A USA Today Bestseller • Best Book of the Year ( Vulture ) • A Best Horror Book of All Time ( Cosmopolitan ) • A Best Horror Book of the Year ( Esquire ) • A 2023 World Fantasy Award finalist Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street , delivers a masterful story about friendship and betrayal, dark obsessions, and the impossibility of escaping your own story. "Here's your next obsession." (Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love ) In a cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow has begun the last book he will ever write. It is the story about the sun-drenched summer days of his youth in Whistler Bay, and the blood-stained path of the killer that stalked his small vacation town. About the terrible secret he and his companions, Nat and Harper, discovered entombed in the coves off the bay. And how the pact they swore that day echoed down the decades, forever shaping their lives. But the more Wilder writes, the less he trusts himself and his memory. He starts to see things that can’t be real – notes hidden in the cabin, from an old friend now dead; a woman with dark hair drowning in the icy waters below, calling for help; entire chapters he doesn’t recall typing, appearing overnight. Who, or what , is haunting Wilder? No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does. "Impossibly compelling, brilliantly plotted, and incredibly moving all at once."―Virginia Feito, author of Victorian Psycho "You’ve read nothing like it before.... Impossibly compelling, brilliantly plotted, and incredibly moving all at once. I think at this point we can all just agree to follow Ward wherever she takes us.” ― Virginia Feito , author of Victorian Psycho “Looking Glass Sound is my favorite Ward novel yet, which is saying something. There are twists and turns here that even the most jaded reader will find hard to predict. If you love the novels of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Tana French, here’s your next obsession.” ― Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog “Mind-bending, gasp-inducing, and impossible to put down, Looking Glass Sound is horror-thriller superstar Ward’s best work yet.” ―Emily Hughes, Vulture “There is no way to convey the brilliance or intricacy of Ward’s latest novel … If there is any justice in this world, Looking Glass Sound will enter the canon of the classic American macabre. It should be read and studied for decades.” ―Neil McRobert, Esquire “An evocative, bone-chilling read, exploring grief, storytelling, and the dark forces of obsession. Ward’s writing is complex, challenging, and beautiful in equal measure. A tale to savor.” ― Sarah Pearse , New York Times bestselling author of The Sanatorium “I loved every word...an irresistible, beautifully written story powered by dread and fascination with the unknown.” ― A. J. Finn , #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window “Ward’s latest may be her scariest yet.” ― Booklist (STARRED review) “The prose is lyrically metaphorical, taking readers into the story as if they’re shadows of the characters. This is a book about a book, inside a book―an intricate plot with changing perspectives. Reading it is like walking through a maze of wrong turns and misdirection.” ― Library Journal (STARRED review) "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 it." ― Olivie Blake , New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six "In the right hands, narrative can be a kaleidoscope, fracturing into more and more wondrous configurations. I think maybe Catriona Ward spilled a little blood into her kaleidoscope with this one." ― Stephen Graham Jones , New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians “With prose of poetic clarity, Looking Glass Sound reveals secret after secret in a structure as intricate and insidiously enmeshing as a cobweb. Haunting, disturbing and beautiful, it's a truly extraordinary book. I think it may well be a masterpiece.” ― Ramsey Campbell "Devastatingly beautiful, bone-chilling and enchanting. Looking Glass Sound is further proof that no one writes like Ward. No one conjures such heartbreak from such raw fear. An alchemist of storytelling." ― Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of We Begin At the End "A frightening nesting doll of a novel about ghosts and monsters, trauma and loss, and the specific aching intensity of teenage friendships. Perhaps most of all, it's a book about stories--and their ability to save or destroy the teller. You'll stay up all night wandering the labyrinth Ward has deftly constructed." ― Katie Gutierrez , bestselling author of More Than You'll Ever Know “This twisted tale of ghosts and murderers, de