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A review by lukeass
Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
fast-paced
4.0
I was really excited about this one since Ward quickly became a favorite author of mine after Sundial. Her writing is concise, quick, and flows easily, but there are great moments of prose that shake you to your core. While the premise of this novel didn't particularly stand out to me, I expected something really great.
And while I definitely wasn't disappointed, I was left feeling... confused. First of all, there are a lot of shifting perspectives and narratives that can be somewhat hard to follow. I went into this novel of course expecting that, because it's Catriona Ward, but I can't say I knew where the book was going at all at any point while reading it. Even having finished it, I'm not entirely sure I know the timeline and what *actually* happened at Whistler Bay. There are a lot of twists thrown to you at the end which make a lot of chapters feel kind of unnecessary and leave you feeling just kind of confused. We're thrown around between timelines, character perspectives, and what is actually the truth or just fiction.
All that to say, I did enjoy my time reading and trying to figure out the different twists and turns thrown at you and trying to suss out what was actually going on. The characters are interesting and definitely draw you in, and Ward's writing never left me feeling bored.
My only real critique is that I felt as if the few final reveals felt very rushed and shoehorned in and didn't quite make sense as the final twist is never really explained? But I did feel as if there was a satisfying end to the story and I was happy with that.
Overall it was a really quick read with some fun twists and great, messy characters and an intriguing mystery.
And while I definitely wasn't disappointed, I was left feeling... confused. First of all, there are a lot of shifting perspectives and narratives that can be somewhat hard to follow. I went into this novel of course expecting that, because it's Catriona Ward, but I can't say I knew where the book was going at all at any point while reading it. Even having finished it, I'm not entirely sure I know the timeline and what *actually* happened at Whistler Bay. There are a lot of twists thrown to you at the end which make a lot of chapters feel kind of unnecessary and leave you feeling just kind of confused. We're thrown around between timelines, character perspectives, and what is actually the truth or just fiction.
All that to say, I did enjoy my time reading and trying to figure out the different twists and turns thrown at you and trying to suss out what was actually going on. The characters are interesting and definitely draw you in, and Ward's writing never left me feeling bored.
My only real critique is that I felt as if the few final reveals felt very rushed and shoehorned in and didn't quite make sense as the final twist is never really explained? But I did feel as if there was a satisfying end to the story and I was happy with that.
Overall it was a really quick read with some fun twists and great, messy characters and an intriguing mystery.