Sundial

I liked this more than Last House on Needless Street. As with House, the writing is solid but the plot was a bit on the baroque side. Spanning two POVs and timelines, and involving cults, sci-fi mind control, ghosts, bad seeds and possible other elements I'm forgetting, the novel demanded a little more focus than I was able to give it. Still, it has a banger of an ending, which counts for a lot.

3.5 stars. That was dark and twisty. Can't say I enjoyed it, but I couldn't look away either.

The thing I love about Catriona Ward is that everything I've read is completely different. But there is a theme that runs though them all and that is strange and bizarre workings of family relationships and also human relationships with animals..

Sundial takes this theme to a whole new level, it's deeply unsettling and truly truly strange, and that's why I loved it so much. However, an important part of this book involves dogs, I love dogs, been around them all my life, and I struggled with that element. Also I didn't make the emotional connection with any of the characters like I did in Little Eve and Last House.. hence 4 not 5 stars.

This story moved very slowly, and slowly messed with my mind.

I liked it 

3.5 ⭐️

i read this at the wrong time. i was expecting horror, but i wasn't expecting the deep sadness and grief this made me feel throughout. sometimes it felt too painful to continue seeing the way Rob and her sister were being torn apart. there were also many moments that i found viscerally upsetting. if you are sensitive to animal abuse, i would avoid this. a lot of it isn't necessarily graphic, but i still found most of it so conceptually disturbing that it made me nauseous at times.

that all sounds negative, but Catriona Ward is an incredible writer and i'm glad i read this. there were so many interesting explorations, even if i felt the format struggled at times. i will definitely be picking up more books by Ward and will make sure to read them when i'm in a headspace to process devastating content.

So I picked this up because I needed a bit of a break from the Pink Carnation reread I was doing, and what better to cleanse my brain than a horror novel right? So I fed a handful of picks through a randomizer, and Sundial was the one that popped up, so I settled in and got started.

And did any of you know it was possible for horror to have layers? BECAUSE THIS BOOK HAS LAYERS. IT IS A VERITABLE LAYER CAKE OF HORRORS. AN ONION EVEN. 

First layer - What it???s like being in an abusive relationship, and what it takes to survive in one, and then later, what it takes to escape from it.

Second layer - Learning that what you thought was your past, your history, was utterly untrue. This is utterly terrible because so much of what makes us who we are is our past. So if you find out that what you thought was your history is, in fact, untrue? That sort of thing is horrific - especially so when you learn that your ACTUAL history is nothing short of nightmarish.

Third layer - Learning that you were altered without your knowledge, and that it was done ???for your benefit??? and ???for the benefit of the world.??? First, imagine finding out that who you thought you are is NOT who you actually are, and then follow that up with the whammy of learning that you were ALTERED in order to, supposedly, keep yourself and everyone around you safe. Imagine not having this explained to you. Imagine not being ASKED if this is what you wanted. It was just DONE to you.

Fourth layer - Finding out that you may in fact be a monster - and that the monster inside of you might be coming out once more to destroy everything you love and care about.

Fifth layer - Looking at your own child, and wondering if the monster you harbored inside you is also in them, and that said monster is beginning to manifest. 

When I finished this novel I kind of stared at the ceiling of my room because WHAT IN THE ACTUAL EVERLOVING FUCK? What makes this even more powerful is that the above layers of horror are also twined around themes of siblinghood and motherhood: how it???s possible to love, hate, and even fear your siblings and/or your parents, and how parents can love, hate, and fear their own children.. Most media portrays the sibling and parent/child dynamic as straightforward, but this story really tackled the complexities and nuances of those relationships.

So overall, this book is an amazing, nightmarish read. The slow reveal of the utter horror of the truth at the heart of the story, the peeling back of all those layers of history were immense fun, especially backed by the themes of siblinghood and parenthood that formed the thematic backbone of the story overall. The twists were great too: I didn???t see them coming, but they also made sense in the overall context of the story. This was absolutely the cleanse my brain needed, and I???m also going to have to shovel more of Ward???s books onto my TBR, because this was INCREDIBLE.
 

