
Sundial
Reviews

it wasn’t terrible or anything ? but the way the author writes a 12 year old is really inaccurate. also how is the protagonist the “child whisperer” if she treats kids like that????

Catriona Ward is undoubtedly one of my new favorite authors. Sundial was such a compelling, disturbing read. In many ways, I liked it even more than Looking Glass Sound (one of my top reads of the year). The only thing I didn’t love, surprisingly, was the story within a story element. I understand the purpose of it within the narrative, but I felt it was overall unnecessary. The main story is strong enough on its own.

4.25

She has done it again, my dudes. I didn't love this one in the same way I loved "Last House on Needless Street", but I did love this book! It's so psycho-twisty turny. Fucked up family dynamics. Fantastic POV's that give you the absolute heebee jeebees. A great read for horror/psychological thriller fans. TRIGGER WARNING: Be wary of reading if animal cruelty bothers you intensely. I wouldn't say it's descriptive at all, but it is present. It made me uncomfy at times and I'm a avid user of "Does the Dog Die?"

MAJOR TWs with this one please check those before reading this book if it’s on your TBR I went into this book completely blind. And honestly I almost DNF’d it. I feel like there was sooooo much happening in this story. So many storylines to keep up with. I had to reread a few chapters so that I truly understood what is happening at points. There were moments that PULLED me in, left me speechless, and gave me that WTF moment… they are the reason I finished the book. Also, the story that is sprinkled through the book (grey pages) those TOTALLY could have been left out and it honestly left me with more questions. I just didn’t love this one, it left me bored, confused, and let down.

As much as I fell in love with The Last House on Needless Street, Sundial is better. No one I can think of writes such strange stories but makes them so incredibly relatable. However, I don’t know what that says about me. Whatever. There’s no good way to summarize this book, so I’m just going to tell you to buy it as soon as humanly possible. This is an author that I personally hope has an insanely long career writing all of the books. I’ll be there to buy alllll of them immediately! So many thanks to the publisher for sending an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

This book was a wild ride. It was gripping and unpredictable. Even 100 pages from the end I couldn’t be sure where the story was going. I thought the author crafted a great group of characters and that the multiple POV format worked well with the narrative I would say I liked this book, rather than loving it. This was partially influenced by the content which was always going to be a difficult and slightly less enjoyable read. I also feel like the concept and backstory was quite complex. Whilst I understand why and how this contributed to the plot it did impact my enjoyment of the book

I found Catriona Ward's Last House on Needless Street difficult to rate because it required such a leap, such a determination to suspend disbelief and ignore the essential silliness of some of its conceits. At the same time it was so cleverly constructed and so utterly gripping that I couldn't stop reading it. I pushed through and enjoyed it in the end. Unfortunately, she hasn't managed the same trick here. The silliness remains in the sheer unlikeliness of everything that happens but this time, much is predictable. The emotional resonance is missing from the characters, I just didn't root for Rob and Jack in the same way. There was more potential in Callie but she is underused and the whole present-day narrative was used just as a way to inject some mystery into the unfolding of Rob's past. I don't even want to go into the ideas about predispositions to violence and "badness", it's the sort of reductive essentialism that I can't get on board with.

Reading this book took me a long time, but I binged most of it in one day. At first, you might think it's slow but oh boy, does that change later! Sundial is a story of family, upbringing, magic, nature vs nurture and a ton of other things. I'm not including any description of the plot because I feel like everyone should just experience it for themselves. Please check trigger warnings if you have any! I can't stop thinking about this story and everything that happened in it. It was extremely vivid, real and scary. I don't know if it should be classified as horror or thriller because it seems to fit both of these categories - if you read The Last House on Needless Street you probably understand what I mean. The plot twists in this book, the reveals, the memories slowly being revealed, it was all amazing and the last plot twist made me up my rating a star! Giving it 4 stars just because the beginning was a little bit slow and I wasn't a fan of the "book inside a book" parts (that might change if I ever decide to reread this book). Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this book early!















Highlights

This compulsion to seek childhood similarities is mystifying. What does it matter if two people had the same favorite cartoon turtle as a child? The differences are more important. One child was hit by their father, the other wasn’t. One child was dyslexic, the other wasn’t. One child had a serial killer for a parent, the other didn’t.