Looking Glass Sound

‘Unbelievably good. So clever, so haunting and melancholic. A novel about obsession, love and loss; an exploration of trauma and delusion; a meditation on writing and what it means to create, to be trapped in a world of your own making, tormented by your own characters. It’s so beautiful, so dark and so vivid’Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne‘This twisted tale of ghosts and murderers, derailed lives and childhood traumas is a vertical labyrinth that will take you straight down into the heart of darkness. Enthralling and heartbreaking’M.R. Carey, author of The Girl With All The Gifts‘This gripping horror is a masterful exploration of storytelling. It will lure you to the dark side before quietly blowing your mind, time after time. A haunting tale of friendship, creativity and revenge, with prose as deep and sweeping as the cliffs of Looking Glass Sound itself’Janice Hallett, author of The Appeal‘Devastatingly beautiful, bone-chilling and enchanting. Looking Glass Sound is further proof that no one writes like Catriona Ward. No one conjures such heartbreak from such raw fear. An alchemist of storytelling’Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End‘One of the finest literary craftsmen currently working is writing horror. Looking Glass Sound is a masterclass in atmosphere. Nearly every sentence is faultless, gutting and precise. Come for the family secrets but stay for the humanity, tenderness, and empathy that are so central to Ward’s storytelling. This book will truly haunt you long after you read’Olivie Blake, author of The Atlas Six‘What a totally stunning book. Such an intricate plot that you just have to sit back and enjoy as there’s no point trying to work it out. At its heart a book about the madness of storytelling, possession and grief. I loved it’Araminta Hall, author of Everything and Nothing‘A marvel of storytelling, sinister as hell, and, at points where I thought I understood where it was going, Catriona drowned me with her signature “oh no, you don’t” dark turns’L.V. Matthews, author of The Twins‘Serial killings, magic, literary theft, love and betrayal … So clever and original’Mark Edwards, author of Here to Stay‘Murder, magic and monsters from the deep: Ward weaves her dark magic once again in this atmospheric, horror-drenched coming-of-age tale, with twist after head-spinning twist’Ellery Lloyd, author of People Like Her‘Stephen King meets Atonement meets … screw it, you’ve read nothing like it before. This is so much more than a horror novel. Impossibly compelling, brilliantly plotted and incredibly moving all at once. This is Catriona Ward at her most special, most intimate and most ambitious. I think at this point we can all just agree to follow Ward wherever she takes us’Virginia Feito, author of Mrs March‘I felt like I was on a rollercoaster. Her characters, the way she weaves together all the storylines, the reveals – all of them brilliantly done, and all while my heart was banging out of my chest’Lisa Hall, author of The Perfect Couple Looking Glass Sound Also by Catriona Ward and from ViperThe Last House on Needless Street Sundial Looking Glass SoundCATRIONA WARD For Edward Christopher McDonald The Dagger Man of Whistler BayFrom the unpublished memoir by Wilder Harlow June, 1989I’m looking at myself in the bathroom mirror and thinking about love, because I plan on falling in love this summer. I don’t know how or with whom. Outside, the city is a hot tarry mess. There must be someone in New York who . . . I wish I wasn’t so weird-looking. I’m not even asking to be loved back, just to know what it feels like. I make a face in the mirror, pulling my lower lip all the way down so the inside shows on the outside. Then I pull my lower eyelids down so they glare red.‘Hello,’ I say to the mirror. ‘I love you.’I give a yell as my mom bursts in without knocking. ‘Mom! Privacy!’ A startled roach breaks from behind the pipes and runs across the cracked tile floor, fast and straight like it’s being pulled by fishing line.‘You want privacy, you lock the door.’ She grabs me by the arm. ‘Come on, monkey. Big news.’She drags me to the living room where the air con roars like lions. Dad holds a piece of paper. ‘Probate is finished,’ he says. ‘The cottage is ours.’ The paper trembles; I can’t tell if it’s from the aircon or whether his hands are shaking. He looks exhausted. Good and bad can feel like the same thing, I think, if they’re intense enough.Dad takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes. Uncle Vernon died in April. Dad really loved him. He goes up every summer to visit – well, he did. We never went with him.‘Vernon’s crabby,’ Dad always said. ‘Doesn’t much like women or kids.’ Uncle Vernon was the last of that side of his family. We Harlows aren’t much good at staying alive so Uncle Vernon did better than most; he made it to his seventies.‘We have to list it right away,’ Dad says. ‘Sell while the summer’s still fine. I know that.’ We all know that. The envelopes with red on them come through the door all the time.‘Tell you what,’ Mom says. ‘Let’s go up there first, OK? Before we sell.’‘What?’ Dad keeps wiping his glasses. His eyes are pink and naked.‘Let’s have a vacation,’ Mom says. She tucks a strand of imaginary hair behind her ear, which is a sign that she’s excited. We haven’t had a vacation since that trip to Rehoboth Beach when I was seven. ‘What do you say, Wilder?’‘That could be fun,’ I say, hesitant. The ocean sounds like a good place to fall in love. Plus, if we take a vacation maybe my mom and dad might stop fighting. They think I don’t hear but I do. In the night a certain kind of whisper sounds louder than yelling.‘You deserve a vacation, monkey,’ she whispers. ‘We’re so proud of you.’ The phone call came yesterday – Scottsboro Prep are renewing my full-board scholarship.