LOOKING GLASS SOUND - Catriona Ward

Wilder Harlow is a writer and he's now working on the last book he will ever write. This one is the story of his own childhood. At sixteen years old, Wilder's uncle has died and has left his Maine summer cottage to his parents and while visiting, Wilder meets two people who will become life-long friends - a boy named Nathaniel and a girl named Harper.

But the town has a dark secret - it is home to a serial killer known as the Dagger Man of Whistler Bay who takes polaroid photos of children while they are sleeping. 

Years later and Wilder heads off to college where he meets Sky, a boy who seems to be a kindred spirit. But Sky betrays Wilder by stealing his unfinished manuscript - his memoir - and turning it into a horror novel that becomes a best-seller, titled Looking Glass Sound.

I've been impressed with author Catriona Ward, who rather burst onto the horror scene just a few years ago with some really powerful works which I've enjoyed. This might be her best work yet, but frankly, I don't think I'm up to the task of disseminating it.  That is, to say, there's a lot to this book. A story within a story within a story and layers and layers characterization and setup.

I can see the intricate tapestry that Ward has woven here, but I can't see it from a distance - I can't see the big picture so I can't make out what it's supposed to be. This is the sort of book that needs to be read slowly and carefully and probably with some flipping of the pages back and forth ("wait ... two chapters ago, didn't I read...? Oh... right...").

Catriona Ward is a brilliant, careful writer and she requires brilliant, careful readers to get the most from her her work.  Unfortunately, I wasn't careful this time around (and I'm never brilliant) so I was mostly confused and feeling three steps behind and never able to catch up.

I did something I don't usually do, but I looked at some of the other reviews for this book and I see that it's pretty evenly split between those (careful & brilliant) readers who absolutely loved this, and those who didn't understand what was going on.

It's worth reading, but know going in that you will be expected to pay attention. This is no light, beach read.

Looking for a good book? Catriona Ward is a marvelous writer and Looking Glass Sound is intricately and heavily plotted, but the casual reader will likely feel stymied by what's going on.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

Looking Glass Sound

author: Catriona Ward

publisher: Tor Nightfire

ISBN: 9781250860026

hardcover, 342 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MURDLE VOLUME 1 - G. T. Karber

Image
 I enjoy puzzles of many different varieties. I had not heard of 'Murdle' before this but essentially this is a combination of the game of Clue and a Sherlock Holmes micro story. With suspects, possible murder weapons, potential locations, and/or motives plus some very brief hints, readers are meant to combine the logic of what's know with deductive reasoning to identify the killer (or killers?) in 100 different mystery word puzzles. I will admit right off the bat that I did not do all 100.  I didn't even do half of these, but I did so some random sampling through all the categories (Elementary, Occult Medium, Hard Boiled, and Impossible). I did not get any correct in the Impossible category (of course not ... they were impossible!) and only one correct in the Hard Boiled (of five). The Elementary puzzles were, as expected, pretty easy and the Hard Boiled only a little bit more difficult. Each mini mystery comes with a grid printed in the book to help the reader-detecti
Read more

THE YOUNGER GODS - Michael R. Underwood

Image
 Jacob Greene is a child of cultists - extremists with a deep connection to powerful gods.  To stay in good favor and receive great powers from these gods Jacob's family (both biological family and cult group family) must occasion a sacrifice now then. Jacob doesn't seem to question this (it's how he's been raised, after all) until the time he brings his best friend home to be brutally sacrificed. Jacob believes that his friend is a willing participant, honored to be chosen, informed of what was about to take place by Jacob's father.   Of course nothing could be further from the truth and the friend does NOT go willingly. This shatters Jacob's belief and has him question his faith and he leaves his family and cult in order to think things through. But it's not easy to escape powerful gods, and despite being in the city of New York, all signs point to the fact that the gods know where he is and that something big is about to go down. Although the description
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - wherein he acq
Read more