Looking Glass Sound is another remarkably different shock/horror/thriller from the creative mind of Catriona Ward. Its creepiness is overshadowed by the disturbing narrative and storyline development, not knowing where the plot is going but then it all come together, for an extraordinary ending.
When Wilder’s uncle passes away, his parents inherit a cottage on Whistler Bay in Maine on the water. They decide to go on a vacation there during the summer before selling the property. Wilder meets Nat a local and Harper who vacations there every summer, both who it seems have known each other forever. As they begin to include him in their outings, Wilder feels there is something they are not telling him.
During the time he is there Wilder learns of Dagger Man, who was all the talk from the past summer who allegedly killed people and left polaroids of them. This topic seems to bond the three teenagers as they try solving who he is and imagine what he did and why. They also tell him about a victim named Rachel, the first to disappear. She had gone to the beach with her family and as they set out lunch she went for her daily swim and never came back. Some say she still haunts the Sound.
At the end of the summer, Wilder’s parents decide not to sell the cottage but rent it out and use it as their own vacation home. But the next summer will be Wilder’s last with both his friends. Dagger man is captured, and it throws the town into a chaos of which Wilder will not only ever be able to forget, but he will never be the same.
He goes to college and begins to write down his thoughts as to what happened during those summers. He can’t particularly function well but then he meets someone who helps him. But they have a terrible falling out which leaves Wilder devastated.
Years pass and Wilder decides to face his demons and goes back the cottage to try and write a story about what happened, what he witnessed and how it impacted his life. To his surprise he finds Harper living on the Bay.
As he tries to write, strange things begin to happen. He finds notes in the cottage he knows were not written by him. He smells things he knows he should not and sees things he knows cannot be there. He discovers he has written chapters of his story which he can’t remember doing.
This is too much for Wilder. His life was never the same after what happened, and he is not sure just how much more of life he can handle. Or even if he wants to anymore.
Looking Glass Sound has continuous suspense, mystery, despair and dysfunctional friendships and family secrets with so much more mixed in with such an incredible ending your only thought will be the need to read this again!
Thank you #NetGalley #TorNightfire #CatrionaWard #LookingGlassSound for the advanced copy.
Lisa's Cubby 