pun intended) to pick with it, if i have to read the words 'sickly sick' again i might lose my mind. it almost made me not finish the book but i pushed forward hoping that the payoff would be worth my nausousness; and it was.

i don't know how i feel about how the character's mental illnesses were dealt with and as someone who suffers with a personality disorder catriona did describe what some of us feel on the inside by showing it from another's perspective. like i said i am on the fence about a lot of it but when push comes to shove i have seen worse.

the last thing i wanna say is i hate the ending. but not in the "i hate this and i wish i never read it/i hate this and it was a waste of time" i hated it in the was i hate that it was so abrupt. i wish there were more to it. i was left with so many unanswered questions. that's a pet peeve of mine. i get it that we as the reader gets to make our own assumptions as to what happens but i have way to much anxiety for that. i need to be told what happens or i am left there with my mouth open silently screaming because i will never know how it ended for the characters i just spent so long getting to know, hating, loving, rooting for them, crying with them, and seeing myself in them, it's not how i like books to end. i think because life is so unpredictable i like my escapism to have a solid ending being good or bad. i need that as a reader. and sundial will forever be left a mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, Murder, and Emotional abuse

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Thank you so much to Tor Nightfire and Goodreads for the ARC!

I was so incredibly excited to read this after enjoying The Last House On Needless Street last year. I'm pleased to report that Sundial was equally as mind-blowing! I was hooked from the first chapter and could not get the story out of my head in between readings.

If you've read The Last House on Needless Street, you won't be surprised to hear that this book is similar in that it's hard to talk about it without giving too much away. It's definitely the kind of read that you want to go into as blind as possible.

To keep it brief, Sundial tells the story of Rob and her dysfunctional family. Despite her desperate desire to have a "normal" life, she is unhappily married to Irving, a chronic cheater and domestic abuser, for the sake of their two daughters. When she begins to notice problematic behavior in Callie, her eldest, she decides that it's time for a mother-daughter weekend at the old homestead. Enter Sundial, the shadow that looms large over Rob's past.

This story has so many awful (in a good way) layers to it that Ward wove together so deftly. There's just this heavy atmosphere throughout, and as you start to peel back the layers, it just gets worse and worse. The build up to the end is incredible, and it delivered so hard. I can't even begin to describe how worth it it was.

And let's not forget the twists! This book had twists for days. Every time I thought I was reading The Twist, another one swooped from the shadows and slapped me right in the face. I literally had to put the book down at one point to give myself time to recover. The best part is that none of the twists felt inorganic or forced. The story just sort of came together at the end, and I was in awe, hanging on tight as this book took me on its wild ride.

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys solid psychological horror rife with familial drama/trauma.

Lastly, as a lot of the content in this book is incredibly upsetting, I would recommend taking a peek at the spoiler tags for anyone who isn't ready for pretty graphic descriptions of incredibly messed up acts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Violence