I loved most of the Rob sections, and didn't mind the Callie sections especially towards the end the arrowod sections however I could do without. It's definitely one of those books that keeps you guessing until the end, and has lots of cool twists. I did however find Callie a little too annoying which I think I understand why but still made some her parts hard to get through. I also found the end a bit abrupt. Definitely one to read the warnings on. But overall an enjoyable experience.

Make up for the past
watch out for the little ones
good mother, good dog.

This book is kinda like a fever dream.

I really enjoyed it. Twists that I didn't expect. Haunted past. Ghosts. Fucked up families.

I am probably not smart enough to truly appreciate the beautiful writing that Catriona Ward put into this book but I sure did try.

read for strangeathon 2022: different format

okay so brother meets the push and the strangerville pack from the sims 4 😭 this had the messed up family dynamics and exploration of that isolated family with the evil child/unreliable narrator vibes or the push and the scientific desert testing of the sims 4 strangerville pack.

this book follows and mother and her child as they leave their home to take a hiatus in the desert at the mother's childhood home due to the fact that she believes her child, poisoned and virtually abuses her other child. the mother then begins to tell her daughter about her own childhood in the desert and is known to us as an unreliable narrator but we are unsure why for most of the book. we also get the perspective of the child but she is also a bit unreliable. the child take bones of animals and often see these animals and someone that is the pale version of her. they are like imagined friends but something feels off.

i really enjoyed the beginning where we are learning about the family and seeing why the mother takes her child to the desert, it gives classic domestic thriller/the push vibes and i was also really intrigued once they went to the desert but that part did start to drag for me a little bit and felt a bit long. this is similar to brother a bit with the slower family exploration. there is some animal testing on dogs which can be triggering for some but it didn't bother me personally. that part honestly interested me a lot and how that played out was so fascinating.

the ending was so fast paced and there was so many twist that kept me guessing what was going to happen next in both timelines and i love how everything aligned in the end. the writing was so good and you can really see the purpose of the slower parts to cause tension for the ending.

thank you to tor nightfire, catriona ward, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review 

Did not understand this at all. Is it too smart for me? 

As always I love Catriona Ward. She knows how to keep the suspense building and I just could not put this book down.

Tore through this one-super compelling and readable character centered horror.

*4.5 stars. This book was tense, intense, dark and supremely twisted. What begins as horror-tinged suburban domestic fiction ends up being a sci-fi adjacent, horror thrill ride through the desert that is bizarre, awful and wonderfully disturbed. I don't often do trigger warnings, but feel they are appropriate here because Ward pushes boundaries and some can be shocking. So, trigger warnings for infidelity, mental illness, physical and psychological abuse, abuse of a child, death of a child, death of a loved one, animal abuse, animal death, substance abuse, extreme violence and self-harm.

This is my 2nd read by this author and I enjoyed it. I listened to this one and the narrator is great! This was hard to stop listening to.

There were times I was confused as this went back and forth between real and bookish world because the names in both areas were the same. After a while, it became easier to follow.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this story, very dark and twisty. This would be a good one for Spooktober.

Rob has an interesting backstory. One filled with mysterious apparitions and violence. When she notices her oldest daughter, Callie, talking to what appears to be ghosts and collecting Animal bones she starts to worry. Is her perfect life falling apart? Rob knows exactly what to do. She takes Callie to Sundial, her family ranch. Sometimes our past comes back to haunt us, and there's no escape, but Rob will do anything to save both of her daughters.

Sundial by Catriona Ward is a psychological horror that digs its nails into you. I could not put this book down! It's full of twists and turns that throw the reader into a whirlwind of dread and terror. When you think you've figured it out, Ward pulls the rug from under your feet. With realistic characters and intense emotions, Sundial is a perfect roller coaster that plays with your emotions up until the very end.

It's hard to say much without spoilers but if you're a fan of psychological horror pick this book up. You will not be disappointed. Catriona Ward is becoming one of my new favorite horror writers.

