Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

10 reviews

hollispaige's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

Okayyy, I just finished this book and i’m here browsing other readers reviews because i THINK i followed everything but damn….how can i even be sure i know that i fully understood/followed it? 
i’m with a lot of the other reviewers of this one. The first plot line of wilder, harper and nat could’ve been a solid 4-5 ⭐️ read if it ended there. Hell, I even enjoyed the first narrative of Sky, (though his rude ass move made me angry AF). I almost even could’ve been okay with the Wilder returns to the cottage as a grumpy old man story & how that turned out (prob would’ve been closer to a solid 3 ⭐️ at that point.) 

Now the last 30 ish pages really made me second guess if i understood the who’s who of it all. Are Skye, Sky, Pearl & Harper the same person at some point? Was harper successful & they end up “trapped forever” or was that her wishful thinking? Idk like i said, the beginning of this book until the last few chapters could’ve been a solid 3.75 ⭐️ read. However, my rating on this book is a generous 2.75⭐️ (rounded up to 3⭐️). 
Would i recommend it? only to people who really would spend the time reading and attempting to understand/follow it. 

also those long ass chapters? i almost stopped before getting through the first 50 pg “chapter.”

also (last one i promise) was Sky always a female? (it doesn’t matter, but im just trying to figure out if that situation was from the book inside of the book inside of the book)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Infidelity and Sexual assault

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

I could not tell you a lick of information on what I just read. I feel like I should have taken notes and come at this like a detective to understand anything. It just wound up being too overly intricate for me, more like a messy book version of Inception + a little witchcraft than what I think the author probably intended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy, Abortion, and Abandonment

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Death, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Grief, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Stalking, Alcoholism, and Mental illness

Minor: Infidelity, Bullying, Sexual content, and Cursing

emmonsannae's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was a trip!! The setting and ambiance were exquisitely crafted—I think that was the best part of the book. C.W. pulls off the ‘story-within-a-story’ strategy well in a way that doesn’t bore or unnecessarily confuse the reader, and by the end of the novel this setup adds several brilliant layers to the (in my case) unexpected conclusion. The last 50 pages were pretty wild. Though I guess it’s technically a horror story, I didn’t find the book scary so much as haunting with a lowercase h. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Suicide, Murder, Death of parent, and Infidelity

theliteraryhooker's review against another edition

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

3.0

This is a tough one. The first 2/3 of the book was an easy 5 star. I love Ward's writing style and I was completely engrossed in the coming of age story tinged with murder. But then the plot jumps ahead and veers wildly away from the tone of the first portion of the book in the last 100 pages or so, and I just didn't care for it. I found it confusing and repetitive, and it took away a lot of what made the first 2/3 so impactful for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, and Infidelity

Minor: Abortion

enchantressreads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Death, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Animal death, and Bullying

Minor: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Homophobia, and Suicide

perkyanda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

Really interesting way of playing with format and structure, interesting characters and take on writing and authors. At times the

repetition/recursion

gets tedious and teasing out

the actual narrative gets meh

but overall it’s an enjoyable read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Homophobia

gondorgirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Grief, Violence, Death, and Gore

Minor: Bullying, Pregnancy, and Animal death

uchihas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was a ride. The ending was a little disappointing though 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Vomit, Homophobia, Medical content, Bullying, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Abortion, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

soobooksalot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Catriona Ward is the author version of the 🤯 emoji.
 I was thrilled to receive an ARC of her latest, Looking Glass Sound - thank you Tor Nightfire!
 This is my fourth Ward read, and I was originally hooked with The House On Needless Street. She has the flair for taking straightforward-sounding stories and making them entirely unique and unpredictable.
 Main character Wilder Harlow spends his summers at a seaside cottage in Maine, with friends Nat and Harper. Idyllic summer days are muted by killings in the area by the Dagger Man.
 Looking Glass Sound is told in multiple viewpoints and timeframes, from Wilder, Sky Montague, and Pearl. There's metafiction, autofiction, blurring and layering of events and reveals - it all works in tandem with gorgeous and dark writing.
 As with her other books, it needs to be experienced. Recommended!
 For release on Aug. 8.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Suicide