Looking Glass Sound

By Catriona Ward

In a remote cottage on the windswept Maine coast, a man named Wilder Harlow begins writing a book. It is the last book he’ll ever write. It is a story of his childhood companions and the adventures they had in the New England town where they spent their summers, a town menaced by the shadowy Daggerman and, as it turned out eventually, was menaced by something worse than the Daggerman.

It’s also the story of wilder’s college friend, Sky, who stole Wilder’s memoir and turned it into a lurid bestseller called The Sound and the Dagger.

The book Wilder is writing will finally allow him to get revenge on Sky, who was recently lost at sea and is presumed drowned. Except Wilder keeps finding notes in Sky’s handwriting, written using Sky’s signature green ink. Wilder has a degenerative disorder which means he’s slowly losing his sight, it causes hallucinations, but can that really explain the notes Sky seems to be leaving from beyond the grave, and can it explain the woman he sees drowning in the cove below, the woman no one else can see?

My third novel by Ward and on the whole I enjoyed it a lot, although things threatened to go off the rails later on. The first half of the book is excellent though, the story of Wilder’s summers spent in the bay, where he meets Nat and Harper. There’s a great coming of age story here, even before anything truly horrible happens. Wilder’s time at college where he meets Sky is also interesting.

But then things got…weird. For a time I wasn’t sure what was going on, and in fact began to worry that Ward was about to reuse a trick from another book, but thankfully this wasn’t the case, although there are twists and turns, and –as I think I’ve said about her work before—this is going to be a book that warrants a re-read one day.

There are unreliable narrators a plenty, and stories within stories. But then this is a book about stories. The true kind, but also the stories we tell ourselves to process the trauma we might have undergone, the tales we use to get by, the lies we tell so we can sleep at night, and after I was wavering slightly, Ward pulled me back in towards the end. I’m still not 100% sure I know exactly what was going on at all times, but I have a pretty good idea.

And the final page, with a code to unlock, is a doozy that, yes, did see a shiver run along my spine.

Her prose, as always is a delight to read, and I was heavily engrossed in the book, even when the plot began to spiral in numerous different directions.

It isn’t quite as good as The Last House on Needless Street, but I enjoyed it more than Sundial and she continues to be an author I enjoy reading and I’m already looking forward to the next book by her. Recommended.