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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
well written and gripping, but too many time jumps for me and I didn't like the ending
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Her writing is good. Concise, engaging, and rich in metaphor and imagery. I agree with a lot of the reviews I’ve read. I flew through the first 50-70% of the book and then the twists kind of upended the story in a bad way. The ending just doesn’t land. I felt tricked as a reader, and not in a good way. Loved the characters at the beginning, and started to hate them towards the bleak and (strangely supernatural?) ending.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Extremely engaging story in the first 75%- couldn't put the book down- but gets bogged down by twist after twist. Character motivations are unclear, which makes the grand finale lose its impact (I never got the sense that Harper particularly cared about Wilder) . Overall fun read though.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m super conflicted on how to rate this lol. The first 50% of Looking Glass Sound is pretty easy to follow. You read about Wilder's first summer as a sixteen-year-old up in Castine, New York, and the two locals he befriends, Nat and Harper. At the end of the summer, Wilder learns that the local “Dagger Man” isn’t just a legend, but a freak who terrorized the town by taking pictures of children while they slept as he held a dagger to their throats. Next summer, it all goes downhill. After that summer, the three never see each other again. Wilder goes to college and befriends a guy named Pierce who calls himself Sky. Sky manipulates Wilder into telling him more about the Dagger Man, and promptly skips town after stealing Wilder's memoir. The next 25% is a bit busy and kinda hard to understand. Wilder is a professor now, in his late forties going through a divorce. Sky profited greatly off the memoir, but now, he sailed off and is presumed dead. Wilder tries to write his memoir as it happened, but his mental illness, degenerative eyesight, and guilt stop him from fulfilling it. Wilder plans to kill himself after the memoir is finished, and struggles to keep living to finish the manuscript because of various hallucinations he experiences.
And then you reach the last 25% of the book. I can confidently say that while reading this, my brain hurt. I felt like it was about to ooze out of my ears. It gets so meta and mindfucky I could not tell you what happened. If that last part hadn’t happened, this would’ve easily been 4 stars. But I can’t rate it because I DONT KNOW WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED at the end!!
And then you reach the last 25% of the book. I can confidently say that while reading this, my brain hurt. I felt like it was about to ooze out of my ears. It gets so meta and mindfucky I could not tell you what happened. If that last part hadn’t happened, this would’ve easily been 4 stars. But I can’t rate it because I DONT KNOW WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED at the end!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Abandonment
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse
i think there are two great books here and the equivalent of a third bad one, and though i love her writing, at many points i was thinking, why are we telling the most interesting parts offhand and after the fact??
the storyline of summer at the bay, discovery of barrel women and dagger man, whole reveal of the killings and predation and arrests of alton/nat could be its own book. then there's a book in the wilder/sky romance, betrayal, trauma bonding and retraumatizing, with the reveal that sky is revising their history to give him a better ending. it's possible that these two could've been meshed together still if you removed the entirety of the witchcraft and stopped pretending harper was a character, let alone the mastermind because lol what was that??
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
this was definitely a “what the fuck did i just read?” book. lots of layers & very meta.
i really enjoy books that made me think, but this one was a bit confusing. it was hard to grasp what was real and what was not. this was a rollercoaster of a book.
the book did start out a little slow and took a while to build up to everything. i did get a bit confused in the middle with the introduction of skye and some of the retelling the ending was definitely a climax, but it felt like too much. one big reveal after another felt suffocating and a bit overdone.
once we figured out the code for the word game, i did go back and decoded everything which made my head spin even harder
overall, this was an interesting book, but felt kinda disjointed. i wish it came better together at the end. with that being said, ward loves to mindfuck readers & this book definitely did that.
i really enjoy books that made me think, but this one was a bit confusing. it was hard to grasp what was real and what was not. this was a rollercoaster of a book.
the book did start out a little slow and took a while to build up to everything. i did get a bit confused in the middle
overall, this was an interesting book, but felt kinda disjointed. i wish it came better together at the end. with that being said, ward loves to mindfuck readers & this book definitely did that.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes