Reviews with content warning for Murder - Looking Glass Sound

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

38 reviews

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

This is like the perfect summer horror novel. You have sun, sand, sea and tumultuous summer friendships.

Catriona Ward captures the immersive depths and fear that can come with the unknown ocean depths like no other author I’ve read. I’d say it’s a great beach read, but maybe not for those who have a touch of thalassophobia.

The first half of the novel had me obsessed. I loved Wilder’s perspective and the atmosphere Catriona Ward created, moving from the New England coast to dark academia and back. Unfortunately, from the 50-80% mark, the storytelling got quite confusing, trying to figure out who’s who, what’s real and what’s not, random time skips, and shoehorned in POVs, which left me feeling discombobulated. And I won’t get into any spoilers, but I have to say I hated the ending, I thought it was such a cop-out.

Thanks so much Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for this advanced listening copy! I’d recommend this one, even given the parts I didn’t love, and it’s still a 4⭐️ read for me!

Overall, if you’re looking for a gothic horror read with a summer setting to cap off your August and get you ready for that September academic vibe, this is the one for you!

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savvylit's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Catriona Ward is an expert at intricate and difficult-to-guess plots. Looking Glass Sound is no exception. In fact, this may be Ward's most layered and mysterious novel yet. Looking Glass Sound features several distinct and immersive perspectives. Ultimately, though, Wilder's youthful point of view is the one that readers spend the most time with. And his characterization is unparalleled. Wilder's outsider status is painfully palpable; I often felt as though I could have been reading one of my own teenage diaries.

For a significant portion of Looking Glass Sound, I was wary about the length (352 pages). I found myself getting so invested in one narrative that I couldn't imagine what Ward would do next. Luckily, I decided to trust the process and eventually, it was all tied together in a surprising way - just like I'd hoped. This is the fourth book of Ward's that I have read and I have come to expect character-driven unsettling tales that burn slowly and conclude in an explosive way. Looking Glass Sound definitely met those expectations! I can't wait to see what Ward publishes next.

Thank you @netgalley @tornightfire and @catward66 for the advanced copy of Looking Glass Sound in exchange for my honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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reading_under_covers's review against another edition

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3.0

I feel like I can’t delve too much into the details of this book without giving things away, but it’s about a boy named Wilder and the two friends he makes while summering in a small New England town where a serial killer is on the loose.

LOOKING GLASS SOUND by Catriona Ward was my first read by her, but it sounds like her other books include some of the same fuckery…

The first half of this book was really strong for me! It was atmospheric and eerie, and the mystery surrounding the Dagger Man had me hooked!

BUT it took a turn (many if I’m being honest) that had me thinking way too hard and tunneled me into a confusion spiral that I have yet to fully come out of.

This book felt like a million books squished into one book (iykyk) and my brain still feels a little fried from the information overload.

I thought I’d know how I actually felt about this book by the time I finished writing this review, but “This book is great, I hated it!” is all that’s running through my head 😂

I think this one will be divisive for sure!

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing, and Tor Nightfire for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: August 8

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soobooksalot's review against another edition

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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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booksandcoffeewithlexi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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roguepages's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.5

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emilycmarshman's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Catriona Ward has quickly become one of my favorite living writers. She has mastered such a specific atmosphere throughout her books (at least the two that I have read) that hangs over you like a haze, even after you’ve finished. When I read Sundial earlier this summer, I had a hard time forgetting the way that it made me feel. Even now that dread sits in my chest, and Looking Glass Sound has made me feel no differently.

This was comped, at least to me, as Stand by Me meets Shirley Jackson, and I’d be remiss not to confirm this comparison is correct. Wilder is sixteen when his parents first bring him to Whistler Bay, to the cottage that his uncle lived in up until he died, and he’s determined that that summer, he’ll get a girlfriend, and he’ll write every day. Then he meets Nat and Harper, a local fisherman’s son and a rich British girl who summers in Maine, and his plans fall askew – in more ways than you can possibly imagine. Women are disappearing, and have for as long as everyone can remember, and there’s someone slipping into children’s rooms in the night to do nothing more than photograph them with a knife against their sleeping necks, but nonetheless, and rightfully so, people are frightened. It all comes to a head the summer before Wilder is meant to head off to college, and what happens will linger in his life until the end of it.

I love how many different narratives Ward is always able to weave together. You think you know exactly what’s going on, but she’s always one step ahead, and when she finally reveals to you how all of these stories align, it’s like you never actually understood what was happening at all. This could get confusing at times, but I was never lost for too long, and I came to understand that when I was lost, it was because Ward wanted me to be. And that ending! This is my favorite Catriona Ward novel so far, and I can’t wait to delve further into her backlog.

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rhiannonafternoon's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I've never finished a book and wanted to go back and reread it immediately, but this one nailed it. Once I found out how it ended, I wanted to go back and see everything through that lens. Who do stories truly belong to? Who is the villain here (besides the serial killer)? Ward kept me intrigued and questioning every page with her mysterious writing. This is a great summer getaway thriller.

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