Very hard to review this, as more or less any description of the setup, let alone the plot, is going to be heading towards spoiler territory. But rest assured if you relish the dread of approaching disclosure and the stomach dropping clunk of understanding as it becomes clear, and hey I know you do because you're a good horror fan, you're going to lap this up. It's intense, claustrophobic and genuinely monstrous in places. Like all the best gothic fiction the setting is as much a character as any of the actors in the novel, and long after you've finished you will feel the sunbaked desolate expanses of the desert and the cool dark spaces of the house on your skin - at least on the bits of it that aren't still tingling from the hammer blows of revelation and twist that build the climax.

Catriona Ward cements her position as The Queen of Unease with her new offering, Sundial. A tale of toxic motherhood and long held secrets.

Rob is a wife and mother who escaping her difficult childhood has set up home in suburbia with her husband Irving. But not all is as it seems! Behind the veneer of domesticity, Rob is a serial philanderer, and her eldest daughter is showing worrying tendencies that point to something being wrong! Very wrong!

After an inexplicable incident involving pills, and her two daughters, Rob decides it is time to return to her home of Sundial to set things right and attempt to revisit the events that have led to her current situation.

Full of intrigue and suspense, Sundial is a masterpiece of disquiet and unease, and from the very first page, the feeling of wrongness permeates from the page to give you a sense that nothing is what it seems.

The book itself took me two days to devour and I could not put it down, could not stop thinking about it until the story had revealed its secrets and showed me how the tale would evolve into its true nightmarish form. Catriona Ward???s previous book had me similarly gripped and I spent hours trying to puzzle the labyrinthine plot, and Sundial is much the same. However, I have quickly learnt to just follow the story without obsessing about what secrets lie below and let the tale unfold at its own pace to reveal the core of the story as its layers are peeled off, one by one.

There are so many things happening in the story. You have the story of Rob and her husband whose marriage is built on petty cruelties, each adding to something that is painful to watch, as he carefully manipulates everyone around him to join in his cruel games of misdirection and hate, and Rob responding to him. Irving is truly one of the most loathsome characters that I have met in fiction. He is never outright nasty, but you can feel it pulsing in every venomous act that he does.

Rob on the other hand can be equally as poisonous at times, and there is an underlying feeling of cruelty about her, and whilst she loves her daughters, she has a creeping sense of mistrust to her older daughter who speaks is emojis at the end of every sentence and collects the bones of dead animals.

The story is told from the point of view of Rob who imparts all her insecurities and scorn to the reader, but carefully hides them from her family, afraid they may be mistook for signs of weakness, particularly when Rob is playing his cruel mind games with her and currying favour with his eldest daughter to continue the miasma of vitriol that he surrounds himself in. However, there are times where we get the view of Callie, Rob???s eldest daughter, who may seem to be sweetness and light, yet holds darkly disturbing thoughts, especially to her younger sister, Annie.

With Sundial, Catriona Ward has carved out of the desert rock her place as a master of the disturbed as not a word is wasted. She will wrongfoot you at every juncture and just when you think you have the pieces in the right place, she will change the dimensions of the puzzle so that it doesn???t fit. Her prose is amazing, and it is not since I started reading Shirley Jackson novels many years ago that I have read anyone that has the same level of making all her characters seem to be so utterly awful yet utterly beguiling.

The narrative itself is cloying and claustrophobic yet gives the characters time to develop and explore their unusual circumstances whilst never once missing a beat and letting up its grip. Sundial is one of this years must read books that will have you gripped to the end of the story until its secrets are revealed

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and Netgalley for the chance to read this arc!

Having read Ward's other work I knew that I enjoyed it but Needless Street was just not for me. Sundial was a chance to try out her work again and WOW it didn't disappoint.

Rob seems to have her life together - a home, a family, a husband - but behind closed doors her husband is abusive and her eldest daughter is showing troubling signs like collecting bones. To protect Callie from her husband she decides to bring her back to her childhood home Sundial.

This book was full of twists and honestly just delivered so well on the promise of psychological horror. It was such a delight to piece together any of the twists before they came but still managed to be surprised by pieces I didn't see coming.