A review by bookish_arcadia
Sundial by Catriona Ward

challenging dark tense slow-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

2.5

I found Catriona Ward's Last House on Needless Street difficult to rate because it required such a leap, such a determination to suspend disbelief and ignore the essential silliness of some of its conceits. At the same time it was so cleverly constructed and so utterly gripping that I couldn't stop reading it. I pushed through and enjoyed it in the end. Unfortunately, she hasn't managed the same trick here. The silliness remains in the sheer unlikeliness of everything that happens but this time, much is predictable. The emotional resonance is missing from the characters, I just didn't root for Rob and Jack in the same way. There was more potential in Callie but she is underused and the whole present-day narrative was used just as a way to inject some mystery into the unfolding of Rob's past.

I don't even want to go into the ideas about predispositions to violence and "badness", it's the sort of reductive essentialism that I can't get on board with.
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