A review by lizslazylibrary
Sundial by Catriona Ward

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

4.0

this book had me addicted from the first page. sundial is a gripping story about how you never truly know a person even if that person is you.
trigger warnings are in order for this book and they are: domestic violence, animal abuse/death & child abuse.

catriona ward's writing was so beautiful and i couldn't put it down.
i don't want to write about the plot because i feel it's best to go into this book blind (well with the exception of reading the brief synopsis and the trigger warnings i listed above) the twists at the ending is well worth waiting for.

although i loved this book i have a bone (pun intended) to pick with it, if i have to read the words 'sickly sick' again i might lose my mind. it almost made me not finish the book but i pushed forward hoping that the payoff would be worth my nausousness; and it was.

i don't know how i feel about how the character's mental illnesses were dealt with and as someone who suffers with a personality disorder catriona did describe what some of us feel on the inside by showing it from another's perspective. like i said i am on the fence about a lot of it but when push comes to shove i have seen worse.

the last thing i wanna say is i hate the ending. but not in the "i hate this and i wish i never read it/i hate this and it was a waste of time" i hated it in the was i hate that it was so abrupt. i wish there were more to it. i was left with so many unanswered questions. that's a pet peeve of mine. i get it that we as the reader gets to make our own assumptions as to what happens but i have way to much anxiety for that. i need to be told what happens or i am left there with my mouth open silently screaming because i will never know how it ended for the characters i just spent so long getting to know, hating, loving, rooting for them, crying with them, and seeing myself in them, it's not how i like books to end. i think because life is so unpredictable i like my escapism to have a solid ending being good or bad. i need that as a reader. and sundial will forever be left a mystery.
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