Sundial
by Catriona WardPublished by: Tor Nightfire on March 1, 2022
Genres: Adult, Horror, Thriller
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Rating:
Sundial is a new, twisty psychological horror novel from Catriona Ward, internationally bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street.
You can't escape what's in your blood...
All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind.
She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.
Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive…
The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.
Content Tags:
Perfect for readers who want:
- Psychological thriller that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat.
- Two unreliable narrators.
- A twisty, turny plot that’ll keep you guessing.
- All the plot twists!
- An absolutely wild freaking ride of a plot.
Many thanks to Tor Nightfire and JeanBooknerd for an ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes taken from an unfinished product and may differ from the final version.
Ever since the release of Last House on Needless Street, I knew I should probably read everything by Catriona Ward. When I saw Sundial, I wasn’t completely sold on it, because the blurb didn’t sound much like a psychological thriller. Or any kind of thriller. Still, I trusted the author and picked it up anyway, and oh my gosh am I glad I did!
Sundial is a psychological thriller told by two unreliable narrators with so many plot twists that it’ll keep you on the edge of your seat, waiting to unravel the mystery.
This book was just . . . I have no words. I read this at night a lot, which I don’t necessarily recommend because, one, there’s a lot of horrible things that happen in this book; two, it’s likely to keep you up at night with chills; and three, if the chills don’t do it, it’ll keep you up with the need to know what the heck will happen next!
Sundial is a little slow to get started, because things seem almost normal. But appearances can be deceiving.
The slow beginning is as necessary as it is deceiving. So if your initial inclination is that it’s too slow, give it another chance. The whole point is that Rob has built up this façade of normality, where she leads a happy, middle-class life with two children, a husband, and a house that she’s meticulously made to be beautiful. Except it’s rather ugly deep down, once you get to know them.
Things in the household aren’t quite what they seem. Rob’s husband, Irving, is cheating . . . again. Like he always does. Her youngest daughter is sick with chickenpox. And her oldest daughter, Callie . . . well, something’s wrong with Callie, and Rob isn’t sure she can fix her. All she knows is that, for the sake of her youngest child, she needs to do something.
Welcome to Sundial, where the past has been sufficiently buried, never to be dug up. Until now.
What’s the deal with Sundial? Well, I can’t tell you. That’s sort of the point of the book. It’s Rob’s home, a place she escaped as a young adult and never thought she’d go back to. But it’s also the only way she thinks she can save her children. So what really happened there? You’ll have to read and find out.
Since the location lends itself to the title (and that super sweet, super creepy cover), it’s pretty easy to guess that it’s not all sunshine and roses at Sundial, despite what the name might imply. The whole history of Sundial is told in flashbacks, and I was absolutely floored. Everything unravels little by little and comes together to form this big picture that finally makes sense. Plot twist after plot twist will keep you on the edge of your seat as you learn all about Rob’s past . . . and what it means for Callie’s future. I was absolutely hooked. I refuse to say more about this, because the story is masterfully told and everything fits together just so, but there were plenty of times where I squealed in delight or gasped out loud about how well things come together!
“That’s not how dogs bark here,” I remind Pawel.
“Ok fine. Americans. ‘Bow bow bow.'”
“Bow wow, Pawel.”
“Makes no sense. You going to listen or argue?”
“Argue!”
Sundial is filled with awful things. And it’s wonderful.
I mean, it wouldn’t be much of a horror or a thriller if this weren’t the case, would it? However, this book is not for the faint of heart. I want to stress that right off the bat, because things get dark. This book basically needs all the content warnings attached to it. If you can stomach it, though, it is soooo worth it.
Psychological thriller is my favorite sort of thriller, because it really gets into your brain. That’s definitely the case for this book. Even when I couldn’t read it (because adulting, which is lame), I was thinking about it and wondering what was going to happen next. Or whether what I’d read was even real and/or accurate.
Even before things start happening, once you meet Sundial, it has this feel of being wrong. Something is slightly off there. Maybe it’s the seclusion. Maybe it’s the shadow of the puppy farm down the road, where atrocities were committed. Whatever it is, though, it’s clear from the start that something’s wrong with Sundial.
Like what?
Jackrabbits, buffalo. Callies.
Ha. Ha. I try to sound sarcastic but I’m scared. I really don’t like Pale Callie’s jokes sometimes.
There are two conflicting perspectives in this book, and both of them are unreliable narrators. So who the heck are we supposed to believe?!
Believe in yourself. That’s about the only thing you’ve got going into this book. And I promise, once you get into the meat of it, you’ll even start questioning yourself. I absolutely love unreliable narrators, especially when they don’t mean to be unreliable. They just are. That’s definitely the case here. Since both perspectives offer very different explanations for what’s happening, it makes it all the more pressing to sort out the mystery and determine whose perspective is accurate. Or is either accurate?
Ward keeps her secrets tightly guarded, interspersing them little by little into the story in a way that had me utterly hooked. Just when I thought for sure I’d figure things out, a new development would appear that would throw me off. I absolutely love books that keep me guessing!
The answer seems to be that if they’re smart nothing happens to the people who escalate. They don’t get caught.
There are chapters called “Arrowood,” which are basically a story that Rob’s writing, and I don’t know that they were . . . necessary?
This is such a small gripe to have, but since there’s about four or five of these chapters, I figured I would mention it. They’re not a deal-breaker or anything, but I felt like they pulled me out of the actual story. I was never quite sure what the point of these were, and I didn’t love them. Since I loved the rest of the story, that meant I was just sort of annoyed when it was time for one of these chapters.
About Catriona Ward
CATRIONA WARD was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She studied English at the University of Oxford and later earned her master’s degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Ward won the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel for her debut, The Girl from Rawblood, and again for Little Eve, making her the first woman to win the prize twice. Little Eve also won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, and will be published by Nightfire.
Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter
ENDS: MARCH 14, 2022
– 3 Winners will receive a Copy of SUNDIAL by Catriona Ward
– 1 Winner will receive a $20 Amazon Gift Card.
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